WICHITA, Kan. — Junior Dustin Reed won his second consecutive title, freshman Heath Gray captured his second of the season, and four other Newman wrestlers placed in the top four of their weight classes Sunday at the 6th Annual Reece Wright-Conklin Jet Invitational at Fugate Gymnasium, the best showing for the Jets in the history of the event.
Reed ran off three straight bonus-point wins to collect his championship at 125 pounds, keeping his flawless record at the event intact. A 15-0 technical fall over Neosho County CC's Jay Maxville lasted less than a minute into the second period to start things off in the quarterfinals, and a fall in 3:35 took care of Central Oklahoma's Josh Breece, who entered the tournament No. 6 in Super Region 4 at 125.
The title match against Fort Hays State's Lawson Ludwin got off to a fast start for Reed, who tossed his opponent to his back for a six-point move less than 30 seconds in. A quiet second period made way for Reed to get the reversal early in the third and ride Ludwin out for the 10-2 victory.
Gray kicked things off at 174 with a 15-0 tech fall over Sam Dawes of Northeastern Oklahoma, tallying a takedown and a four-point nearfall in the first period, and rattling off nine points in the second to bring an early end to the bout. A scoreless second period led into a 6-1 lead after two against Oklahoma City's Evan Hudson in the semifinals, and another takedown late in the third ended any comeback attempt in the 9-2 win.
Gray's title bout against Central Oklahoma's Mason Thompson was one of the most exciting of the night. Thompson rode Gray for nearly the entire second period after a scoreless first, but the Gray popped out for the first point of the match on an escape with just four seconds left. After giving up the escape quickly to start the third to tie things up, Gray fought off a few solid shots from the UCO grappler and countered on one with 30 seconds left to go up 3-1. Thompson's riding time point was assured by that juncture, so Gray needed to ride out the period, and did just that to clinch his firsts Jet Invite championship.
Sophomore Dalton Weidl received a bye into the semifinals, where he fell to Northeastern Oklahoma's Josh Latham, but he responded nicely to make it three Newman wrestlers who won their final match of the day. He started in the consolation semifinals with a 59-second pin of Central Oklahoma's Brody Largent, and turned Fort Hays State's Micquille Robinson for a four-point nearfall in the second period to make the difference in a 6-3 victory to clinch third place.
Freshman Garrett Whitson, senior Colton Duhr and junior Noel Torres all won quarterfinal bouts to reach the semis, but couldn't get into the championship round. Whitson topped Bethany's James Lohman 6-0 before falling to eventual champ Joshua Ailey of Central Oklahoma in the semis at 141. He bounced back to best Fort Hays' Jacob Schoenfeld 6-2, but was pinned by Northeastern Oklahoma's Mitchell Sellers late in the consolation final to finish fourth.
Torres picked up a first-period fall over Bethany's Christian Garcia in his 165 quarterfinal, but he also ran into the winner of his weight class in the semifinal, falling to Oklahoma City's Ricky McCarty. A convincing 9-2 decision over Fort Hays' Kregg Clarke followed in the consolation semis, but Central Oklahoma's Daniel Carillo was able to get the win in the third-place match, sending Torres to a fourth-place medal.
Sophomore Forlanda Parker dropped his 149 quarterfinal to Barton CC's Zach Vesta, but responded nicely with back-to-back wins in the consolation bracket to earn a medal. He handed Northwest Kansas Tech's Dominque Evans a 12-2 major, and hung a 7-2 decision on Northeastern Oklahoma's Dustin Hayden to get to the consolation final. There though, he ran into Vesta again, who caught Parker for the fall, resigning the Jet to fourth.
Duhr started off his day with two wins, besting Labette CC's Chazden Blakenship 9-2 in a pigtail match at 157 and then majoring Northwest Tech's Victor Haro 12-3 to move into the semifinals. There, here fell 7-1 to Central Oklahoma's Jeromy Davenport, and then dropped a 6-2 decision in the consolation semifinals to Fort Hays' Joey Dozier to finish his day 2-2.
Senior Jake Gentzler gave 133 runner-up Parker Bohannan all he could handle in the quarterfinals, allowing just one takedown in the 4-2 defeat. He finished the day 0-2 after another tough loss in the consolations, an 8-6 setback to Barton CC's Caysen Smith.
It was the best Jet Invite showing for Newman in its six years of existence by just about any measure. The Jets' two champions, six placewinners, 16 bout wins and 59.3-percent individual winning percentage all established new standards, and the fifth-place standing as a team in the field of 10 tied a previous high, although the inaugural field in 2010 had just eight teams.
Oklahoma City University earned the team title with 118.0 points, just two better than second-place Central Oklahoma. Northeast Oklahoma was third and Fort Hays State fourth. The Jets' 57.0 team points put them just 5.5 behind Fort Hays, and 41.5 ahead of sixth-place Barton. Labette, Bethany, Northwest Tech and Neosho County rounded out the team standings. Oklahoma City's Derek Sivertsen, who bested nationally-ranked Jon Inman of Fort Hays in the 184 final, was named Outstanding Wrestler.
The Jets will take the holidays off of competition before returning to action at the UCM Duals hosted by Central Missouri on Jan. 3.
