Sandites Crown Six Champions at Union Open

The Sand Springs wrestling team crowned six champions at the Union/Pryor Ice Fighter Open Saturday in Tulsa, including three high schoolers and three junior high wrestlers.

High School Boys

Preston Reyna won the 144A bracket with three pins, taking out Broken Arrow’s Robert Miller in the finals in 2:41.

Zander Grigsby won the 175A bracket, outscoring his opponents 25-2 with two decisions and a 13-0 major decision against Stillwater’s Noah Perkins in the finals.

Jaxon Grigsby was runner-up at 132BA, outscoring his first four foes 47-1 with three major decisions and a technical fall before falling 1-0 to Coweta’s Toby Shipman in the finals.

Peyton Callis was runner-up at 190, pinning his first two opponents and winning a 7-5 decision against Broken Arrow’s Braden Jones in the semis before falling 6-2 to Stillwater’s Parker Brown in the finals.

Kase Skaggs placed third at 120B, pinning his first two foes before falling to Broken Arrow’s Hudson Beckley. In consolation he won a pair of decisions.

Jaxon Trotter placed third at 175B, with a major decision, a technical fall, and a pin. He fell 11-0 to Edmond North’s Jude Randall in the semifinals but pinned Union’s Jeremiah T’eo in the consolation finals.

Ayreson Reiss placed fourth at 113A, winning three decisions in the consolation bracket, with both of his losses coming to the same wrestler. Broken Arrow’s Bradley Lazzerini pinned Reiss in the first round and received a medical forfeit in the placement match.

Matthew Moore placed fourth at 138A with two pins and a decision, only losing a pair of decisions including a close 7-6 finale against Poteau’s Jake Fredrickson.

Colt Chambers finished with a winning 3-2 record at 132BA, pinning his first three foes in the first period before being eliminated one round short of placement.

High School Girls

Ambrielle Chambers won the 105 bracket with three first-period falls, taking down Enid’s Kadence Fuksa in the finals.

Trinity Owens placed third at 115, losing her first match to Broken Arrow’s Kristen DeLaRosa before pinning her next two opponents in the first period.

Laila Mirza placed third at 120, pinning her first opponents in 0:24 before giving up a fall in the semifinals to Broken Arrow’s Emily Beckley. In consolation she won a 7-0 decision before pinning Union’s Ma’Kadrian Titus in 18 seconds.

Audree Robinson placed fourth at 130, winning a 12-3 major decision in the consolation semifinals before falling to Henryetta’s Kiley Haywood.

Kayla Arnold went 2-2 at 140 with a decision and a pin, but was eliminated one round short of placement.

Junior High Boys (8th/9th Grade)

Kaden Pope won the 132-pound bracket with four pins and a 10-2 major decision over Owasso’s Jaxon Truitt in the finals.

Hunter Fields placed third at 155 with four pins and an 11-0 major decision, only falling 7-0 to Booker T. Washington’s Maximus Houston in the semifinals. In the consolation finals he pinned Fort Gibson’s Kolt Stevens in 2:52.

Brody Wilson went 4-2; Caleb Childers and Joshua Compton went 3-2; and Andrew Price, Kellen Foster, Conner Mcentire, Elijah Hadley, Camryn Ewing, and Blake Norton all went 2-2, but were eliminated short of placement.

Junior High Girls

Kenzi Johnson took first place at 89 pounds with an 18-3 technical fall and a pin of Ponca City’s Jaycee Wardlow in 1:02 in the finals.

Savannah Taylor was runner-up at 102 pounds, outscoring her first two opponents 19-2 before falling to Broken Arrow’s Jaylyn Lazzerini in the finals.

Lyla Waldren placed fourth at 102 with a sudden-victory decision and a pin, with both of her losses coming to Cleveland’s Hannah Stephenson.

Faith Humble went 2-2 but was eliminated short of placement.

Boys Middle School (6/7th Grade)

Brody Flores was runner-up at 73 pounds, going 2-1 in a round robin with a decision and a forfeit.

Gage Buchanan went 2-2 at 119 but was eliminated short of placement.

Girls Middle School

Kambyr Lee won the 145-pound bracket with two pins.

Chloe Strawn placed third at 82, pinning McAlester’s Lily Dykens in 1:56.

Liz Cline placed third at 126 with a decision and a forfeit.

Baylin Maynard placed third at 138 with two first-period falls.

Brylee Smith placed fourth at 155.

The Lady Sandites also recently held the program’s first ever junior high dual meet at Cleveland, falling 48-30.

Griffin Sensintaffar & Kaden Pope Win Broken Arrow Open

The Charles Page High School boys wrestling team took fourth place and the Lady Sandites placed ninth at the 32nd Annual Joe Zamora, Skyler Holman Open in Broken Arrow this weekend.

