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TIGER SENIOR 135-POUNDER Stephen Leven locks up a cradle to turn Grove's
Blake Armstrong to his back and collect near-fall points in a
7-2 victory at the Conference meet in Sperry on Saturday, February
2.
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Leven Captures Conference
Title...
Tiger Mat Team Second
Equalling their best-ever finish in the Will Rogers Conference
Tournament, the Newkirk High School wrestlers gained the runner-up
position among a 14-team field in the 2008 gathering at Sperry
over Friday-Saturday, February 1-2. The Tigers took the mat minus
two regular members of the starting lineup and filled just 12
of the 14 weights but still accumulated 127.5 points to bring
home the second-place trophy and forge the top showing of the
Class 2A teams in the affiliation.
Grove's boys, who own the #4-ranking in 3A, ran away with the
title, amassing 173 points on the first day of competition by
sending eight wrestlers to the final. The Ridgerunners crowned
six champions and finished with 224 team points. The 2A, #7 Tigers
won the tight race for second, edging out 3A Vinita (122.5),
4A Claremore (117), and 3A #5 Blackwell (110.5).
Newkirk's senior class of wrestlers keyed the strong performance.
Stephen Leven led the way, winning the 135-pound title in convincing
fashion. Mike Coots and Lance White also reached the finals at
189 and heavyweight, respectively. Both finished as runners-up
while Rakan Adwan placed third at 119.
The Tigers had a total of eight placers at the top-six positions.
Junior 130-pounder Anthony McDonald was fourth while freshmen
Zach Buchanan (103) and Joseph Leven (112) both took fifth, and
Jimmy Brakey came in sixth as a 'B'-team entry at 112.
Gene Bennett, in the midst of his 24th season as the head wrestling
coach at NHS, described, "It was good competition, what
was there. I think it was a little light compared to what we've
had in the past. Some people held some kids out that we would
have liked to have seen, and that was kind of disappointing,
but overall, I thought our kids rose to the challenge."
S.Leven received the top seed at 135 and exhibited why by pinning
his way to the finals, dispatching Duncan Nelson of Pawnee in
the quarterfinals (2:27) then Scotty Mattison of Vinita in the
semifinals (1:07). In the championship bout, S.Leven used the
same aggressive approach to take command against Blake Armstrong,
scoring a takedown in the first :30 then hooking up a cradle
for three near-fall points and a 5-0 lead. The two grapplers
exchanged reversals in the final period, but S.Leven prevailed
easily, 7-2.
Commenting on the first Will Rogers Conference title of his career
and second tourney championship in as many chances this season,
S.Leven declared, "I've been to Conference all four years,
but every year, I've placed third or below, so placing first
in this thing is like a dream come true. There's nothing like.
It's almost like Regionals, so you just have to give it your
all."
He pointed to Coach Bennett's guidance as the impetus behind
his success, explaining, "He's forced me to get into shape
and working me to go hard every day in practice. He's on my butt
all the time trying to get me to go harder."
And it allowed S.Leven to be the aggressor from the outset against
Armstrong. Measuring his mindset for the title tilt, S.Leven
offered, "I thought, 'I have to cowboy up' and give it my
100%."
Bennett lauded, "That's probably the biggest difference
between Stephen this year and in years past. When he hits the
mat, he's going after the guy, looking to get that first down.
In years past, he was waiting to counter and ended up in a lot
of close matches. Now, he goes out and scores four or five points
in the first round, it makes the whole difference. ... He's attacking
the guy from the first whistle."
S.Leven stressed that he was glad to be back on the mat after
missing more than a week due to a medical condition. And he's
determined to make the most of the remainder of his final season
in a blue and gold singlet, emphasizing, "My goal is to
get number one at State, and that's all there is to it, give
it my 150% and go after it my last year."
Coots also gained a top seed at 189 and charged into the championship
round. In the quarterfinals, he overwhelmed Edwin Gallardo (Tonkawa)
by a 20-5 technical fall then pinned Grove's Jesse Hale in 5:38.
But second-seeded Jon Arnold of Inola awaited in the finals and
nudged Coots in a controversial 3-2, overtime decision. Coots
took the initial lead with a second-period escape, but Arnold
went ahead with a reversal in the late stages of the third period.
Coots came back to level the score on an escape in the final
:05 of regulation. Then in the one-minute OT, Coots cinched up
a bear hug and tripped Arnold for a takedown. He was awarded
the two points with :40 left but then had the points wiped away.
Eight seconds later, Coots was poked in the eye and had to use
his second injury time-out to recover. As a result, Arnold was
allowed to choose the down position and escaped with :04 left
for the decisive point.
Bennett contested both the change of the takedown and the source
of the injury time-out that allowed Arnold to eventually prevail.
