Levi Smith and Brandon Armstrong won individual titles to lead McDonald County to third place in the team standings at the Seneca Junior High Wrestling tournament held Dec. 2 at Seneca High School.
Smith won all five of his matches by pin, including beating Wilford Aton of Joplin North in 49 seconds in the championship match.
Armstrong won the title at 155 pounds. The McDonald County eighth-grader won three pool matches, two by pin, and added a pin in the semifinals over Cael McCullah of Bolivar before claiming a 9-5 decision over Isaiah Shuey of Joplin South in the title match.
One other Mustang made it to the title match, but Junior Eliam sustained his only loss of the season when he dropped a 6-4 decision to Harrison Merrimon of Monett at 215 pounds.
Other results for McDonald County are as follows: Cross Spencer, 95, third; Blaine Ortiz, 115, third; Jared Mora, 127, third; Billy Laughard, 165, third; Malick Taylor, 134, fourth; Wyatt Yousey, 141, fourth; Jacob Owens, 105, fifth; Dshawn Defang, 148, fifth; Levi Neale, 265, fifth; Coty Dumond, 110, sixth; and, Fisher Sanny, 120, eighth.
McDonald County finished third in the team standings with 218 points, behind Bolivar (283) and Monett (227). Fourth went to Seneca with 194.5 points, followed by Joplin North -- 183, Republic -- 179.5, Nevada -- 166, Lebanon -- 150, Joplin East -- 141.5, Cassville -- 132.5, Columbus -- 118, Joplin South -- 59, Hollister -- 41, and Niangu -- 7.
Carl Junction/Carthage
McDonald County defeated Carl Junction and Carthage in a double dual on Nov. 28 at MCHS.
In the Mustangs 60-12 defeat of Carl Junction, picking up wins for McDonald County were Mora, Eliam, Smith, Owens (two wins), Laughard (two wins), Sanny, Spencer and Brandon Burt.
McDonald County added a 64-32 win over Carthage. Winning for the Mustangs were Burt, Yousey, Smith, Eliam, Laughard, Mora, Owens, Spencer, Mora (two wins) and Defang.
Sports on 12/07/2017