Sandite Wrestlers Fall 37-21 to Stillwater at Dual State
/The No. 5 ranked Charles Page High School wrestling team (10-2) suffered a 37-21 loss to No. 4 Stillwater (13-2) in the Dual State quarterfinals Friday afternoon in Enid.
The boys were making their 19th overall and second consecutive dual state appearance against the defending champions.
The dual started at 165 pounds where the Pioneers bumped up defending State Champion Landyn Sommer to take on Zander Grigsby (34-2). Sommer has wrestled 157 most of the season.
The Sand Springs senior rode a 12-win streak into the match and he wasn’t intimidated by Sommer at all, scoring a takedown late in the first period for a 2-0 lead.
Sommer escaped immediately after, however, and scored a reversal and a takedown in the second period to go up 5-3. Grigsby tied it with a reversal in the third but Sommer escaped and scored a second takedown for an 8-6 decision.
Isaac Sensintaffar (23-10) bumped up two weight classes from his usual 150-157 range and suffered a 37-second pin in the next match against LaDarion Lockett, a two-time defending State Champion and nationally ranked Oklahoma State commit.
Jaxon Trotter (34-7) bumped up a weight class to 190 and secured his tenth consecutive victory with a 5-4 decision over JaKoby Petree to get the Sandites on the board, but Stillwater responded with a pin from Parker Brown at 215.
Peyton Callis (32-11) also bumped up a weight class and actually led Brown 4-3 after two periods. But he chose bottom to start the third and was stuck by the Pioneer for a 15-3 Stillwater lead.
Mason Harris (31-2) picked up his 16th consecutive win with a pin of Paxton Pitchford in just 41 seconds and Dawsen Briscoe (21-11) followed it up with a pin of Nathan Phillips in 42 seconds to tie the dual up.
Unfortunately from there the Pioneers won six of the final eight matches.
State Champion Aydan Thomas pinned Kase Skaggs (32-8) in 3:27, though the Sandite put up a fight and scored a takedown early in the second period.
David Ritchey (17-7) won a 4-0 decision against Mark Janus but the Pioneers won the next four matches.
Jaxon Grigsby (16-8) fell 16-9 to defending State Champion Stockton Allen, though he scored a clutch third-period takedown with near-fall points to prevent bonus points.
Matthew Moore (23-12) fell 7-1 to Julio Aguirre and Kasen McAffrey (8-3) lost 14-5 to three-time State finalist JJ McComas. Tillman Burns added a 10-5 decision over Jayden Pait (14-3) at 144 to put the lead out of reach for Sand Springs.
The Sandites had a shot at tying the dual and sending it to criteria if they could win the final two matches by fall, but Jesse Moore (25-8) was limited to an 11-7 victory against Sebastian Schlegel to ensure a Stillwater victory.
The Pioneers padded their victory with a 3-2 decision by Bo Reynolds over Brody Ensten (26-13) at 157 to wrap up the dual.
Stillwater went on to fall 51-13 to No. 1 Edmond North (15-1) who also defeated No. 2 Bixby 51-9 in the finals for its second overall dual state title and first since 2013.
With a 10-2 record, the Sandites finished the 2023-2024 dual season with their highest win percentage since 2017 and their highest average margin of victory since 2017. They also had their first undefeated record at home since 2019.
Sand Springs will return to action on Friday at the 6A-West Regional at Westmoore. The frontrunners in the tournament will be No. 1 Edmond North, No. 5 Sand Springs, No. 6 Piedmont, No. 7 Westmoore, and No. 8 Yukon.