CPHS Wrestling: Sandites place fourth at Sapulpa tournament with two finalists

The Charles Page High School wrestling team took fourth place at this year’s Jerry Billings Invitational - a tournament in which they alternate hosting duties with Sapulpa. This year the Sandites sent two to the finals and had ten in the top-six as they tripled their point total from last year’s eighth place home performance.

4A No. 3 Cushing won the tournament with a narrow eight-point margin over 5A No. 1 Collinsville. 6A No. 6 Bixby placed third, and the hosting Chieftains were fifth. Seventeen schools participated in the one-day tournament, and the Sandites beat out fellow 6A teams from Bartlesville, Union, Jenks, Enid, and Muskogee.

Shane Wolf made it to the 113-pound finals for the second time this week before falling to top-seeded Bixby freshman Clayton Giddens-Buttram. Teagan Campbell placed second at 170, pinning his first two opponents in under a minute apiece, then won a 9-0 major decision to advance to the finals.

Mitchell Smith pinned his first two foes before falling to Collinsville senior Garrett Strickland in the 138 semifinals. In consolation he won 6-3 against Sperry freshman Brady Benham, a back-to-back Junior High State Champion, for third place.

Freshman Zander Grigsby took fourth place at 106 pounds, and has finished in the top six at all four tournaments this year. Blake Jones placed sixth at 160 with the team’s lone technical fall.

Ethan White got an unfortunate pool pairing at 152 and only finished in fifth place despite going 3-1. His only loss came to top-seeded defending State Champion Jordan Williams, who handily won the tournament. White pinned both of his bracket opponents.

Just like White, Dakota Taylor suffered his only loss in pool play to the eventual champion, keeping him out of the championship bracket. He pinned two other opponents to finish 3-1 for fifth place at 170.

Brooks Dudley pinned his first three opponents at 195 before falling 3-1 to returning State qualifier Hayden Fry. In the third-place match, Dudley won 8-3 against State qualifier Carlos Alvarado.

Freshman Mason Harris took third place at heavyweight with four pins, and his only loss was a 3-2 decision to returning State Runner-Up Beau Stokes, who won the tournament.

Harley Newberry placed sixth at 113, Luke McGeHee placed tenth at 120, Sammy Naugle placed 11th at 132, Ethan Norton placed ninth at 138, Jesse Viramontes placed 14th at 145, Landon Castro placed 15th at 145, and Sango Whitehorn placed eighth at 182. The Sandites were without wrestlers at 126 and 220.

Sand Springs Wrestling will return to action Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. with a road dual against No. 2 Mustang (8-1). The two teams were supposed to meet in December but the dual was canceled due to a winter storm. The Sandites are 2-3 in duals this season, coming off a big road win against Owasso. Both teams are scheduled to compete in the Owasso Ram Duals next weekend.