Two Wright City seniors notched first place finishes and five other wrestlers advanced to the championship match in their weight class to help Wright City win their second consecutive tournament …
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Two Wright City seniors notched first place finishes and five other wrestlers advanced to the championship match in their weight class to help Wright City win their second consecutive tournament title.
Elizabeth Riggs and Samantha Yates won their weight class to lead the Lady Wildcats to a first place team finish at the Liberty Invite Dec. 8. Wright City cruised to the team title, with 182 points. Festus placed second with 129.5 points. The Lady Wildcats won their second tournament in as many weekends. They won the John Burroughs Invite last weekend.
“A little bit tougher tournament with more teams than we had last week,” Wright City Wrestling Coach Fred Ross said. “Last week, there was 10 or 11 (teams). This week we’re talking 23. So bigger tournament. Bigger schools… It was really good competition for us and we stepped up our game.”
Wright City earned wins in the 110 and 125-pound weight classes. Yates earned five wins, all by fall, to win the 110-pound weight class. Yates won four of her five matches in less than one minute, including both of her matches in the championship bracket. She beat Carly Horn of Festus in 24 seconds in her semifinal match. She beat Zilynn Watt of Hancock in 46 seconds in the championship match. Riggs won all four of her matches by fall. She beat Syria Bell of St. Charles in 40 seconds in her semifinal match. She pinned Emmy Begemann of Fulton in 2:52 to win the weight class. As of Monday, Begemann’s only two losses of the season came against Riggs.
Six Wright City wrestlers advanced to the semifinal match in their weight classes, with five of the six wrestlers placing second in their weight class. Hailey Henson, Kali Jensen, Lauren Ritter, Sadie Sehnert and Sara Sehnert each won their semifinal match and placed second in their weight class. Ross noted the Lady Wildcats were trailing in five of the seven semifinal matches they won.
“Wrestling is one of those sports that doesn’t matter what the score is, you’re never out until the last buzzer rings…If you can pin somebody, you erase everything,” Ross said. “How you wrestle before that. We always try to preach that. A couple of those, we did. We were down in numbers and then on offense and then turn them over and pinned them and got the win.”
Ella Greenwell placed third for the Lady Wildcats.
Seven Wright City wrestlers scored at least 20 team points for the Lady Wildcats. All wrestlers competing in the varsity brackets scored at least one point towards the team score.
Wright City won the team title without returning state medalist Caelyn Hanff, who did not wrestle in the Liberty Invite.
“She was out for the tournament. So we had to step up without her,” Ross said. “And then, you know, we had some other girls step up. So it’s really good to see.”
Two Wright City boys wrestlers competed at the Liberty Invite Dec. 9.
Quincy Rice won a match and placed 10th in the 215-pound weight class. Rice earned a win by fall over Memphis Sims of Battle in his first consolation match.
Caleb Hall placed eighth in the 190-pound weight class.
