After coming back from his match at 215 pounds, Austin Winner’s teammates were giving him some static.
They asked what took him so long to pin his Fort Scott opponent, Drew Bryant.
It seemed a little much because Winner took down Bryant 50 seconds into their match during both team’s Southeast Kansas League dual opener at Fort Scott High School Thursday.
“They were just giving me a rough time,” Winner, a sophomore, said.
Winner’s match victory put the Dragons over the top as they defeated the Tigers 54-24.
After failing to lock up for the first 20 seconds, Winner was able to gain an advantage for the pin.
“We tied up and he is a strong kid,” Winner said. “He tried to roll and I just threw him into a half (nelson) and was able to get him down.”
Coming off last year when Winner was unable to make it out of the Class 5A regional tournament, he has posted a 10-5 record during the 2008-09 campaign.
“He was a very young freshman last year and he just took his lumps,” said PHS head coach Scott Rieck. “He has just gotten tougher and tougher.”
For the Dragons, getting ready for today’s open of the Derby Invitational, they elected to wrestle more of their younger wrestlers like Don-Cheol Yoo (130), Mike Eller (135) and Brenden Maxwell (152).
“We did put in a lot of young guys because we are getting others ready for Derby,” Rieck said. “I thought that they did very well.”
However, there were some veterans that also picked up dual victories.
Daniel Blair was able to pin Alec Ramirez at the 1 minute, 57 second mark at 145 pounds.
Jordan Brown, a state qualifier from last year, also earned a win by fall over Blake Cowan at 160 pounds.
“I was just going slow and methodical,” Brown said. “He was kind of top-heavy but, I got to a point where I could throw him so I tried it and it worked.”
Freshman Brent Koehn pulled off a big win over Justin Sharp at 125 pounds. After racking up five points in the first period, Koehn rode out the rest of the match to take a 7-1 decision.
“I was really impressed with our young guys like Maxwell and Koehn,” Rieck said. “They did very well tonight.”
The Derby Invitational gets underway today at 3:30 p.m. and championship rounds are slated to begin at 5 p.m. Saturday.
Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140
Pittsburg 54, Fort Scott 24
103 — Parker Fields (PHS) open; 112 — Austin Haake (PHS) open; 119 — Denzell Davis (FS) open; 125 — Brent Koehn (PHS) def. Justin Sharp (FS) 7-1; 130 — Luis Martinez (FS) def. Don-Cheol Yoo (PHS) fall 2:23; 135 — Michael Durossette (FS) def. Mike Eller (PHS) fall 4:49; 140 — Devin Schulze (PHS) open; 145 — Daniel Blair (PHS) def. Alec Ramirez (FS) fall 1:57; 152 — Lee Culbertson (FS) def. Brenden Maxwell (PHS) fall 3:01; 160 — Jordan Brown (PHS) def. Blake Cowan (FS) fall 3:51; 171 — Buck Wilcox (PHS) def. Kyle Slattery (FS) 9-4; 189 — Cougar VonFelt (PHS) def. Kenneth Singmaster (FS) fall 1:33; 215 — Austin Winner (PHS) def. Drew Bryant (FS) fall :50; 285 — Chris Summitt (PHS) def. Dakota Singmaster (FS) fall :36.
FORT SCOTT —
