Just off the heels of Saturday’s MSHSAA Class 5 Football Championship, Carthage Wrestling hosted its home opener with a full team. And what an opener it was!
The afternoon began with senior, Tanner Russow, signing his letter of intent to wrestle for Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis. Russow, who wrestles in the 126 lb. weight class for Carthage, expressed his commitment to the school as the season began. As part of a core group of seniors on this year’s team, he has been an integral part in their continued success, and someone Head Coach Kenny Brown has come to depend on.
“He has grown tremendously as a wrestler and leader. As a freshman, he struggled to maintain his weight (106) and struggled transitioning to a high school style of wrestling. Since his sophomore year, he hasn’t missed a single summer workout session, and it shows in his productivity on the mat.”
While Tanner is not the first Carthage wrestler under his guidance to continue his career at the next level, Coach Brown did offer a piece of advice. “Have fun! Wrestling is too hard of a sport to participate in if you don’t enjoy it. Wins and losses will happen, but have fun throughout it all.”
Russow’s signing definitely started the day off on a high note. Carthage went on to best Cassville 77-0 and Miami 84-0. When asked if he had expected this kind of performance from his team, Brown’s reply was cautiously optimistic. “I knew going into the season that this team has the possibility of performing at a very high level. Up to this point, the boys are stepping up to the challenges posed to them by the coaching staff and meeting our expectations. Now we need them to find ways to exceed expectations and in so doing, do something special with this season.”
Reluctance to look too far ahead is nothing new in a sport where the slightest alteration, break from routine or even change in uniform can affect a wrestler’s outlook or performance. But Coach Kenny Brown won’t allow his team to be unprepared or blindsided, even after a record-breaking set of wins. “We need to fine tune some technical missteps. The difference between winning and losing as we increase the level of competition that we see will be our ability to execute technique properly. We were able to get away with some small errors in technique tonight that, against State placers and qualifiers, we won’t be able to.” As a whole, Brown was happy with the performance he saw on the mat and cited a few matches that stood out. “Brener Ocana looked very good tonight in his first match of the season. He stayed in good position and didn’t become winded. The conditioning level of our football players is definitely a concern for us since they’ve missed the first month of practice. Kelten Campbell also had a good match against a state qualifier from Miami.”
The wrestlers continue their season with a very busy week before Christmas vacation. Tuesday, December 17th, Carthage hosts Joplin at home at 6pm, then the Lebanon junior varsity team on Thursday, December 19th at 6pm as well. Friday, December 20th follows the varsity wrestlers to day one of the Harrisonville Tournament, which will continue Saturday. The jv team also travels on the 21st to McDonald County for a one-day tournament. Brown stresses the importance of the week and the preparation involved. “Again, we need to fine tune our technique. The JV wrestlers are going to have to embrace the idea that they will be having an actual dual with Lebanon. Normally, JV wrestlers just get matched up and we don’t keep a team score. With the size of our JV, we felt that it would be beneficial to the program for them to get a dual-type experience. It is going to be a busy week, and the boys will have to focus not only on wrestling, but also preparing for final exams.”
Here are the Carthage wrestling results from the double dual with Cassville and Miami OK on 12/10/19 at Carthage. Carthage next wrestles in the Farmington Duals on 12/14/19 starting at 10:00AM. Carthage is now 3-0 on the season.
Carthage—77
Cassville—0
Carthage—84
Miami OK—0
84-0 is a perfect score in wrestling. This breaks the previous record of 80-0 set by the 1999-00 team against Branson. Carthage has only had 5 shutouts in the 47 years of Carthage wrestling, and two of them came tonight.
Individual Results—Cassville dual listed first, Miami second
Weight—Name—Grade—Season Record
106—Chris Lopez—10—(3-0)
Won by fall in 2:16 over Kurt Deaver
Won by forfeit
113—Lucas Jones—9—(3-0)
Won by technical fall 15-0 over Edgar Perez
Won by fall in 0:40 over Allessandro Villarreal
120—Carlos Reyes—11—(3-0)
Won by fall in 0:41 over Kelsey Harris
Won by forfeit
126—Tanner Russow—12—(2-0)
Won by decision 12-7 over Akhilleus Arguelles
Won by forfeit
132—Selvin Estrada—12—(3-0)
Won by fall in 4:21 over Matthew Whittenburg
Won by forfeit
138—Davion King—9—(3-0)
Won by fall in 3:56 over Jake Anthonysz
Won by forfeit
145—Anderson Ixcol—12—(3-0)
Won by decision 6-2 over Gabe Hunter
Won by fall in 2:43 over Tanner Chandler
152—Creed Lambeth—11—(2-1)
Won by forfeit
Won by forfeit
160—Kelten Campbell—12—(3-0)
Won by fall in 1:42 over Brennon Cieslinski
Won by fall in 2:46 over Keedin Crockett
170—Luke Gall—9—(2-0)
Won by forfeit
Won by forfeit
182—Brandon Crow—12—(2-0)
Won by fall in 3:37 over Brody Barbee
Won by forfeit
195—Brian Zuniga—9—(2-1)
Won by fall in 0:38 over Christian Tidwell
Won by forfeit
220—Kanen Vogt—10—(3-0)
Won by forfeit
Won by fall in 0:42 over Tristan Palmer
285—Brener Ocana—12—(2-0)—ranked 5th @ 285 in Class 4
Won by fall in 1:13 over Garrett Kritz
Won by forfeit
Junior Varsity Results
126—Jose Gomez—9—(2-1)
Won by decision 19-14 over Dallas Johnson
