With only five wrestlers available, the McDonald County High School wrestling team could only look for individual success at the 51st Kinloch Classic Wrestling Tournament held Dec. 28-29 at Parkview High School in Springfield.
Oscar Ortiz made the most of his opportunity, winning the 126-pound championship. Ortiz, now 24-2 on the season, won all six of his matches over the two-day tournament, including a 14-5 major decision over Alexsey Salaz of Jefferson City Helias in the title match.
"Oscar had a great tournament," said coach Josh Factor. "All six of his wins earned bonus points (two pins, two technical falls and two major decisions). The finals match was a good confidence booster. Salaz is ranked number five in the state. Oscar still needs to work on becoming a more dominant wrestler when he is working on top though."
Ortiz defeated Tyler Jackman of Raymore Peculiar by technical fall (18-3) in his first-round match. He added a pin over Isaac French of Buffalo in round two and scored another technical fall (19-4) in beating Ezekiel Adjokatse of Columbia Hickman in round three.
In the quarterfinals, Ortiz recorded a major decision (13-3) over Elijah Maskrod of Ozark before pinning Riley Williams of Logan-Rogersville in the semifinals to advance to the championship match.
Eh Doh Say had the Mustangs' next best finish, taking ninth place at 113 pounds. Say received a bye and lost two matches in his pool before pinning Gabe Appleberry of Springfield Kickapoo in the ninth-place match.
Jordan Meador won three matches at 138 pounds for the Mustangs to take 13th place. Meador pinned Lucas Nave of Springfield Hillcrest in preliminaries and added two wins in the consolation bracket, including a 15-10 decision over Tristan Upp of Kickapoo in the 13th place match.
Justin Smith took 14th place at 132 pounds. Smith lost all of his pool matches but pinned Quinton Papa of Kickapoo in the first round of the consolation bracket before dropping a 14-7 decision in the 13th-place match to Junior Lamarre of Parkview.
McDonald County's fifth and final wrestler was Austin Reece, who took 15th at 120 pounds. Reece's lone win of the tournament came in the 15th place match where he pinned Raymond Moore of Marshfield.
"This is always a great experience for our wrestlers," Factor said. "There were 24 schools here and it is the only two-day tournament we compete in before districts. The kids are gaining valuable experience and are getting better every time they step on the mat. We definitely need to be more physical and more confident when we go out there to compete."
McDonald County's next varsity match is at home when the Mustangs host Neosho and Webb City on Jan. 10. Matches begin at 5 p.m.
The McDonald County junior varsity is at the Seneca JV Wrestling Tournament on Jan. 5.
Sports on 01/03/2019