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Upper weights lead Dragons over Tigers
A sweep of the final five weight classes allowed rival Pittsburg to take a 54-24 win in a Southeast Kansas League wrestling dual at the FSHS gymnasium Thursday night.
"A lot of the kids are developing and it's just going to take its time," Fort Scott head coach David Brown said. "Overall, I was pretty pleased with how hard we went after things. I see glimmers of improvement in every one of them."
Inexperience was a factor in those last five matches -- 160 pounds through 285 -- as Fort Scott had four sophomores in those matches while Pittsburg put out four seniors.
Iola's new wrestling team was also here but took part only in junior varsity matches. Iola's program will not wrestle as a team at the varsity level until next season.
Pittsburg (1-0 SEK and overall) led 15-6 after the first four matches although 12 of those points -- as well as Fort Scott's six -- came through forfeits.
The Tigers (0-1, 5-6) got a boost when Luis Martinez pinned Don-Cheoi Yoo in the second period of the 135-pound match. Michael Durossette then pinned Mike Eller in the 140-pound match to give Fort Scott its first lead, 18-15.
"Luis Martinez got a big learning experience about locking hands," Brown said. "But he was a double winner tonight which is a great boost to him, a first-year senior.
"Michael came out with a big win. He wrestled (Eller) last year and did well against him then as well."
Pittsburg took the lead back with a forfeit and a pin. Then Lee Culbertson brought Fort Scott within 27-24 with a pin over Brendan Maxwell at 152. Culbertson, a senior, took advantage of the Purple Dragon freshman to build a 9-0 lead after the first period. He was up 11-1 when he got the pin with 59 seconds left in the second period.
"Lee had a nice win," Brown said. "He showed some big improvement on his feet and some ability to work on his shot quite a bit."
With the outcome of the dual still in doubt, Pittsburg senior Jordan Brown pinned Blake Cowen with nine seconds left in the second period of the 160-pound match. Then senior Buck Wilcox fought off sophomore Kyle Slattery in a 9-4 decision at 171 that was closer than the final score indicated as two of those points came as the final horn sounded.
"I felt like Kyle Slattery had a real good night," Brown said. "In his second match against Pittsburg, he showed he's willing to fight. And if you have that, you can build on it. I've been thrilled to see his improvement in the past couple of weeks."
The last three duals were all Pittsburg pins.
The Dragons are a young team, as evidenced by the many freshmen and sophomores in its program. But those young wrestlers are also pretty tough as demonstrated when Pittsburg freshman Brent Koehn decisioned Fort Scott junior Justin Sharp at 125 pounds by a 7-1 score.
"Justin had a real tough match against a really good kid," Brown said. "The score is deceptive. I feel like it came down to one critical mistake, which ended up costing him five points. Those are the kind of mistakes you have to eliminate over the course of a season."
No team score was kept when Iola wrestled Fort Scott and Pittsburg although there were a few matches between varsity-calibre wrestlers. Officially, these were junior varsity matches.
Tiger grapplers won three of the eight matches with Iola, all by pin. Martinez pinned Brent Clark with nine seconds left in the first period of the 130-pound match. Slattery stuck Denton Christian just 33 seconds into the 171 bout. And Levi Tweedy pinned Nate Pope in 1:38 at 119.
"It's exciting to have a new team get into the league and have a program," Brown said. "(Iola coach) Ron Schomaker is going to do a good job over there."
The Tigers will go to Bonner Springs Saturday to compete in a tournament with action set to get underway at 9:30 a.m.
PITTSBURG 54, FORT SCOTT 24
103: Prarker Fields (P) won by forfeit. P, 6-0.
112: Austin Haake (P) won by forfeit. P, 12-0.
119: Denzell Davis (FS) won by forfeit. P, 12-6
125: Brent Koehn (P) dec. Justin Sharp, 7-1. P, 15-6.
130: Luis Martinez (FS) pinned Don-Cheoi Yoo. 2:23. P, 15-12.
135: Michael Durossette (FS) pinned Mike Eller, 4:49. FS, 18-15.
140: Devin Schulze (P) won by forfeit. P, 21-18
145: Daniel Blair (P) pinned Alec Ramirez, 1:57. P, 27-18.
152: Lee Culbertson (FS) pinned Brendan Maxwell, 3:01. P, 27-24.
160: Jordan Brown (P) pinned Blake Cowen, 3:51. P, 33-24.
171: Buck Wilcox (P) dec. Kyle Slattery, 9-4. P, 36-24.
189: Cougar Von Feldt (P) pinned Kenny Singmaster, 1:33. P, 42-24.
215: Austin Winner (P) pinned Drew Bryant, :50. P, 48-24.
285: Chris Summit (P) pinned Dakota Singmaster, :36. P, 54-24.