Bixby rolls over competition, Owasso shows strong in Ram dual tournament

OWASSO – They’ve been piling up wins in both duals and tournaments lately and Saturday was no exception, but Bixby knows two powerhouse teams are on the horizon.

The Spartans put on another dominating performance this weekend, driving to three more double wins on Saturday to capture the Owasso Ram Dual Tournament Championship at the Owasso Activity Center.

After ending a perfect 7-0 weekend with a 78-6 triumph over hosts Owasso on Saturday, their closest match being a 54-21 win over Midwest City’s Carl Albert on Friday, Bixby is now 17th this season :2 in wrestling duals. with the only losses suffered by out-of-state teams. They might not have had the fiercest competition this weekend compared to that tournament last year when they faced both Texas powerhouse Allen and 2021 6A doubles state champion Mustang, but the Spartans were still outstanding.

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“We talked about not being able to control what our competition is going to do, just focusing on what we can control and how we want to wrestle,” said Bixby coach Ray Blake. “And consistency is a key component in the next few weeks leading into the postseason – we want to be consistent in our preparation, consistent in our efforts out there on the mat and I think the guys did fantastically today.”

But despite being in the top 15 in the country, the Spartans are still only No. 4 in Class 6A and haven’t had a chance to square off against the top two teams, two-time state champions Stillwater, who are No. 2 and No 1 Edmond North, battling it out statewide in a tournament in the Yukon for the third straight weekend.

“We talked this morning about when you step on the mat out there, you stand up to a kid from Stillwater, you stand up to a kid from Edmond North,” Blake said. “Don’t do anything out there that you wouldn’t do in these games, perform at a high level and put in maximum effort. I think we weren’t the best at it yesterday but we did a better job of refocusing and getting in there and doing that today.”

Several Spartans individually enjoyed perfect 7-0 weekends, including Jace Roller, who won all seven of his 138-pound bouts by pinning his opponents and earned the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler award for the lighter weights. Teammate Jersey Robb, who was 7-0 at 215 pounds with five pins and two losses, received the MOW topweight award.

Other Bixby wrestlers to go 7-0 were Chase Dyer with 106 (three pins), Isaiah Jones (six pins) with 120, Gage Walker (four pins) with 126, Jace Caviness (four pins) with 132 and Garrett Ritter (five pins). ) at 285.

College Park, Texas finished second in the tournament with a 6-1 record after beating 5A No. 5 Midwest City defeated Carl Albert (39-27) in the final match of the day, relegating Carl Albert 4-3 and a three-way tie for third place with Owasso and 6A No. 15 Edmond Deer Creek.

For 6A No. 9 Owasso, who also won 4-3, it was a solid weekend against stiff opposition, something the Rams will definitely benefit from as they head into the final month or so of the season.

“We fought well,” Rams coach Kyle Ryan said of the weekend. “We’ve had a lot of really good matches this weekend and for the most part our level of performance has been very high. We’re training really hard, we’re starting to figure out the processes to become a champion, we’re still trying to close the gap in some areas.”

The Rams had a particularly good day on Friday, finishing the day 3-1 with a 46-28 triumph over MWC Carl Albert and a 59-11 win over 5A No. 3 Claremore.

After beating the so-called “Mystery Team,” made up of additional wrestlers from different teams, 75-3 in Saturday’s first doubles match, Owasso was 4-1 and still hoping to finish at least second in the tournament, but the Rams narrowly lost the second game of the day to College Park, Texas, 43-34. College Park took a 21-0 lead, but Owasso responded with pins from Chad Herbert at 165 and Braxton Bacon at 190, wrapping up a losing win at 175 to go 21-18.

Later, after Tyler Rich won by pinning Alex Fisher at 285 in just 28 seconds and Elijah Cherry lost at 106, Owasso took a 30-27 lead followed by a 15-4 big decision triumph from Bryson Humphries at 113, who took the Rams extended ‘ led to 34-27. But College Park bounced back as Jason Pattillo pinned Eric St. George at 120 in 1:04 and Caio defeated Aron Jaxon Humphries 13-2 at 126 to give College Park a 37-34 lead and go into the final bout walk. It was close for a while, but Kaleb Smith pinned Owasso’s Mason Moore in 3:09 to claim the win.

Ryan noted that the win over Claremore, who beat the Rams 46-28 in a brace on December 1, was a particular highlight.

“A lot of strong teams here, Carl Albert is a very high ranked 5A, Claremore we lost to the first doubles of the year, we came back yesterday and we beat 59-11 so if that’s not an indication of progress, we did I don’t know what that is,” Ryan said. “College Park, they’re one of the top teams in Texas and we’ve had tough competition across the board here. It’s been a heavy workload this weekend but I thought our kids did well against good competition and they’re only going to grow on this stuff. I thought we worked really hard.”

Claremore lost a narrow 42-35 duel to Carl Albert in the first match of the day on Saturday and needed a 60-16 win over Springdale (Arkansas) in the final duel to take sixth place out of the eight teams, 2-5 . The Zebras are now 16-8 on the season in doubles.

2. College Park (TX), 6-1

T3. Midwestern City Carl Albert, 4-3

T3. Edmond Hirschbach, 4-3

Bixby 75, Edmond Deer Creek 0

College Park (TX) 68, Springdale (Ar) 12

Owasso 75, Mystery Team 3

Bixby 76, Springdale (AR) 0

MWC Carl Albert 66, Mystery Team 18

College Park (TX) 43, Owasso 34

73 Edmond Deer Creek, 6 Claremore

Claremore 60, Springdale (AR) 16

Edmond Deer Creek 71, Mystery Team 6

College Park (TX) 39, MWC Carl Albert 27

106: Dyer (Bixby) p. Cherry, 5:05

113: B. Humphries (Owasso), p. Sure, 1:07

120: Jones (Bixby) p. St George, 0:45

126: Walker (Bixby) p. J.Humphries, 3:24

132: Caviness (Bixby) p. Moore, 1:03

138: Roller (Bixby) p. Russell, 1:17

144: Kelley (Bixby) p. Lockridge, 1:31

150: Giddens-Buttram (Bixby) p. Mueller, 0:40

157: Guerrero (Bixby) p. Robedeaux, 1:13

165: Kaiser (Bixby) wins by fft

175: Nolan (Bixby) p. Wheeler, 2:33

190: Puckett (Bixby) wins by fft

215: Robb (Bixby) p. Turner, 1:10

285: Knight (Bixby) p. Colbert, 1:10

MWC CARL ALBERT 42, CLAREMORE 35

106: Mendez (Claremore) wins by fft

113: Jackson (Claremore) p. Mortimer, 3:54

120: Mixay (MWC Carl Albert) p. Giliespi, 1:24

126: Murry (Claremore) p. Henry, 2:54

132: Miller (MWC Carl Albert) p. Llanas, 3:37

138: Robertson (Claremore) vs. Perry, 16-0

144: Hepler (Claremore) Dec. Lenz, 10-5

150: Gober (MWC Carl Albert) p. Zickefoose, 2:12

157: N. Sutterfield (MWC Carl Albert) p. Embry, 1:19

165: Matanane (MWC Carl Albert) p. Franklin, 2:28

175: Braswell (Claremore) Dec. Sherman, 7-4

190: Longstreet (MWC Carl Albert) p. Escobar, 1:08

215: A. Sutterfield (MWC Carl Albert) p. Thomas, 0:22

285: Feliciano (Claremore) wins by fft