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Photo courtesy of Guthrie Wrestling
Guthrie High senior wrestler Eli Kirk won all seven of his matches this past weekend to pin down the 126-pound championship at the Mid-America Nationals in Enid.
The Bluejays finished 11th as a team.
Kirk opened with three falls in the round-robin portion, winning in times of 3:00, 1:40 and 29 seconds. In the bracket round, he pinned Elijah Gardner of Salinain 2:27, then scored a major decision over Parker Ballantyne (Westlake) 12-3.
In the semifinals, Kirk won a 7-2 decision over Ernie Perry III (Airline). In the championship, a rematch from last year’s Class 5A championship against Clay Gates (Collinsville), Kirk won 6-2 to claim the title.
Fourth-place finishers for the Bluejays included Bryson Hall at 175 pounds and Wesley Silvis at 190.
Hall went 5-2, going undefeated in the pool round with three falls in 3:23, 3:53 and 3:35. In the championship round, he was matched up with teammate Gabe Sanders in the first round and won on a forfeit. In the quarterfinals, Hall pinned Spencer Davidson of El Reno at the 5:54 mark but lost his final two matches by falls.
Silvis went 4-2, winning his two round-robin matches by falls in 5:28 and 1:09. Silvis then won his first-round and quarterfinal matches but lost his last two by falls.
Kaedin Herendeen finished sixth at 106 pounds with a 5-2 mark. In the pool round, Herendeen won both matches by falls in 1:55 and 1:07. In the championship round, it took a sudden victory, 7-5 over Piedmont’s Brody Heusel, to advance. Tommy Miller (Marlow) claimed the semifinal 5-2, but the Guthrie sophomore won two more matches over Texas opponents before dropping a 6-5 decision in the fifth-place match.
Braden Hall ( 144 pounds) finished ninth, also going 5-2. Hall went 2-0 in pool action and won his first match in the championship round on a fall in 1:04. Hall won his two final consolation matches.
Gabe Sanders (175) and Nick Herendeen (285) placed 10th, going 3-4 and 4-4, respectively. Luke Lyons (138), Ryan Miller (157) and Max Chavez (285) also represented the Bluejays but did not place in the top 10.
The Bluejays opened their dual-meet season on Dec. 8 in Mustang with a 48-24 loss.