CLIMBING HIGHER

McAtee Wins Gold, Bulldogs Place Second At Martin Invitational

The Trenton High School wrestling team entered the 2019-2020 season with big aspirations. The fullest lineup Trenton has seen in years, combined with a mix of talented incoming freshmen and experienced returnees, permitted coach Charlie Bacon to aim high when he said he was looking for his team to be a top-10 finisher at the state tournament in February.
At the Sam Martin Invitational in Plattsburg on Saturday, Trenton certainly looked capable of the lofty goals set at the season’s onset.
Trenton placed five wrestlers in the finals of their respective weights, had one grappler bring home a first-place finish and another finish third. The end result was 179 team points and a second-place standing among the 16 schools represented at the event.
“I was really happy with the way we wrestled,” Bacon said. “It felt like we were much more offensive on our feet and we got a lot of escapes from the bottom position. I feel like those two things alone put us in second as a team, along with the fact we got a lot of pins throughout the day. It was a fun day to see the kids start to really put things together.”
Freshman Hunter McAtee continued a banner start to his high school wrestling career, placing first at 106 pounds for the Bulldogs’ lone gold medal at the event. McAtee not only won his weight class but dominated it, reaching the finals on back-to-back wins by fall. In the finals, McAtee continued to have his way, pinning North Callaway’s Connor Green to claim the title. McAtee now stands at 25-2 overall on the season and is ranked fourth in the state at his weight in the Class 1 rankings.
Like McAtee, Gavin Chambers (113), Noah Lewis (160), Sam Gibson (170) and Mark Trump (182) all reached the finals of their weight brackets.
Trump, ranked seventh at 182, picked up two wins by fall to reach the finals. There he faced Lawson’s Cade Killingsworth, the third-ranked 182-pounder in the state. Trump lost the clash of ranked wrestlers, but just barely. The two wrestlers battled throughout the match, ending in a 6-4 decision victory for Killingsworth.
“At 182, Mark Trump also had a great day,” Bacon said. “Mark placed second with a close loss in the finals match, but really wrestled well. He also picked up his 100th career win as a Trenton Bulldog in the semifinals.”
Chambers also came within a decision of winning a title. He pinned his first two opponents to reach the final, but wound up on the wrong end of a 9-5 decision in the final – losing to a Class 2 wrestler from Lafayette in the title match.
For Lewis and Gibson, the tournament ended with losses by fall in the championship matches of their respective weights. Gibson was 2-0 on the day entering the final, getting a win by fall and another by an 11-2 major decision. In the title match, however, he ran into Lawson’s Tyler Ross, the top-ranked 170-pounder in the state. Gibson was pinned at the one-minute mark of the match. Lewis, meanwhile, needed three wins to reach the 160-pound finals. He scored pins in his first two matches to reach the semifinals, where he scored a 9-5 decision win to advance to the title match. In the championship, Lewis was pinned by Luke Horn of Wathena-Riverside, a Kansas school.
“Noah Lewis placed second at 160, which was his first tournament of the year due to injury,” Bacon said. “It was really nice to have Noah back in the lineup. He is a great kid and we really felt it as a team when he wasn’t in the lineup.
“Sam Gibson looked really tough at 170. To place second, as a freshman at 170 pounds in a tournament like that is truly an accomplishment.”
Caleb Johnson (220) added to Trenton’s point total with a third-place finish. He picked up a win by fall before falling to Hamilton’s Fisher Nixdorf, ranked eighth in the state, in the semifinals by fall. Trenton’s 220-pounder bounced back, however, picking up a win by fall in the third-place match to end his day on a high note.
Brice Gibler (132) and Coleman Griffin (138) each reached the third-place match of their respective weights as well, but both finished fourth overall. Gibler won by fall in his opening match before dropping a tight 3-1 decision in the semifinals. In the third-place match, Gibler lost by a 13-3 major decision. Griffin, meanwhile, won by fall in the first round before being pinned in the semifinals. In the third-place match, Griffin lost by a 20-1 technical fall.
Kaden Owen placed fifth at 152. Owen scored an 11-6 decision to open the day, reaching the quarterfinals of one of the larger brackets at the tournament. There he lost by fall to Marceline’s Hunter Nelson, ranked ninth in the state at that weight. Owen battled back in the consolation bracket, winning by fall in both the consolation semifinals and the fifth-place match to finish the day.
Allen Airey (195), Caylub Tyler (120) and Timothy Kempton (145) were all 0-2 on the day to round out the Trenton showing.
Trenton’s 179-point total was only bested by Lawson, which won the event with 230.5 team points. Lawson is the fifth-ranked team in the state. Wathena-Riverside was third with 129 points and Lafayette and North Callaway rounded out the top five with 128.5 and 120 points, respectively.
Trenton will look to build off the momentum of the second-place showing in Plattsburg tonight (Tuesday) as they travel to the Richmond triangular. The Bulldogs are back in tournament action on Saturday, traveling to the Brookfield Tournament.
TRENTON GIRLS
Trenton had three girls wrestling at the tournament with Libby Fewins leading the way with a second-place finish. Fewins was 4-1 in the 166-pound bracket, earning one win by fall, one win by forfeit and one win by disqualification. Fewins’ only loss of the round-robin style class was a loss by fall to Zoey Chrisman of Brookfield.
Kaitlee Lovell (135) was 1-3 overall at the tournament and Allison Yoder (130) went 0-5.
“Libby Fewins was our only girls medalist today,” Bacon said. “She placed second overall and had some really good matches. Libby always wrestles hard and is improving with every match. All of our girls saw some tough competition today, which will help prepare them for their district tournament.”