By Jayden Mies
Freelance contributor
Special to the Tribune
The Pratt High School Boys’ Wrestling team opened the month of February with a very solid performance at one of their toughest regular season tournaments. The Greenbacks traveled to Andover on Saturday, February 1 for their 11th Annual varsity contest. Several wrestlers stepped up this tournament, and Pratt racked up enough points to place fourth in a tournament filled with 5A and 6A schools.
In total, Pratt competed against 14 other teams. These included schools like Lawrence Free State, Derby, Bishop Carroll, and several others. The Greenbacks ended up scoring 115 points with only 9 wrestlers. This is even more impressive considering the fact that the three teams that beat them had 15, 19, and 13 wrestlers competing.
First was Alex Chavez, who wrestled in the 120 lbs. class. Chavez had a great day, going 4-1. Two of these wins were by fall, one by medical forfeit, and he won the third place match in a hard-fought 21-14 win. Chavez scored 13 points for Pratt.
Following him was Kameron Cox. Cox wrestled hard in a tough 125 lbs. division and posted a 2-3 overall record. Both of his wins were pins, and Cox was able to put up 4 team points. Matthew James competed in the 132 lbs. class, and he went 2-2. After a 1-1 start, James received a third round bye. From there, he won by fall in the fourth round, and then unfortunately lost in the fifth place match. In total, he scored 5.5 team points.
Sabastian Beach wrestled in 150 lbs. for Pratt and ended up placing sixth as well. Beach went 2-2 with a third round bye with both of his wins being pins. He also tallied 5.5 points for the Greenbacks.
Blake Winsor was Pratt’s first individual champion for the Andover tournament. He had an excellent day, going a perfect 5-0 in the 155 lbs. division. He pinned all five of his opponents, including an exciting one in the championship match at the 5:42 mark against a 32-5 Andover wrestler. Winsor racked up 26 points for Pratt.
Next was Wyatt Lovell, who competed in a tough 165 lbs. class. After losing his first two, Lovell bounced back and won three straight to claim fifth place. Two of these were pins and the other by tech fall, and he was able to add 5.5 points to the team total.
Taye Wilson continued his perfect senior season through this tournament. He went 5-0, extending his season record to 36-0, and won the individual championship in the 175 lbs. class. His first four wins were pins, and he won the championship match by tech fall in a dominating 26-10 effort. Wilson scored 23.5 team points.
Additionally, Pratt had their third individual champion in Raul Perez. He wrestled in 190 lbs. and also went 5-0 on the day. Perez collected two pins and beat his three others by decisions. This included an exciting 8-3 win in the championship match against his opponent from Lawrence Free State. Overall, Perez racked up 19 team points for Pratt.
Last was Xavier Pedroza, who wrestled in the 285 lbs. division. After five total matches, he posted a 3-2 record, which was good enough to earn him third place. This performance included two pins, and a win by medical forfeit in the third place match. Pedroza supplied 13 of the Greenbacks’ points.
Considering the number of wrestlers they had, placing this high in a tournament of this caliber is a huge achievement for Pratt, and it gave them a much needed stroke of confidence that they will build on through their next contest. This will be the CKL Tournament, which will be hosted at Hesston this year on Thursday, February 13.