The junior high girls placed eighth, the sixth/seventh-grade girls placed sixth, the junior high boys placed sixth, and the sixth/seventh-grade boys placed seventh.

High School

Junior Kase Skaggs placed third at 120 pounds with a pin, a tech fall, and two decisions. In the quarterfinals he won a 6-1 decision over McAlester’s Kam Hutchison, a returning 5A State finalist. Skaggs’s only loss was a semifinal fall against Broken Arrow State qualifier Hudson Beckley.

Freshman Kasen Mcaffrey placed third at 144 pounds, pinning his first opponent before losing a close 9-6 decision to Broken Arrow’s Robert Miller. He bounced back with a pair of decision in consolation, edging out two-time Sapulpa State qualifier Ethan Peterson 4-2 in the finals.

Freshman Corbin Wooley placed fourth at 150 pounds with two pins. His only losses were pins by two-time Arkansas State Champion Benjamin Smith and Broken Arrow State qualifier Kadence Roop.

Junior Peyton Callis placed fourth at 190 pounds with two pins and two major decisions, only falling 4-0 to Union State qualifier Wura Yinusa before getting pinned by Broken Arrow’s Braden Jones in the finals.

Junior High

Griffin Sensintaffar took first place at 86 pounds, dominating his bracket with two pins and a 16-0 technical fall.

Kaden Pope won the 132-pound bracket with three pins, including a fall in the finals.

Kenzie Johnson took second place at 70 pounds with one pin.

Rylee Allen placed third at 121 pounds with five pins, all in the first period.

Stefanie Ortiz placed fourth at 172 pounds, winning three decisions, including back-to-back sudden victories in overtime.

Middle School

Gage Buchanan was runner-up at 119 pounds with one fall and an 11-0 major decision.

Rowdy Ash placed third at 80 pounds with one pin, outscoring his opponents handily while only falling 4-2 in the semifinals in sudden victory overtime.

Zailyn Garland placed third at 80 pounds with two first-period falls and a 12-6 decision in the consolation finals.

Kambyr Lee placed third at 142 pounds with two pins.

Baylin Maynard placed fourth at 129 pounds with one pin.

Mitchell Smith Secures District Title for Sandites in 39-34 Win over Ponca City

After missing out the past two years, Sand Springs is headed back to Dual State thanks to straight toughness and senior leadership.

With one match left in the Sandites’ district dual against No. 11 Ponca City, Sand Springs trailed 34-33. It all came down to Mitchell Smith at 150 pounds.

With a knee injury that many would consider season-ending, the senior put his team on his shoulders and came out with a pin of Braden Perciful in 30 seconds to secure the 39-34 victory.

“We needed him big time,” said head coach Ty Bowling.

“I said, ‘Hey. The score is close enough. We don’t need anything big, we just need to go out and get a win.’ He goes out and finds a pin. That’s huge for us. Senior leadership.”

“We haven’t gone to dual state since my freshman year, so this is big,” said Smith. “We had some bad losses the past two years, to teams we all felt like we should have beat, so it’s nice to win like this.”

Sand Springs went on to win 46-27 against Edmond Deer Creek and 48-25 against No. 13 Union to clinch its 18th District Championship Tuesday evening at the UMAC.

“Straight toughness,” said Bowling. “We had a handful of injuries. It’s January, that’s what wrestling is. We’ve got guys with bad ankles, bad knees, so they dug deep, a lot of toughness. They battled. They showed that they wanted it.”

“We’ve been looking toward these duals all season. We knew Ponca City was the defending champ, we know what they had coming back. We knew it was going to take all 14 doing their job, whether it was finding bonus, not giving up bonus, or just going out and just gritting out a win.”

Four Sandites went undefeated at the quad, including Jaxon “Scout” Trotter, who had to start each dual at 157 pounds.

“We usually start at 106 and we started all three duals at 157,” said Bowling. “He had three tough matches and came away with three wins, so he started us off right every time.”

Freshman Hudson Sheppard and junior Mason Harris also went undefeated, winning all three of their matches by fall.

“I’m just excited,” said Harris. “It’s my first time and I just want to know what it’s like. I was one year off from knowing what it’s like so I’m just excited to bring Sand Springs back into it.”

“We have a few injuries right now that are still healing up. By the time those heal back up we’re going to be even more dominant than we are now.”

Smith won both of his matches as well. With a 46-21 lead against Deer Creek, the Sandites forfeited Smith’s weight, but the senior insisted on wrestling against Union, where he collected a 31-second pin.

