By Chad Hayworth (for OzarksSportsZone.com)
CASSVILLE — McDonald County secured eight individual championships Wednesday night, en route to the program’s first-ever Big 8 conference title.
McDonald County amassed 260.5 points in a dominating tournament win, besting Nevada, who scored 127, and host Cassville, who finished with 121 team points.
The Mustangs jumped out to an early lead in the round-robin tournament, thanks in part to two wrestlers who had no competition in their weight classes.
Mustang coach Tinker Kinser, who was named the conference coach of the year Wednesday in just his second season leading the team, said all the credit goes to his wrestlers.
“The girls are the ones pushing each other in practice every day,” he said. “I’ve got really good leadership, and leaders coming up behind those leaders.”
The Mustang conference champions are Sheccid Gonzalez (105), Ellysia Wasson (110), Jaqueline Teneyuque (115), Laina Thomas (120), Anjelika Alarcon (130), Macie Smith (140), Terah Mitchell (190), and Valeria Carbajal (235).
By contrast, the second- and third-place teams each only had two individual champions.
Kinsler said the final match of Wednesday’s tournament is a prime example of the tenacity his wrestlers have exhibited all year.
Carbajal faced off against Nevada’s Drew Leer for the 235-pound crown. Leer, a senior, has 98 career wins, and finished fourth at the state wrestling tournament a year ago.
Carbajal, a junior, is in her first year of wrestling, and has a 19-8 overall record.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE TOURNAMENT
Leer took an early 3-0 lead with a takedown, though Carbajal did manage a pair of escapes in the first and second period to cut the margin to 3-2 going to the third period.
Carbajal got a reversal with 36 seconds left in the match, but just 15 second later, Leer escaped, tying the match at 4-4.
Neither girl could score in the first overtime period. Carbajal was awarded a penalty point in the second overtime, and managed a reversal, taking a 7-4 lead. After a scoreless third overtime, Carbajal escaped again, pushing the lead to 8-4. Leer was awarded a point after Carbajal was called for stalling, but she could get no closer than the 8-5 final score.
“She has no quit,” Kinser said of Carbajal. “But that’s a lot of our girls. They keep pushing each other, working for the next goal.”
Kinsler also credited Alarcon, a junior, for her leadership of his squad.
“She is the biggest leader on our team,” he said. “She’s almost as much of a coach as I am.”
Wednesday’s tournament wasn’t perfect for the Mustangs, and Kinsler said he saw lots of things to work on back in the practice gym.
“We’ve got to keep working in the third period,” he said. “And there are some other things we need to polish up. But overall, we are wrestling the way we are practicing. We should break a record on the number of girls we take to state this year.”
McDonald County has never sent more than three wrestlers in a single season to Columbia.
Nevada was hampered a bit on Wednesday, leaving a half-dozen girls home who are ill or hurt. Tiger coach Jarrod Alexander said neither he nor his team were interested in what-ifs.
“That’s not in our control,” he said. “The girls we brought completed really, really hard and I’m very proud of them. Our focus was to go out and wrestle hard, and I was proud of our effort today.”
The other individual champions are: Cassville’s Isabella Bauman (100), Nevada’s Broolynn Hoag (125), Monett’s Naomi Orellana (130), Aurora’s Jasmine Koehler (145), Cassville’s Analeigh Winchell (155), and Nevada’s Hailey Kerbo (170).
