Wildcats medal three at Frontier League tourney

Louisburg junior Cade Holtzen works for a pin Saturday during the Frontier League Tournament on Saturday at Ottawa High School. Holtzen finished second at 126 pounds.

OTTAWA – Three Louisburg wrestlers
found their way to the podium during the Frontier League Tournament on Saturday
at Ottawa High School.

Cade Holtzen, Ryan Owens and
Brandon Doles each placed in the top three of their respective weight classes
to help lead the Wildcats in the nine-team tournament. Holtzen made his way to
the championship before finishing second, while Owens and Doles each took third
place.

In all, six wrestlers placed in
the top five and the Wildcats finished ninth overall with 107 points. Bonner
Springs won the league title with 234 points and Paola was second with 180.5.

“Competition
at league was pretty tough this year, and our league has only gotten stronger
with the addition of Piper, Tonganoxie, and Bonner, but I was initially
disappointed with how we finished up as a team,” Louisburg coach Bobby Bovaird
said. “Then I remember that there’s a reason why we have a full season leading
up to regionals and state. We face tests every week at every tournament, and
the focus is on growth and progress. No match should define a season, and we’re
not going to let our league performance define the team’s season.

“Last
week was Homecoming, which was full of all sorts of activities and distractions,
and we also had a snow day when we couldn’t even practice. A lot of things
provided obstacles, but in the end, we walked out of league with a specific
insight into where we need to work on improving for regionals and state.”

Holtzen
(29-3) earned a spot in the championship match of the 126-pound class. The
Louisburg junior opened with pin over Paola’s Sheldon Martin and then pinned Piper’s
Nick Lawson in the semifinals.

All
that set up a rematch of last season’s 113-pound league final between Holtzen
and Bonner Springs’ Cassius Vanderpool. Unfortunately for Holtzen, who is currently
ranked No. 6 in Class 4A, the result wasn’t the same as he lost a close 3-2
decision to finish runner-up.

“Cade
wrestled a really tough match, and I loved seeing his confidence early in the
match,” Bovaird said. “As it progressed, though, I wonder if he got to thinking
too much and let his focus shift from his wrestling to the end of the match. It
was a momentary lapse where his opponent was able to get an escape and score
the winning point.

“Overall,
he had a pretty dominant day. He had a rematch against the Piper kid. The last
time they wrestled, Cade wasn’t able to get the pin and he only scored a tech
fall; on Saturday, he not only repeated his dominance on top, but he also got a
pretty solid pin out of it.”

Owens
(30-5) had a strong start to his league tournament at 120 pounds as he opened
with an 18-8 major decision over Paola’s Steven Yeager and then battled Bonner
Springs’ Peyton Richardson in the semifinals. It was a back and forth match,
but Owens was eventually pinned late in the third period.

The
Louisburg junior responded with a pin of Ottawa’s Trevor Kaub on the backside
of the bracket and then pinned Yeager in the third-place match.

Doles
(26-8) also won his first match of the day as he pinned Paola’s Corey Holub,
but then came up against Spring Hill’s Jakob Stovall in the semifinals. It was
a low-scoring, tight match, but Stovall scored late to take the 3-2 decision.

Doles
responded on the backside to pin Baldwin’s William Damet and then pinned Bonner
Springs’ Jackson McArthur in the third place match.

“They both wrestled solid matches throughout the day,” Bovaird said of
Owens and Doles. “I think their semifinals losses, along with several other key
losses for the team that day, really showed us how much we need to focus on
conditioning this week. Brandon was aggressive throughout the semis match with
Spring Hill, but unable to capitalize on his scoring attempts.

“Ryan showed a lot of
dominance in his semis match against Bonner Springs, but ultimately ran out of
gas in the third. They were tied up before he got turned. Overall, I’m pretty
happy with their ability to bounce back and score some big points in the
consolation rounds.”

Sophomore Johnathan
Keegan-Childs just missed out on the medal stand as he finished fourth at 195
pounds after recording two pins.

Freshman Kaven Bartlett
also earned two pins at 113 pounds and finished fifth overall. Sophomore Aiden
Barker also took fifth at 170 pounds after he finished with two pins and a 2-2
record on the day.

Louisburg will continue
its postseason action this Friday and Saturday as it hosts the Class 4A
regional tournament. The top four finishers in each weight class will earn a
spot at the state tournament next week in Salina.

 “I think the whole team is pretty stoked to be
hosting regionals,” Bovaird said. “It’s a big deal to have our regional
tournament on our home mats, and our gym seems to have been made to host an
event like this. We should have a nice crowd cheering on the team, but I think
with the smooth practices we’ve been having and the team’s ability to reset and
refocus, we should have a pretty solid tournament this year.”