After Thursday evening’s opening rounds of wrestling, the Carthage Tigers faced some serious matches in Friday’s quarter and semifinal matches.
“We ran into some tough competition Friday,” said head coach Kenny Brown. “A lot of the kids we faced ended up placing high at the end of the tournament, so we know we were facing some of the best.” Case in point, heavyweight Brener Ocana. “Brener comes out and beats the district champ in his second round wrestleback Friday morning, and loses the next round to the eventual third-place finisher because he got caught. You expect it to be a grind on Friday, which is why the third round wrestlebacks is called the cry or blood round.”
While all but two wrestlers were eliminated from the competition after Friday evening (Kelten Campbell – 170 lbs. and Kale Schrader – 220 lbs.) Brown still cited the quality of wrestling that took place.
“Tanner Russow lost two tough matches to the guys that eventually took 6th and 3rd in the tournament. Dagan Sappington lost to a kid that took 6th and Davion King lost to a kid in the quarters that took 3rd and then to another in the second round wrestlebacks that took 4th. Kelten Campbell lost to the eventual 5th and 3rd placers as well. Kanen Vogt loses his first round to the number one ranked 195 lber in the country. It’s not like the guys are slacking off. We’ve just gotta find a way to help them be the ones to come out on top with an upset in those kind of matches.”
The team’s hopes for a high place finish began to wane, however, after the quarterfinals round of 220 lb. defending state champion, Kale Schrader. Approximately two months ago, senior Schrader, this year’s Class 5 Football Defensive Player of the Year, started experiencing symptoms similar to an undiagnosed condition he fought his freshman year of high school. Upon further investigation, it was determined that Schrader had a tear in the lining of his stomach. While fighting the condition, he dealt for weeks with not being able to hold down food, random spells of passing out, excruciating pain and excessive weakness from bouts of dehydration and malnourishment.
“After we discovered that he had the tear in his stomach following an ultrasound, Kale was given medicine that should have helped heal him. The problem was that he couldn’t tolerate food and kept throwing up his meds. When we finally put him on a more specialized diet, he kept food down for several days and was building up his energy level. The problem was that wrestling still caused horrible pain because the movement irritated the stomach tear. Our goal at districts was just to get him through with the hope that he would have sufficient time to heal and be ok. He was doing great until the quarters and was in such bad shape after three full periods that he could hardly walk and started coughing up blood,” Coach Brown said. “There was never a doubt in my mind that the kid would have stepped onto the mat for the semis – we wouldn’t have had to ask him. That kid he would’ve wrestled (Stegall from Northwest Cedar Hill) ended up winning the championship. It breaks your heart to have to take that chance away from someone so deserving, but there was no way, in good conscience, we could let him go out there and possibly get hurt even worse. I talked to his parents and pulled him from the tournament with an injury default and he took 6th place. The flipside of that is seeing Kale and every one of his other teammates sitting in the stands and cheering on Kelten Campbell for his semifinals wrestleback match. They were as excited for him as if they had been out there themselves.”
Campbell, who wrestled all season at 160 lbs., bumped up a weight class after freshman Luke Gall suffered a broken arm during the dual with the defending and current Class 3 Champs, the Neosho Wildcats. His quarterfinal match resulted in a loss for Campbell to the eventual 5th place finisher, Lucas White from Christian Brothers College, while his consolation semi-final was a loss to the 3rd place finisher, Tommy Hagan from Lafayette Wildwood. “After the blow that was Friday quarterfinals, Kelten really gave us something to look forward to. This is a kid that hadn’t even wrestled 170 until the week before. He had one goal and that was to place at State, and I couldn’t be prouder that he met that goal. He’s a great kid in and out of the room and really earned his spot on the podium,” Brown stated.
The conclusion of this year’s season will take place at the annual wrestling banquet in a couple of weeks, where the wrestlers will be honored for their achievements of this year.
