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Guthrie High’s wrestling team brought home four individual titles Saturday night at the Class 5A State Wrestling Championships in Oklahoma City.
Kaiden Herendeen, Eli Kirk and Braden Hall all won boys titles and Khaleah Kirk won in the girls division.
The Bluejays finished fifth in the team standings with 59 points. Carl Albert won with 96.5 points. Collinsville, Elgin and El Reno rounded out the top five.
Ten Guthrie wrestlers qualified for state.
Sophomore Kaiden Herendeen got the night started with a title at 106 pounds. He beat Kam Hutchinson of McAlester 6-5 to claim his first title.
He rendeen, who went 3-0, opened with an 11-0 major decision over Evan Colbert (Del City). The sophomore followed that with a fall in 3:26 over Jacob Caviness (Tahlequah Senior) in the semifinals. Then, Herendeen held on for a 6-5 decision against Hutchinson in the final.
It was Herendeen’s second trip to the state tournament having been eliminated last year in the consolation round.
“He is the most athletic kid I have ever coached and has great work ethic to go along with it,” Coach Jadon Davenport said. “He is just now scratching the surface of his talent, so his future is super bright. He is on the path to being Guthrie’s first three-time state champion and I know, without a doubt, he can do it.”
Senior Eli Kirk closed out his Bluejays career with a second state championship at 126 and a 33-1 record, beating Clay Gates of Collinsville 3-1 in the final, a rematch of last year’s championship.
Kirk opened the weekend with a fall over Gunner Murray (Claremore) in 2:38, then advanced to the final with an 11-4 win over Dimitri Kizer (Del City).
“Eli is arguably the best wrestler in Guthrie history,” Davenport said. “He is a guy every kid can look up to and learn from. He has strived for greatness and succeeded. It has been a blessing to coach such an amazing kid on and off the mat. The guy is a real superstar in Guthrie wrestling.”
Braden Hall, a senior, had one extra match to get to the final, coming through the wrestle-in round Friday morning. Hall beat Ethan Peterson of Sapulpa 9-2, and then beat the top seed out of the East Regional, Cooper Zickefoose from Claremore, 5-3 to get into Friday night’s semifinals. There, Hall took out Kenneth Carter of McAlester from the East Regional 5-0.
In one of the more exciting matches of the Class 5A finals, Hall beat No.1 seed Grant Gober of Carl Albert 2-1 in a tiebreaker that would go three extra tiebreaking periods before Hall secured the win on an escape. Hall closed out his senior season at 37-7.
“Words cannot describe how happy I am for him,” Davenport said. “He is one of the hardest workers you will ever meet and he has been working for this championship for a long time, and there was not a more deserving person to win Outstanding Wrestler than Braden Hall. Braden has helped set the standard for Guthrie wrestling not just on the mat, but off as well.”
Senior Khaleah Kirk closed out her Bluejays career with her second championship on Saturday night with a fall at the 5:38 mark over Lynn Horn of Blanchard. Kirk (19-0) opened against Angelina Bezner of Putnam City North with a fall at the 3:18 mark on Friday morning. In the semifinals, Kirk won a 6-0 decision over Janelle Lynch of Carl Albert.
“Khaleah has meant the world to GHS wrestling because she has the foundation and the standard for all the girls to come,” Davenport said. “You can consider her the founder of girls wrestling in Guthrie. She is someone all the girls can look up.”
In other state action on the girls side, Cheli Zamora-Hernandez (19-6) went 1-2. She lost her quarterfinal match 10-3 to Bridget Bailey (McLoud) to fall into the consolation round. Hernandez then won by fall in 2:36 over Skylar Tran (Union) to advance to Saturday morning, but lost 7-6 to Lily Lane (Bixby).
On the boys side, Gabe Sanders (8-8) suffered a first-round loss to Josh Gesell (Grove) on a fall at the 3:45 mark.
Bryson Hall (165) would win his first round wrestlein match with a 6-4 decision over Jesus Cervantes (Tahlequah Senior) but lost in the quarterfinal round to Braden Brown (MacArthur) by way of a fall in 1:31 and was then eliminated by Alfredo Zapata (Santa Fe South) on a 4-3 decision.
Wesley Silvis (28-15) was leading 7-2 in his consolation round when he got reversed and pinned at the end of the match to get eliminated from the tournament. Silvis dropped a 4-0 decision to Cooper Thomas (Sapulpa) to fall into the consolation round.
Eli Moroney (18-13 at 215) went 1-2, starting with a fall over Caleb Turner (Sapulpa) at the 3:16 mark to get into the quarterfinals. But No. 1 seed Randy Nix of Newcastle recorded a fall in 1:43, and then Abraham Fudeyev (Coweta) ended Moroney’s weekend with a fall in 5:15.
Nic Herendeen (285) went 0-2, losing to Deacon Peterson (Coweta ) 5-2 in the quarterfinals and then to Kevin Acevedo-Perez (Will Rogers) 2-1 in the consolation round to finish his season at 20-9.