The Lansing Lions took second at their Kaw Valley League Dual Tournament Saturday, winning four of five duals at the event. Five Lions — Kevin Keller at 112, Bo Pursel at 125, Spencer Blew at 140, Dillon Scanlon at 152 and Tyler Baughman at 171 — started their seasons 5-0 at the meet.
Head coach Ron Averill said he was pretty happy with the Lions’ season-opening performance.
“We were disappointed with not being able to pull off the win against Turner, but on the day as a whole it was a strong showing,” Averill said.
Lansing earned dual wins over Bishop Ward, Basehor-Linwood, Mill Valley and Bonner Springs before falling to Turner 33-27 in the title dual. Since Mill Valley and Turner are both ranked in Class 5A, No. 8 and No. 10 respectively, and Bonner Springs is rated No. 7 in Class 4A, Averill said it was a challenging day for the Class 5A No.1-rated Lions.
“Years ago this was a nice little dual tournament to start the year, it had some good competition but it sort of eased you into the season,” Averill said. “This year with us, Mill Valley, Bonner Springs and Turner all ranked in the top 10 in our respective classes, we knew it’d be a tough day. ... We stepped into tough competition real quick with Mill Valley, Bonner and Turner. All three of those are highly respected teams.”
It was a big day for Baughman, the senior 171-pounder pinning each of his opponents on the day in the first round. Blew used first-round pins for four of his five wins at 140-pounds, the other coming in a 5-1 decision over Bonner Springs’ Jonathan Blackwell who was second at the 5A state meet at 130-pounds last season. Pursel moved the 125-pound slot on Saturday, using three pins, a technical fall and an 11-5 win over the Braves’ Caleb Seaton, who’s been a state medalist at 119 for the past three seasons and is the top-ranked 125-pounder in Class 4A, for his 5-0 day. Keller, at 112-pounds, had a pair of pins in his five wins, as did Scanlon at 152.
“Most of our returning state placers had good competition all day,” Averill said, noting nearly all of the Lansing wrestlers who swept the day took down at least one ranked opponent. “We had some dominant performances.”
Litton Van Der Werff went 4-1 at 189-pounds with three pins on Saturday, while 119-pound Dustin McCombs recorded pins for both of his wins. Garret Hinckley went 4-1 on the day at 145 pounds, including one win by pin. Hinckley’s only loss was to a returning state-placer, Bonner’s Aaron Puckett who was fourth at 140 a year ago.
Cameron Trout was 3-1 at 160 pounds for Lansing on Saturday, also with one pin, and Derique Cary was 3-2 with a pair of pins in his debut in the 285-pound class. Clayton Bogner at 130 was also 3-2 with one pin, and Andy Walter was 2-3 with one pin.
Averill said he saw good things out of all his wrestlers on the day.
“I was pleased with how Bogner stepped up to the competition,” Averill said. “Cameron Trout had a good start to the season and Litton Van Der Werff had a good day throughout. ... Derique Cary at heavyweight was in his first varsity competition, starting off your career at 3-2 isn’t bad. It’ll be exciting to see where some of these guys end up by the end of the season.”
The Lions will continue to face the best competition, heading to a tough Eudora tournament on Friday and Saturday.
“Looking through the season, there’s not hardly a week for us to catch our breath,” Averill said. “We have a grueling schedule all the way through.”
Pool action at Eudora starts on Friday afternoon at 1:30 and finishes on Saturday morning, determining who’ll compete in championship brackets on Saturday afternoon.
Copyright 2010 Leavenworth Times. Some rights reserved
