Tiger girls win 4 divisions in 1st home meet

Fort Scott’s Alexis Rusk looks at referee John Metcalf, who is about to call a pinfall for her over Fredonia’s Rachel Taggart, during Fort Scott High School’s girls’ wrestling tournament Tuesday afternoon. Rusk pinned both her opponents as she won her division.

Brian Wade/Special to the Tribune

Fort Scott High School hosted its first wrestling tournament exclusively for girls in the new gym at the high school Tuesday afternoon. Twelve schools, including Fort Scott, brought a total of 40 athletes to the event. Douglass, which is approximately between Wichita and Winfield, and Burlingame, located between Topeka and Emporia, traveled the farthest. Fort Scott and Spring Hill brought the most girls, seven each. And the Tigers won the most division championships with Douglass and Spring Hill each winning three.

Most of the 14 divisions were three-wrestler round-robins although there were a couple with just two each that became best-two-out-of-three series. They wrestled two-minute periods and the entire event took less than two hours. Team scores were not kept.

Fort Scott’s four pool winners were Breya Brown, Alexis Rusk, Jade Russell, and Mersades Roof. Kiahna Jones, Alessia Cokely, and Devon Cokely earned pool wins for Douglass. Gracie Mann, Ciara Roth, and Haylie Lezenby were pool winners for Spring Hill. Jamie Lohman of Jayhawk-Linn, Jess Hegg of Burlington, Mason Claibourn of Fredonia, Holli Miller of Anderson County won the other pools. The pools were not organized by weight class in the same manner boys’ divisions are; each were simply given numbers.

Fort Scott’s Breya Brown looks to keep control of Burlington’s Mattie Huff during her second match of the evening. Brown went on to win a 17-3 major decision and her division.

Brian Wade/Special to the Tribune

Brown won Pool 5. She pinned Kate Landis of Spring Hill 1:48 into the second period and claimed a major decision, 17-3, over Mattie Huff of Burlington. Landis pinned Huff to finish second in the pool.

Alexis Rusk was the winner in Pool 8. Her match was one of the first two that took place in the event as two mats were used side-by-side. She pinned Burlingame’s Katie Shaffer with 0.6 seconds left in the second period to record the first win by a Fort Scott female wrestler in a home event specifically for girls. She also pinned Fredonia’s Rachel Taggard with 27 seconds to go in the first period of her other match. Shaffer finished second after she pinned Taggart.

Jade Russell won Pool 10, which was one of the pools with two wrestlers. She defeated Morgyn Hene of Burlingame in the first two matches, by pin at 3:54 and by pin at 3:42, making the third match unnecessary.

Jade Russell’s hand is held up by referee John Metcalf after she pinned Burlingame’s Morgyn Heyne.

Brian Wade/Special to the Tribune

Mersades Roof rounds out the list of Fort Scott pool winners as she claimed Pool 13. She pinned Jamie Jefferies of Parsons in 42 seconds and Heaven Firman of Eureka in a minute and a half. Jeffries, representing the only other Southeast Kansas League school in attendance, took second when she pinned Firman a minute into the second period.

Jenna Graham finished second in Pool 1. She pinned Kaylee Lamb of Anderson County 26 seconds into her first match. Alessia Cokely pinned Graham in the final match of the pool to claim the championship. Cokely also pinned Lamb in the first match of the pool.

Hannah Vann was second in Pool 7. She took a 6-3 decision over Aziza Patillo of Paola in the first match in the pool. Jess Hegg of Burlington then pinned Patillo and won the pool by pinning Vann.

Sam Hunt finished third in Pool 11. She was pinned by Ceara Darling of Parsons and Ciara Roth of Spring Hill. Roth won the pool, having pinned Darling in the first match.

The Tigers are scheduled to compete in another tournament at Fredonia on Saturday.

Pool 1

1. Alessia Cokely, Douglass; 2. Jenna Graham, Fort Scott; 3. Kaylee Lamb, Anderson County.

Pool 2

1. Kiahna Jones, Douglass; 2. Annathea Finch, Spring Hill; 3. Alice Buckridge, Burlington.

Pool 3

1. Jamie Lohman, Jayhawk-Linn; 2. Taylor Rosner, Paola; 3. Raegan Stinementz, Spring Hill.

Pool 4

1. Gracie Mann, Spring Hill; 2. Josie James, Fredonia; 3. Clare Benton, Paola.

Pool 5

1. Breya Brown, Fort Scott; 2. Kate Landis, Spring Hill; 3. Mattie Huff, Burlington.

Pool 6

1. Devon Cokely, Douglass; 2. Gianna Culbert, Burlingame; 3. Kaleigh Norton, Spring Hill.

Pool 7

1. Jess Hegg, Burlington; 2. Hannah Vann, Fort Scott; 3. Aziza Patillo, Paola.

Pool 8

1. Alexis Rusk, Fort Scott; 2. Katie Shaffer, Burlingame; 3. Rachel Taggart, Fredonia.

Pool 9

1. Mason Claibourn, Fredonia; 2. Katy Rounds, Erie; 3. Americus Harris, Paola.

Pool 10

1. Jade Russell, Fort Scott; 2. Morgyn Heyne, Burlingame.

Pool 11

1. Ciara Roth, Spring Hill; 2. Ceara Darling, Parsons; 3. Sam Hunt, Fort Scott.

Pool 12

1. Holli Miller, Anderson County; 2. Naomi Lance, Eureka; 3. Hailey Reavis, Burlington.

Pool 13

1. Mersades Roof, Fort Scott; 2. Jamie Jefferies, Parsons; 3. Heaven Firman, Eureka.

Pool 14

1. Haylie Lazenby, Spring Hill; 2. Hannah Meierhoff, Burlington.