Three Tigers earn medals at Eudora tourney

EUDORA -- Fort Scott High's Derek Bollinger, Trey Holston and Chris Stell earned medals at the 25-school Eudora Tournament of Champions here over the weekend. Each of Fort Scott's five entrants wrestled in pools on Friday and those who advanced wrestled for placement in brackets on Saturday.

Bollnger (10-4 on the season with 5 pins) finished in fifth place at 132 pounds. He pinned Cody Kamps of Maize South in the first pool bout, then waited two rounds before pinning Isaac Miller of St. Marys. In the final pool match, he claimed a 6-1 win over Ryan Anderson of Shawnee-Mill Valley.

In the first round of the bracket, Tyler Whitson of Buhler defeated Bollinger, 7-0. Bollinger pinned Tanner Snow of Prairie View but lost to Wellsville's Taylor Wilmoth, 10-8, to drop into the fifth-place match. There, he won by injury default over Ottawa's Drew Nutt.

Holston (7-6, 4), finished eighth at 145 pounds. He had to wait through a couple of open rounds before finally hitting the mat in pool matches. His first two resulted in pins over Christian Sanchez of Lenexa St. James and Alex Bird of Rossville. Kevin Kissane of Maize South, ranked No. 1 in Class 5A by the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association, won the final pool match by pin.

Chris Stell (8-5, 7) was a part of the 152-pound bracket. He was pinned by Asher Huseman of Tonganoxie in his first pool match. He pinned Prairie View's Colton Rice in the second round, then sat out the third. He pinned Dylan Birkinsha of Atchison County and Travis Neis of Eudora in the last two pool bouts.

Saturday, like Holston, Stell finished eighth with three losses in the bracket. He was pinned by Jon Pratt of Baldwin, Caleb Volkman of Spring Hill and Derek Gentry of Rossville in the seventh-place match. Pratt is the No. 2-ranked wrestler at 152 pounds in Class 4A in the KWCA poll.

In the bracket, Holston suffered three pins. The victors, in order, were Corey Tyler of St. Marys, Noah Kennedy of Eudora, and Joey Ewall of Prairie View in the seventh-place bout.

Two other Tigers competed. Philip Moran (6-4, 3), competed at 126 pounds. He lost in the first round of pool action to Case Pemberson of Prairie View by pinfall. He lost to Ryan Bertha of Maize South, 13-3, but pinned Tucker Batten of Louisburg in his final match.

Zarek Fewell (6-4, 4) wrestled at 138. He was pinned by Mill Valley's Logan Marx and Kansas City Bishop Ward's Kyler McCluskey in the first two rounds. He took a 6-2 decision over Tim Boyd of Kansas City-Sumner and lost 11-1 to Isaiah Luellen of Rossville. Marx is ranked No. 3 in Class 5A.

Team scores showed Fort Scott finishing 21st with 64 points. Mill Valley won the tournament with 332.5 points followed by Baldwin with 275.5 and Maize South with 248.0.

Fort Scott will take part in the Ottawa Invitaional Saturday before going on the holiday break. After that, the Tigers will be idle until January 10.