By Chuck Reherman, Sports Editor – Yukon’s wrestling team, will be looking to better their last tournament finish this weekend, competing in the Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference Tournament in Southmoore.
The tournament features the 12 conference schools. Wrestling starts Saturday on the second day at 10 a.m. and will conclude with the finals starting at 4 p.m.
The Millers will host Westmoore in a dual at 7 p.m. Tuesday, then turn their attention toward the Hancock Tournament.
The Millers had their best tournament showing of season this past week at the Larry Wilkey Invitational at Jenks, coming home with a second place finish and two individual titles.
“I thought we did real well, kinda of a change from how we wrestled Thursday night against Edmond North,” Schneider said. “I put our guys backs against the wall and told them this is where we have to stand if we want to fight.
“And, we did let at Jenks as far as placing ahead of two teams that placed ahead of us at Perry in Owasso and Ponca City,” he added. “Skiatook, we knew was getting tougher, they won the tournament. We were in a fight with them back and forth, we just needed a few more placers here and there, we were on the bubble.
“The thing that kept us in contention was that we got 17 falls from our 14 wrestlers in two days. That’s bonus points. You get two points to advance on the championship side and when you win by fall you get two more. That’s huge. We were collecting bonus points left and right.”
And, those bonus points came in handy. The Millers finished with 160 points and edged out Owasso for second by three points and Jenks by five. Skiatook won the tournament with 185.5 points.
Studd Morris and Jaxen Gilmore earned tournament titles for the Millers.
Morris won at 113-pounds, scoring an 11-2 major decision over Jonathan Watford of Sapulpa in the finals.
Morris won his first match by a 12-4 decision over Kristopher Humble of Ponca City. In the quarterfinals, he decisioned Jacob Wright of Southmoore 4-2, then reached the finals with a fall in 1:24 over Dalton Raibourn of Edmond Santa Fe in the semifinals.
Gilmore won the 145-pound title with a 5-0 decision over Ryan Swanson of Southmoore in the championship match,
Gilmore opened the tournament pinning Mason Hedgecorth of Smithville in 11 seconds. He then pinned Donovan Bertam of Shawnee in 37 seconds and pinned Eli Wilson of Stillwater in 43 seconds. In the semifinals, he pinned Dillon Cooper of Coweta in 56 seconds.
The Millers had four other players, Cooper Mahaffey and Waylon Heger at fourth place and Steven Cook and Corbin Gordon at sixth.
Mahaffey lost to Bronner Bessette of Pryor in the consolation finals at 106 by fall in 4:48. Mahaffey had won his first three matches, but lost in the semifinals to David Boucher of Bartlesville 19-4. He beat Cook by injury default in the consolation semi’s.
Heger took fourth at 170, losing to Jenks’ Colt Freeman 6-5 in the consolation finals. Heger had won his first two matches, then lost in the semifinals to Kaleb Mertz of Owasso in the semifinals. He pinned Brian Pollard of Skiatook in 3:34 in the consolation semifinals.
Cook went 4-3 and finished sixth at 160 and Gordon took sixth at 195 and went 3-3.
