Pair of Jayhawks earn medals at Piper

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Alan Johnson won the 215-pound weight class while Caleb Jackson took second place at 285 pounds for Jayhawk-Linn's wrestling team at a tournament hosted by Piper High School

here Saturday.

Johnson (19-3) pinned Jerome Newman of Class 5A Kansas City-Wyandotte in the finals. Newman was 16-3 going into the finals.

"The biggest thing for Alan right now is getting him to wrestle in a match like he wrestles in practice," Jayhawk-Linn head coach Brett Kramer said. "In practice, Alan wrestles very aggressive on his feet. But when it comes to matches, he is more conservative and doesn't take a lot of shots. Saturday in his finals he wrestled like he does in practice. He was aggressive on his feet and was able to get several take downs.

"If Alan will continue to trust his wrestling ability on his feet and be aggressive on his feet in a match he will be very hard to beat at the Regional Tournament and, hopefully, State Tournament."

Johnson (15-2) was 2-1 on the day. He pinned an opponent from Shawnee-Mill Valley in the first round, then pinned Robert Retzler of Ottawa.

In the finals, he was pinned by Jeff O'Daniel, who attends St. Paul but wrestles for Parsons as the schools have a co-op agreement. In the post season, O'Daniel will represent St. Paul on his own in the Class 3-2-1A Regional, which means Johnson could see him once again.

"O'Daniel is the only person to beat Caleb this year," Kramer said. "He is a very tough and talented wrestler but hopefully we can figure him out before the Regional Tournament."

Jayhawk-Linn had three other entrants in the tournament, all of whom had 1-2 records on the day. David Troth wrestled at 135 pounds, Jared Avery at 145 and Quincy Hodges at 160.

Also, two Jayhawks went to Adrian, Mo., for a junior varsity tournament. Eli Walrod was 4-0 and took first place at 285 while Trevor Laporte was 0-3 at 130.

The Jayhawk varsity will take part in the Osawatomie Tournament Saturday.