Six Sandites still alive and guaranteed to place at State Championship
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By: Scott Emigh, Editor-in-Chief
113 Michael Ritchey was upset by Broken Arrow's Tyler Lawley (24-12), who he narrowly defeated in the Regional finals, and fell by 7-1 decision. He finishes the season as a 23-19 Regional Champion and State Qualifier. A junior, he'll get one last go at it next season.
120 Blake Sargent got an early takedown against Broken Arrow's TaJuan Daniels (25-13) but Daniels didn't stay under for long and went into the second period 2-1 and started on top. Sargent added a reversal but Daniels escaped again and added a takedown to tie things up. Sargent retook the lead soon after and nearly had his opponent pinned less than 20 into the third but had to settle for near fall points and a 9-5 lead. He added another pair of takedowns not long after and finished the match with a 13-6 victory. The sophomore improves to 38-12 and will next battle for third place in a rematch against his round one opponent, Zackery Bibb (25-6) of Capitol Hill.
152 sophomore Payton Scott stayed neutral with Ezequiel Rubio (25-13) through the first and the Ponca City wrestler took a 1-0 escape lead to start the second. Scott got the third period escape to tie things up and it was beginning to look a lot like the Sandites' last match against Joseph Messer when he finally scored a takedown with a minute left. Rubio took a quick escape but was unable to score and Scott prevailed with a 4-3 decision. The Sandite improves to 19-5 and will next take on Westmoore's Trey Painter (34-10) who he pinned in 3:52 in the first round.
160 junior Zane Basma (34-12) went straight from 0-0 to a pin a moment before the first period expired and advances to the consolation finals with the win over Cooper Coil. He will next take on Enid's Anthony Gonzalez (27-9) for third place.
170 Trace Fleischman went into the final period against Stillwater's Jace Brownlee (30-8) down 1-0 but tied things up with an escape. Brownlee scored a takedown with 1:00 to go but Fleischman got the escape soon after. The two stalemated with 20 seconds left but ultimately it was Brownlee who found the takedown for a 5-2 victory. Fleischman finishes his senior year with a 10-6 record.
The Sandites are still in third place and are only three points behind Broken Arrow. Choctaw is in first place with 106.5 followed by BA with 82.5 and Sand Springs with 79.5.
Scott, Sargent, and Basma will wrestle for third place in half an hour then Daton Fix, Jack Karstetter, and Beau Bratcher will wrestle for first place at 5:45.
