The Guthrie High School wrestling team capped off a great post season on Saturday night with a second place finish in the Class 5A team race. The Bluejays finished with 86 points, with Collinsville winning the title with 185 points. Glenpool and Pryor tied for third place with 57 points.
Junior Eli Kirk (120 pounds) and senior Hayden Simpson (220 pounds) led the way with individual state championships. Braden Hall (138 pounds) lost a hard fought championship match to finish in second place. Coal Madison (195 pounds) bounced back from a tough semi-final loss to take third place. Jake Carey (145 pounds) closed out his senior year with a fourth place finish.
In the Girl’s State championships, Khaleah Kirk got Guthrie’s third gold medal of the weekend with a first place finish at 120 pounds.
Kirk (35-2) got the Bluejays started with a hard fought 3-2 win over Clay Gates (42-8) of Collinsville in the final. It was a hard fought match, that Kirk won in the third period by not allowing Gates to get any moves in and basically keeping him on the mat for the final two minutes. Gates was the defending champion as well. Kirk started his march to the championship on Friday night with a major decision over Wyatt Miller (Glenpool) 12-3. The semi-finals that are normally wrestled on Friday night had to be moved to Saturday afternoon because of the weather issues. Kirk disposed of Chi Sanders (Altus) with a fall in 1:17 and a spot in the championship match.
Simpson (34-2) capped off a marvelous senior season that started last summer when he was named an All-American at the Fargo Nationals. Simpson beat Conner DiCarlo (34-10) of Pryor in the finals 2-0 to claim the title. DeCarlo, the third seed out of the east had upset Aryn Johnson of Thomas Edison, the number one seed out of the east earlier in the day to get to the finals. Simpson got to the finals with falls in his first two matches to advance to the finals. Simpson pinned Caden Balthrop (Ada) in 3:52 to win his quarterfinal and then made quick work of Jace Williams (Elgin) with a fall at the 1:20 mark.
Khaleah Kirk (21-0) got Guthrie’s third championship of the weekend in the Girl’s State Championships that were also held at the state fair arena. Kirk pinned all three of her opponents in the two day meet. The run to the championship started with a fall over Damiyah Smith (Miami in 1:12 on Friday night. Shawn Johnson of Watonga was next in the Saturday afternoon semi-finals, and that only took 1:46 to advance to the Saturday night finals. Kirk then beat Chanelle Alburg of Class 6A Union in 1:58 to claim the title at 120 pounds.
Hall (35-5) would face a familiar foe in his championship match going up against JP Martinez of Duncan in the finals. Hall had beat Martinez in the Duncan Regional the week before for the regional championship. Martinez beat Mike Edwards of Glenpool, the number one seed out of the east 7-3 in the semi-finals to advance for a rematch with Hall on Saturday night. The match was tight all night and Martinez got some late points to win 5-3. Hall looked like he had tied the match in the closing seconds, but the officials did not award any points despite any appeal by Guthrie Head Coach Jadon Davenport. Hall beat Braden Anderson (Carl Albert) 3-2 in his quarterfinal match on Friday night to get to the Saturday semifinals. On Saturday, Hall beat Jacquvis Paoli (Eisenhower), 9-2 to get to the finals.
Madison (30-5) got some valuable team points with his third place finish Saturday night and got payback as well in his final match of the weekend. Madison beat Sam Anderson (Shawnee) 6-2 on Saturday night for the third place medal. Anderson beat Madison in Duncan the week before to claim the regional title, making him the number one seed out of the west. Anderson however got beat by Caden Felts out of Pryor in the semi-finals 2-1, while Madison had to do battle with Brayden Gilkey of Collinsville and dropped a 6-2 decision to the eventual state champion. Madison had a fall to start his weekend beating Brayden Nelson (Glenpool) in 3:13 to open his weekend and then advanced to the third place match with a fall over Alex Sutterfield (Carl Albert) in 1:39 in the consolation round to set up the rematch with Anderson.
Carey (25-12) finished off his senior campaign with a fourth place finish, going 2-2 on the weekend. Carey lost to both number one seeds at the state meet, as eventual state champion Cole Brooks of Collinsville pinned Carey in the semi-finals in 1:12 and his nemesis from the west side, Daegan Griffin of El Reno beat him in the third place match 15-4. Griffin got pinned in the semifinals by Tre Ivey of Ada in a huge upset. Carey started his weekend with a hard fought 7-6 decision over Brock Roberts (Coweta) on Friday night. That set up the semifinals with Brooks on Saturday afternoon. Carey bounced back in the consolation semifinals pinning Calvin Moon (MacArthur) at the 3:51 mark to advance to the rematch with Griffin.
The Bluejays also qualified Kaedin Herendeen (16-12) who went 1-2 on the weekend. Spade Pool (25-15) had the toughest route and went 1-2 at 182 pounds drawing BK Seago of Collinsville in the quarterfinals. Riley Boyster (31-9) would go 2-2 on the weekend with all four matches decided by falls.
Bryson Hall (23-11) and Gabe Sanders (2015) also made the trip to Oklahoma City but got eliminated in the wrestlein portion of the meet on Friday night.
In the Girls State Championships, Guthrie also qualified Klaribel Kirk (17-2) and Cheli Zamora-Hernandez (17-7) for the meet. Neither wrestler placed as Kirk and Hernandez both went 1-2 on the weekend, getting eliminated in the consolation rounds on Saturday.
Kudos to coaches Jaden Davenport and Chris Myers. Guthrie was district champions, runner-up in the Class 5A State Dual Tournament, Champions of the Carl Albert Tournament and runners-up in the Cushing Tournament and now we are the second place finisher in Class 5A for 2022 season.