Wildcats finish third at Frontier League tourney; medal 9 overall

OTTAWA — The Louisburg boys wrestling team showed why it is one of the top teams in the Frontier League last Saturday in Ottawa.

The Wildcats finished third out of eight teams at the Frontier League Invitational with 163 points. Paola won the league title with 232 points and Tonganoxie was second with 188.5.

Louisburg also had nine league medalists and had five wrestlers in the finals. Senior Ashton Moore won an individual league crown at 215 pounds as the Wildcats put together one of their better league performances in recent memory.

“The league continues to be tough-as-nails, and with teams like Tonganoxie, Paola and Spring Hill, it’s going continue to be tough every year,” Bovaird said. “There was a while when we were really pushing Tonganoxie for second place. Our finals round didn’t quite work out how we wanted to it be, but I know we had them nervous.  

“There were some years when we had the dual tournament for league, and we ended up with lots of champs and runners-up. Since we moved back to the individual tournament format, this is the most finalists we’ve had since 1998. Putting that many in the finals and bringing home so many medals feels pretty good. This is the best we’ve done in the last eight years, which was the last year we had a dual tournament format.” 

Moore (34-2) won his fifth tournament title in a month as he took care of business in the 215-pound bracket. The Louisburg senior, and the No. 2 wrestler in Class 4A, won all three of his matches.

He opened with a pin of Tonganoxie’s Jaxon Dominic, and in the semifinals, he pinned Spring Hill’s Logan Alexander in the third period. In the finals, Moore won by medical forfeit over Ottawa’s Seth Ferguson.

Sophomore Levi Cotter (106 pounds), senior Mika McKitrick (132), senior Jay McCaskill (165), junior Vance Hahn (175) and senior Brayden Yoder also made the league finals, but each finished second.

Cotter (32-10) finished with a 2-1 record including a pair of pins, but squared off with Paola’s Sawyer Blue, who is ranked No. 6 in the state and lost by a 16-5 major decision.

McKitrick (29-15) was 1-1 on the day, including a pin of Spring Hill’s Braden Cannally in the semis, but was pinned by Tonganoxie’s Silas McCloy in the finals.

McCaskill (27-8) opened the day with a pair of dominant performances with two wins by technical fall and set up match with Baldwin’s Max Harvey in the finals. The Louisburg senior fell 14-3 to take second overall.

As for Hahn (26-16), he also opened the tournament with a tech fall win and then won a 6-4 decision over Paola’s Elijah Younger in the semis. Hahn would get pinned in the finals by Baldwin’s Keldyn Cox.

Yoder (31-10) received a bye in the quarterfinals, but got a pin of Baldwin’s Hank Beard in the semis. He squared off with Paola’s Maxwell Worden in the finals, but was pinned in the third period.

Louisburg senior Canaan Clayton medaled third for the Wildcats at 120 pounds, while sophomore Spencer Mattison (144) and senior Miles Meek (285) finished fourth overall.

Clayton (23-13)  finished the day 1-2, but won his final match with a pin over Ottawa’s Mason Ingram to earn the third place medal. 

Mattison (15-22) ended with a 2-2 day that included a pair of pins. He fell to Spring Hill’s Chase Wilson in the third place match by a 13-2 major decision.

Meek (16-22) went 1-3 in the heavyweight division, including a pin of Ottawa’s Will McCombs in his first match of the day.

“It seems like we’ve struggled to be at full strength as a team for the league tournament the last few years,” Bovaird said. “We had 2-3 guys out last year with injuries and illness, and the previous years we just couldn’t rise up and compete how I wanted us to do.

“This year, it was a different story. Guys like Levi, Mika and Vance making the finals was a great step. Then we had Jay, Brayden and Ashton perform pretty well, too, making the finals in their weights. On the back side of the brackets, Canaan, Spencer, and Miles all stepped up their game.”

Louisburg will now prepare for its quest to earn a state tournament bid. The Wildcats have this week off before traveling to Labette County on Feb. 22 for the Class 4A regional tournament.

The top four finishers in each weight class will secure a spot at state.

“Getting some time off will be nice,” Bovaird said. “The guys need to heal up and recover a little, and there are lots of little things we need to work on refining. Jay suffered a nasty sprain in his lower leg, but he should be good to go by regionals. Recovery time is always a nice thing — we just need to make sure we’re not getting complacent with how we’ve been doing. If we go into regionals with the right mindset, we can really achieve some phenomenal things as a team.”

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