Sand Springs took home its 11th tournament title from the Larry Wilkey Invitational in Jenks on Saturday, furthering its lopsided reign as the most dominant team in the tournament’s 51-year history.
“If you want to win a tournament during the regular season, this is the one,” said second-year head coach Ty Bowling.
“This is kind of like a little pregionals, Regional preview. It’s a good win for our team, especially going into districts.”
The Sandites sent three to the finals and crowned one champion with 12 top-six placers. They scored 208 points to defeat Westmoore with 194 and Melissa, Texas with 192.
Zander Grigsby pinned all four of his opponents to win the 165 pounds bracket and remain undefeated on the season.
“I’m feeling good,” said Grigsby. “Winning Mid-America definitely helped my confidence and then winning this as well, I’m feeling great.”
Grigsby outscored his opponents 17-4 without giving up a single takedown and is now 16-0 in his senior campaign. In the quarterfinals he pinned Kansas State runner-up Brady Martin and in the finals he pinned Jenks junior Joshua Henderson.
“That was big,” said Bowling. “It was one of those tricky matches where if something could go wrong, that would be the match. We had a good talk with him, me and coach TeDon (Fleischman), to make sure he kept his mind right. He did exactly what he said he was going to do. It was a good experience for him to win this tournament.”
It was the third tournament title of Grigsby’s varsity career. In addition to the Enid tournament earlier this year, he also won the Cabot tournament during his sophomore campaign.
“I feel like the energy that we bring in the practice room has really changed everything,” said Grigsby. “The way that we go about practice, the way that we lift each other up, helps everybody to work harder, which is resulting in more success.”
Mason Harris (18-2) was runner-up at heavyweight after clawing his way back through the consolation bracket. The senior pinned his first three foes before falling 6-0 to two-time Sallisaw State Champion Maverick Williamson in the semifinals.
In consolation he pinned two more opponents to clinch third, then pinned Southmoore’s Jacob Clay in the second-place challenge match for his 100th career win.
“He’s tough,” said Bowling. “He’s a returning State placer, we’ve got big expectations for him this season.”
David Ritchey (4-2) took third place at 120 pounds, losing a close 6-4 sudden victory decision to Civic Memorial’s Bradley Ruckman in the finals before forfeiting the second-place challenge match.
“In the preseason he kind of tweaked his knee,” said Bowling. “He felt like he might be ready towards the end (of last year) but we decided to go ahead and give it another two weeks, Christmas break, and make sure we’re at 100 percent.”
The junior made his return to the mat in Thursday’s duals and entered the Jenks tournament as a non-scoring wrestler, while Kase Skaggs (16-3) placed fifth as the scoring wrestler in the same weight class.
Bowling made the decision to list Skaggs as the scoring wrestler “based on just what I know from a year and a half of getting to know the team and who is showing what, whether it’s in the room or on their own time, or on the mat out here.”
The Sandites were without a 113 wrestler as they sent both Ayreson Reiss (3-2) and Caden Rodriguez (1-3) to the Inola tournament with the JV team.
“They’re both kind of younger guys,” said Bowling. “We’re just trying to get them a few more matches and a little bit of confidence.”
“It was a possibility (that Ritchey or Skaggs might cut to 113) but I think now it’s probably off the table. We’ve got three duals this week, we’ve got our home tournament this weekend, so I think both of them will get plenty of matches this week and we’ll try to figure out what we’re going to do with them.”
Freshman Kasen McAffrey (8-1) was runner-up at 138 pounds, suffering his first loss of the season in the finals. He pinned his first four opponents before falling 6-0 to Westmoore senior Gannon Morales, who he actually defeated 7-4 in the dual just two days earlier.
“We have a returning (State) qualifier at that weight who’s a senior,” said Bowling.
“We asked McAffrey to step up and fill in for him over the past month and he’s done an excellent job. He’s someone’s who’s wrestled well and he’s looking to try and keep that spot. One of those situations where we’ve got all these matches this coming week and we’ll just see how that plays out.”
Dawsen Briscoe (3-5) placed sixth at 106, Colt Hood (7-6) placed sixth at 126, Matthew Moore (14-6) placed fourth at 132, Jesse Moore (12-2) placed fourth at 144, Brody Ensten (14-6) placed fifth at 157, Jaxon Trotter (17-5) placed sixth at 175, and Peyton Callis (17-5) placed fifth at 190.
The JV team took 14th place at the Inola tournament. Reiss took third palce at 113, Hunter Spencer placed fourth at 126, and Ryley Kester placed third at 285.
The wins over Westmoore in both dual and tournament action launched the Sandites to No. 5 in the 6A rankings released Monday.
Sand Springs will look to move to 10-0 in duals for the first time since 2017 when they host a district quad on Thursday at 2:00 p.m., followed by its home tournament over the weekend.