“I really wanted to,” said Smith. “I wanted to wrestle the second match as well, but my coach told me not to because he didn’t want to risk it, which is fair but I’m not a big fan of sitting on the bench and watching my teammates wrestle, so I tried to get some matches in as well.”

The Sandites still have a few tough duals left before Dual State, and will host No. 4 Broken Arrow (8-1) Tuesday for Homecoming and No. 2 Stillwater (10-1) on Thursday.

The varsity boys took the weekend off but the varsity girls and junior varsity boys competed at the Morey Villareal Memorial tournament at Will Rogers High School.

The JV boys won the tournament against a field of mostly varsity competitors, topping Bartlesville 207 to 194.5.

Dawson Briscoe won the 106-pound bracket with five pins, Brody Ensten won at 157 with two pins, and Peyton Callis won at 165 with four pins.

Colt Hood, Landen Horton, and Christopher Cooper were runners-up and Jackson Burdge, Preston Reyna, Brock O’Dell, Dallas Flores, and Cash Lucas took third place.

Madison Chambers took first place, Gracie Young was second, and Kreedence Behnke was third to lead the girls varsity to a fifth-place finish.

Youth

Gage Fadenrecht, Ryker Dawes, Collin Randall, Brackton Upton, Hunter Sims, Kase Skaggs, and Jace Simms all won their brackets at the Broken Arrow Wrestlemania tournament, representing the Keystone Kids.

Laila Mirza Becomes First-Ever Girls Tournament Champion from Sand Springs

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Laila Mirza is officially the first ever regular-season tournament champion for the Sand Springs girls wrestling program.

The junior 120 pounder won the Joe Cole Classic in Cleveland, helping her team to a program-best 2nd place finish. All five Lady Sandites placed top-four in their divisions.

“I found her in the weight room because I help coach (Kevin) Avey with the girls weightlifting,” said head coach Ty Bowling, who started the girls’ program this year.

“She tries to get as much extra work (during free period) or during weightlifting period when they’re not lifting weights, and she’ll stay after practice.”

“She’s one that gets here early and stays late,” said Bowling.

Mirza pinned her first two opponents without giving up a single point, then received two forfeits in the round-robin bracket.

“She’s run cross country and she’s ran some track, and she told me at the beginning of the year that she had never ever won a medal.”

“That preseason tournament she went to she got first, then she took sixth (at Jay) and got a medal there, and then she got first here, so she’s kind of three for three on the medals in wrestling.”

Kelsi Hilton placed third at 140 pounds with three pins, only losing in a close 8-5 decision to the tournament champion.

Addily Shotwell placed third at 170 with one pin. Kreedence Behnke placed third and Madison Chambers was fourth at 100 pounds.

“Our girls are working hard,” said Bowling. “Wrestling’s not an easy sport and they’re in here every day doing it exactly like the boys are doing.”

“We’re not trying to put too much pressure on them, but we’re telling them how they’re going to be forever remembered as the girls that started (the program) and have a chance to be the first ever Sand Springs girls State qualifiers.”

The junior varsity boys placed fourth at the tournament despite mostly facing varsity competitors.

Kase Skaggs won the 113-pound bracket and four other Sandites also medaled.

Skaggs outscored his opponents 51 to 13 with a pin and two major decisions before earning a 4-2 decision over State qualifier Daxtyn Davis.

Peyton Callis was runner-up at 165 with three pins; Cash Lucas was runner-up at 285 with three pins; Jesse Moore placed third at 144 with four pins; and Logan Childers placed fourth at 113 with three pins.

The junior high boys team placed 12th with two total medalists and the junior high girls placed 14th with one medalist.

Gage Gunn placed fourth at 132 with three pins; Dallas Flores placed fourth at 155 with five pins; and Rylee Allen placed fourth at girls 117 with two pins.

The Keystone Kids wrestling club had no problem winning the Sand Springs Slam tournament over the weekend with 28 champions, nearly tripling the score of runner-up Barnsdall.

Jase Morgan, Maddix Spencer, Hagan Wolfenberger, Kason Wolfe, Acetyn Hart, Sutton Hawley, Zander Pope, Rylan Hamby, Ty Galloway, Samuel Moore, Joshua Compton, Griffin Sensintaffar, Ayreson Reiss, David Ritchey, Matthew Moore, Kasen McAffrey, Samuel Reichel, Jaxon Trotter, Brenntly Taylor, Jayce Parks, Caemon Young, Ryker Dawes, Collin Randall, Hunter Sims, Colt Combs, Kydon Harness, Gage Buchanan, and Saylor Eaglin all won their divisions.

The varsity boys and girls will return to action Tuesday, December 20th with home duals against Sapulpa at 6:00 p.m.