Complete results from this year’s Class 4 State Wrestling Championships are as follows:
113 Class 4
Carlos Reyes (32-12) place is unknown and scored 3.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – David Cross (Francis Howell Central) 34-1 won by fall over Carlos Reyes (Carthage) 32-12 (Fall 0:46)
Cons. Round 1 – Carlos Reyes (Carthage) 32-12 won by fall over Anderson Lipp (Staley) 27-22 (Fall 2:20)
Cons. Round 2 – Ethan Barr (Hickman) 31-7 won by decision over Carlos Reyes (Carthage) 32-12 (Dec 9-2)
120 Class 4
Tanner Russow (31-11) place is unknown and scored 3.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Jojo Camacho (Northwest (Cedar Hill)) 27-9 won by decision over Tanner Russow (Carthage) 31-11 (Dec 14-7)
Cons. Round 1 – Tanner Russow (Carthage) 31-11 won by fall over Jackson Sapp (Holt) 13-23 (Fall 0:28)
Cons. Round 2 – Jalin Reese (Lafayette (Wildwood)) 36-11 won by decision over Tanner Russow (Carthage) 31-11 (Dec 5-2)
126 Class 4
Selvin Estrada (29-15) place is unknown and scored 2.5 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Andrew Doehring (Lafayette (Wildwood)) 34-12 won by decision over Selvin Estrada (Carthage) 29-15 (Dec 7-4)
Cons. Round 1 – Selvin Estrada (Carthage) 29-15 won by tech fall over Arneze Rush (Hazelwood West) 25-8 (TF-1.5 4:30 (16-1))
Cons. Round 2 – Ayden Dolt (Liberty) 38-14 won by tech fall over Selvin Estrada (Carthage) 29-15 (TF-1.5 4:31 (15-0))
132 Class 4
Dagan Sappington (26-12) place is unknown and scored 4.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Henry Thomas (Lafayette (Wildwood)) 35-13 won by decision over Dagan Sappington (Carthage) 26-12 (Dec 5-2)
Cons. Round 1 – Dagan Sappington (Carthage) 26-12 won by fall over Andrew Peppin (Holt) 13-20 (Fall 2:18)
Cons. Round 2 – Dagan Sappington (Carthage) 26-12 won by decision over Joseph Kuster (Jefferson City) 33-14 (Dec 3-2)
Cons. Round 3 – Cole Harrell (Hickman) 27-14 won by fall over Dagan Sappington (Carthage) 26-12 (Fall 4:24)
138 Class 4
Davion King (30-14) place is unknown and scored 2.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Davion King (Carthage) 30-14 won by decision over Quinten Bell (Poplar Bluff) 35-9 (Dec 7-2)
Quarterfinal – Carter Smith (Holt) 30-6 won by tech fall over Davion King (Carthage) 30-14 (TF-1.5 2:44 (18-3))
Cons. Round 2 – Sam Schultz (Chaminade College Preparatory) 44-4 won by fall over Davion King (Carthage) 30-14 (Fall 0:23)
170 Class 4
Kelten Campbell (36-8) placed 6th and scored 11.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Kelten Campbell (Carthage) 36-8 won by fall over Isaiah Slaughter (Holt) 24-12 (Fall 1:17)
Quarterfinal – Lucas White (Christian Brothers College) 34-8 won by fall over Kelten Campbell (Carthage) 36-8 (Fall 1:13)
Cons. Round 2 – Kelten Campbell (Carthage) 36-8 won by decision over Max Rinklin (Parkway South) 32-8 (Dec 8-3)
Cons. Round 3 – Kelten Campbell (Carthage) 36-8 won by fall over Roman Bushek (Lee`s Summit West) 35-6 (Fall 4:14)
Cons. Semi – Tommy Hagan (Lafayette (Wildwood)) 38-10 won by fall over Kelten Campbell (Carthage) 36-8 (Fall 1:42)
5th Place Match – Lucas White (Christian Brothers College) 34-8 won by fall over Kelten Campbell (Carthage) 36-8 (Fall 0:25)
195 Class 4
Kanen Vogt (26-18) place is unknown and scored 0.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Rocky Elam (Staley) 32-0 won by fall over Kanen Vogt (Carthage) 26-18 (Fall 0:31)
Cons. Round 1 – Cole Litteken (Francis Howell) 28-15 won by decision over Kanen Vogt (Carthage) 26-18 (Dec 5-3)
220 Class 4
Kale Schrader (30-4) placed 6th and scored 9.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Kale Schrader (Carthage) 30-4 won by fall over David Ekstam (Jackson) 36-9 (Fall 0:37)
Quarterfinal – Kale Schrader (Carthage) 30-4 won by decision over Callum Trester (Liberty) 35-14 (Dec 5-1)
Semifinal – Chase Stegall (Northwest (Cedar Hill)) 36-0 won by injury default over Kale Schrader (Carthage) 30-4 (Inj. 0:00)
Cons. Semi – Brant Aulbur (Jefferson City) 31-12 won by injury default over Kale Schrader (Carthage) 30-4 (Inj. 0:00)
5th Place Match – Isaiah Brisseaux (Marquette) 37-16 won by injury default over Kale Schrader (Carthage) 30-4 (Inj. 0:00)
285 Class 4
Brener Ocana (16-5) place is unknown and scored 4.0 team points.
Champ. Round 1 – Mark Mcghee (Lee`s Summit North) 40-6 won by fall over Brener Ocana (Carthage) 16-5 (Fall 3:33)
Cons. Round 1 – Brener Ocana (Carthage) 16-5 won by decision over Liam Bryant (Jackson) 30-11 (Dec 3-1)
Cons. Round 2 – Brener Ocana (Carthage) 16-5 won by fall over Joe Klutho (Seckman) 25-12 (Fall 1:41)
Cons. Round 3 – Chase Mccoy (Timberland) 36-3 won by fall over Brener Ocana (Carthage) 16-5 (Fall 3:43)
