Wildcats fall in a pair of duals to Basehor and Free State

By Andy Brown
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Updated: December 16, 2020

BASEHOR – The competition level for the Louisburg wrestling team rose Friday as the Wildcats squared off with a pair of bigger schools in Basehor-Linwood and Lawrence Free State.

As it turned out, two opens in each dual hurt the Wildcats’ chances of winning either one.

Louisburg fell to Basehor-Linwood 45-33 and also lost to Lawrence Free State, 46-33. The Wildcats gave up 12 points in each dual with those opens and had to play catch up.

“That always makes it tough to bring out a team victory,” Louisburg coach Bobby Boviard said. “Both Free State and Basehor-Linwood are tough teams. I know their coaches pretty well and they’ve built some solid programs with lots of young hammers coming up. We stepped out against a 5A and a 6A school, and I love how our guys competed.”

Four wrestlers won both of their matches on the day and leading the way were seniors Alec Younggren and Cade Holtzen.

Younggren, who is ranked No. 2 in the state at 220 pounds, won both of his matches by pin. Holtzen, who is No. 5 in the state at 126 pounds, did the same.

Senior Ryan Owens, who is currently ranked No. 5 at 120 pounds, won a close 4-3 decision against Lawrence Free State and also won by forfeit.

Junior Aiden Barker (182) was 2-0 with a pin and a forfeit as well. Kaven Bartlett (132), Jacob Briley (170) and Johnathan Keegan-Childs (195) each went 1-1 on the evening.

“Kaven is in a tough weight class, but I love seeing how he battles with his opponents,” Bovaird said. “Barker is making some big strides as a junior and wrestling tough at his weight. Briley is getting a chance to compete in his own weight class, which has given him a chance to show what he can do. As a freshman and a sophomore, he had bumped up to fill an empty weight class.”

It will be a busy week for the Wildcats as they will compete on three different occasions this week. It begins tonight when they host Olathe West for a dual at 6 p.m.

Louisburg will then travel to Spring Hill on Thursday for a dual competition and will do the same at Tonganoxie on Saturday.

“The motto we’re using this year is “Relentless,” and that’s what they’re figuring out,” Bovaird said. “With a season like this one, we’ve got to be relentless. It’s a matter of being tough and fighting for bonus points in duals. We don’t have a traditional tournament until regionals, and we should have close to 30 duals this season. If we don’t learn to be relentless in every match, and we give up lots of pins, we’re going to be on the short of of the team score. The crucial thing is that we need to fight for points and pins, and we need to fight off our backs and refuse to give up the pin in these matches.”