Afterwards, he commented, "I thought Michael (Coots) wrestled
very well. I thought it was disappointing the way that last match
ended up. It just kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth. We
had two overtime matches this weekend where they gave us the
points to win then took them back. ... I thought we were definitely
inbounds (for the takedown). We actually won the match (with
Coots), but the way ended up being, we ended up losing. That
happens sometimes, and you have to overcome it, so we'll go to
the Regional Tournament and look to win first place there."
L.White exceeded his pre-tournament third seed at heavyweight
with a quarterfinal fall of Ryan Sawney (Claremore) in 3:04 and
a 5-0 decision of Pawhuska's Josh Perry. The match with Perry
was knotted in a scoreless tie before White pulled off a third-period
reversal and exposed Perry's back for a three-point near fall.
In the finals, L.White encountered top-seeded R.J. Bartley of
Grove and fell behind 4-0 through one period but scored a second-period
reversal to make it interesting. Bartley eventually posted a
7-2 decision to put the finishing touches on his team's triumphant
performance.
A 215-pounder who bumped up a weight class to explore the possibilities,
L.White impressed Bennett, who forwarded, "Lance (White)
had a very good weekend. Moving him up to heavyweight, we wanted
to see how he was going to react and get him in there. Those
are some of the heavyweights we're going to have to beat to go
to the State Tournament. Taking second place to the Grove kid
is no shame, and he wrestled a good, tactical match (in a 7-2
loss) against a very good heavyweight. He had his chances, and
we look for him to do good things at Regionals at heavyweight.
I expect other people will move their 215-pounders to heavyweight."
Along with the trio of finalists, Adwan and McDonald both reached
the semifinals. At 119, Adwan started off with a 10-1 major decision
win over Braden Green (Vinita) then endured a 12-10 loss to top-seeded
Mitch Pearson (Barnsdall). But Adwan came back to pick up a pair
of wins on day two, edging Tyler Lickliter (Tonkawa), 8-6 in
overtime, then finishing off his third-place showing with a 6-2
win over third-seeded Bryson Williams (Miami). With his efforts
over the weekend, he also pushed his career win count to 101.
Bennett noted, "I think that says a lot about Rakan. He's
a steady performer and a solid wrestler for us, year in and year
out. He works hard and takes advantage of every opportunity he
gets to wrestle to win. That's a great accomplishment for him,
and it's a testimony to the type of person he is."
McDonald vanquished Miami's Stephen Gonzales in just :46 to match
up with Barnsdall's Matt Allen in the semifinals but suffered
a 5-3 setback. McDonald pinned Sperry's Kyle Wingate in the second
period of their consolation semifinal match, but Vinita's Ian
Nair topped the Tiger by a 4-0 decision in the consolation finals.
Z.Buchanan and J.Leven both dropped their first two matches but
took advantage of small brackets to score team points. In the
fifth-place bout at 103, Z.Buchanan rallied for a late reversal
and three-point turn that was the difference in an 8-5 decision.
At 112, J.Leven scored a second-period fall over Brakey, who
finished 1-3.
Bennett praised the efforts of freshman duo, detailing, "Joseph
(Leven) wrestled very well and took fifth place, Zach (Buchanan)
placing in the tournament by winning his last match, he scored
two points for us. We won second place by five, so all those
points count. Zach scoring a decision, and Joseph scoring a win
by fall, that's six points that put us over the top for second.
The other matches, I thought we wrestled fairly well in the final
round. I thought we wrestled pretty well coming down the stretch.
It was good for us to see those people. We saw a couple of teams
we hadn't seen all year, and that may make the difference for
us when we get to the (Class 2A) Regional Tournament."
The 4-3 showing in the final round of first-, third-, and fifth-place
bouts allowed the Tigers to regroup from two trying afternoon
rounds. They won just once in five consolation quarterfinal bouts
(Brakey pinned Pawhuska' Matt Leake) and just twice in five consolation
semifinal outings as Adwan and McDonald both prevailed.
In the tourney, Damien Littledeer (140), Terrence Summitt (160),
and Johnny Buchanan (171) all finished 2-2. Littledeer and Summitt
both notched a pair of falls. Tyler Branch went 1-2 with a fall
at 125. Jeremy White (215) and Ross Bannister (135) also wrestled
for NHS.
The Tigers did not fill the 145 or 152 weight classes. They also
wrestled without freshman starters Dray Glenn (112) and Kenny
Thomas (125).
Entering the 20-win club for this season at Conference were Adwan
(22-8), S.Leven (21-3), and White (20-11), joining Coots (27-3)
and McDonald (22-5) who had already achieved the feat prior to
the tourney. Adwan joined two current teammates Coots and
Leven in the elite crowd of 10 Tiger wrestlers to record
100 career wins all time.
Next year, the high school meet will be staged at Tonkawa. The
junior high event will take place at Barnsdall.
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