Six place at Eudora T.O.C.

EUDORA -- Fort Scott High School's wrestling team brought nine wrestlers to the Eudora Tournament of Champions over the weekend and six of them came back with medals.

Results of round-robin pools determined which eight wrestlers in each class moved on to the brackets on Saturday. Pool results were not provided by Eudora officials.

Two Tigers finished in third place, Denzell Davis at 119 pounds and Justin Sharp at 125.

Davis defeated Talyn Feller of El Dorado, 10-7, in the first round of the bracket. In the championship semifinals, he lost to Chanute's Tim Wrestler, 5-3. Wrestler went on to beat Tommy Williams of St. Thomas Aquinas for the title.

In consolation cross-bracketing, Davis defeated Tre Humphrey of Shawnee Mission South, 6-4, then beat Jeremiah Breen of Wellsville, 13-8, ranked No. 4 in Class 3A, in the third-place match.

"Denzell wins two very tight matches in the closing seconds," Fort Scott head coach David Brown said. "One to avenge a loss at Regionals last year with Talyn Feller, who is ranked sixth in Class 4A. The second to a very good wrestler, Tre Humphrey, ranked fifth in 6A."

Sharp began the bracket with a 14-1 major decision over Austin Highley of El Dorado. He lost to Gardner-Edgerton's T.J. Stokes in the semifinals, 3-2. In consolation, Sharp beat Logan Bjorgo of Blue Valley-Stilwell, 6-5, then pinned Troy Clark of Chanute in 1:39 in the third-place match.

"His medal match was controversial in that the pin happened so quickly," Brown noted. "Justin hit a great move and the pin followed. Clark had beaten Justin three times last year and was ranked sixth in the State (Class 4A)."

Freshman 130-pounder Victor Hughes continued his impressive start in high-school wrestling as he finished in fourth place. Although he was pinned by Paola's Dylan McKinney to start the bracket, he rolled up three straight wins to get to the third-place match.

Hughes took a 4-2 decision over Jacob Berggren of St. Thomas Aquinas, then beat Reis Humphrey of Shawnee Mission South, 3-1 in overtime, to reach the consolation final. There. Mark Smith of Rossville won via pinfall.

Hughes is wrestling up a class as Brown says he weighs only 124 pounds.

Another freshman, Tyler Sharp, finished fifth at 103. He started the bracket with Louisburg's Cullen Hood, who is ranked No. 1 in Class 4A and dealt Sharp a 14-1 setback the weekend before in the Fort Scott Dual Tournament. This time, Sharp showed significant improvement in an 8-7 loss.

"He gave up a takedown with 12 seconds left to lose by that one point," Brown said.

Sharp went on to pin Eudora's Grady Salzman in 2:40. He lost a 6-0 decision to Ryan Hodges of Mill Valley but took the fifth-place match with a pin over Taylor Smith of Spring Hill halfway through the second period.

Drew Bryant finished seventh at 215 pounds although Brown said he was in position to win each time.

Bryant lost by pin to eventual bracket champ Justin Walberg of Aquinas in the first round and to Jesse Austin of Baldwin in consolation. He won the seventh-place match by injury default over Joe Pomatto of Paola.

Freshman John Metcalf had won all five matches at 160 in the Fort Scott Tournament but faced stiff competition in the bracket here and finished eighth.

He started the bracket against Recce Wright-Conklin of Lawrence, the No. 1-ranked wrestler in Class 6A, who won by pin. Todd Curtis of Gardner-Edgerton, No. 1 in Class 5A, was on the opposite side of the bracket.

Metcalf suffered a 12-4 loss to Tyler Henness of Paola and was pinned by Perry-Lecompton's Brandon Ball in the seventh-place match.

The Tigers will travel to Ottawa Saturday for another tournament.

NOTES -- Since you're probably asking, Wright-Conklin and Curtis did meet in the 160-pound finals. Wright-Conklin took an 8-5 decision....

Lansing won the team title with 244 points followed by Aquinas. Fort Scott finished in 12th place....