By Riley Bean
Bolivar, MO – The Buffalo Bison are in the midst of a promising wrestling season, and they kept things rolling Tuesday on the mat in Bolivar.
Bolivar hosted Buffalo and Camdenton in the triangular meet. After Camdenton wrestled Bolivar in the opening dual of the night, the Lakers left early before facing off with Buffalo.
“Apparently there was some miscommunication,” said Bison coach Nate Kenady. “I was told they just didn’t want to wrestle us tonight.”
At any rate, Buffalo squared off with Bolivar to close out the evening and defeated the Liberators as a team 51-24.
The Bison shifted some wrestlers around in weight classes, including Lizzie Miller, who usually wrestles at 106 pounds, but competed at 113 pounds on Tuesday. Miller won her match by fall in the third period against Bolivar’s Riley Hawk.
“Lizzie, she’s just full of character,” said Coach Kenady. “I think a lot of people, this is kind of a sport where when they see a girl walk on the mat and they’re like, ‘oh, this is going to be an easy match.’ A lot of times, guys are typically stronger than the girls, but Lizzie, she turns a lot of heads. And I’ll be honest, she’s kind of a fan favorite in Buffalo.”
Miller was one of seven roster adjustments made by Coach Kenady in the dual.
“We’ve been battling some adversity,” he said. “Everybody has the flu bug going around right now, so we had a couple of our top wrestlers not in there tonight, but we had some guys fill in and step up. For the rest of our team to move around in some of the weight positions and step up, it spoke a lot about their character.”
Blake Williamson, who usually wrestles at 195 pounds, wrestled up at 220. He improved his record to 12-0 on the season by pinning Bolivar’s Koa Creech.
“He’s also battling rib injuries right now,” Kenady said of Williamson. “I talked to him before the match and he’s willing to sacrifice his body for the team. As individuals wrestling, we’ve got a team full of unselfish wrestlers. Any of them would be willing to do that.”
Bolivar competed well with Buffalo despite falling short in the team score. Hayden Burks (152 pounds) and Daryin Sharp (160 pounds) both defeated their Buffalo opponents by fall. Sharp also picked up a win by fall against his Camdenton opponent.
“Daryin is by far one of our best wrestlers,” said Bolivar coach Glen Johnson. “We’ve kind of bounced him back and forth between 160 and 152… He’s going to be awesome. He’s only a junior, so that’s exciting.”
The Bison and the Liberators will both compete in the Kinloch Tournament at Parkview High School next week on Dec. 29-30. Both squads will aim their focus in that direction after the holidays.
“We’re out of school. Stay focused,” said Johnson. “Don’t get relaxed at home playing video games. We’ve got to make a push… That’s the big thing with Kinloch coming up, it’s a big two-day tournament so that’s kind of what we’ve been telling them. ‘Are you training for a dual or are you training to be good in this two-day tournament?’ That’s why we pushed them really hard.”
