Silver Lake's LaMar pulls upset victories
By Brent Maycock
The Capital-Journal
Published Sunday, February 03, 2008

SILVER LAKE — The odds of Brett LaMar coming away from Saturday's Silver Lake Invitational as the 125-pound champion weren't exactly in the Silver Lake sophomore's favor.

To win the crown, LaMar was first going to have to beat Chase County's Brendan Harshman, a state runner-up a year ago who had beaten LaMar in their only previous meeting. Win that, and it was topping Louisburg's Bryce Hood, third-ranked in 4A and owner of 14 wins in 15 matches against LaMar.

"I thought I had a chance," LaMar said. "I'd never beaten (Harshman) and (Hood) I'd only beat once. I have one move and if I hit it, I thought I could win."

LaMar did hit his move — a crosslift — in both matches and won both by 4-3 counts to claim the 125 title and help the Eagles to a runner-up finish in the team race.

Clay Center captured the team crown in dominating fashion, scoring 236 points to outdistance the Eagles by nearly 90 points, and picked up six champions.

Rossville was fourth in the team standings, but second in the champion total with three. Senior heavyweight Duane Zlatnik bounced back after having his 69-match win streak snapped last week, pinning his way to the title including a 40-second stick of Leavenworth's Brett Johnston in the finals.

Teammate Colton Gentry had the next-fastest finals pin with a one-minute fall of Louisburg's Brian Caswell in the 152 title match. Michael Provencher started the finals with a dominating 18-6 victory against Seaman's Hunter Garrett at 103.

The feature match of the day, however, was the 119-final between Silver Lake's Collin Hase and Paola's Sharky Slyter. Both were ranked No. 1 in their respective classes — Slyter in 4A and Hase in 3A — and it was a rematch of the Basehor-Linwood final that Slyter won 6-2.

The two felt each other out in a scoreless first period and Slyter let Hase up to start the second, but retook the lead with a takedown halfway through the period.

Hase managed an escape to tie the match 2-2 entering the third before Slyter got his second takedown with 26 seconds left. He let Hase up again and this time it almost backfired as Hase twice was able to lock up Slyter in the last 20 seconds, but couldn't secure the winning takedown.

"He's the only guy I feel like I'm always out of position with," Hase said of Slyter, who was named the tournament's most outstanding wrestler. "He's so great on his feet. I thought I was going to score, but he just has quick hips and got out of it."

Slyter said the battle was everything he expected.

"He's about as tough a wrestler as I've faced in high school," Slyter said.

LaMar was down 3-0 to Hood in their title match as time wound down in the second period. But with less than 10 seconds left, LaMar was able to work control for a takedown at the edge of the mat.

On a restart with four seconds left in the period, LaMar caught Hood with his crosslift and turned him to his back for a quick two-point near fall as the period ended. He then rode Hood out in the third period.

"I knew I didn't have much time and I just had to hit something," LaMar said.

Silver Lake's only other finalist was Kyle Wichman, who was pinned by Paola's Matt Noblet in the 130 finals.

Seaman had three finalists and all finished second. In addition to Garrett at 103, Bryson Conaway lost a tough 6-5 decision to Clay Center's Ben Davis at 160 and Cole Schreiner, who fell 10-8 to Clay Center's Chris Bowser at 135.

Team scores

Clay Center 236, Silver Lake 148½, Paola 127, Rossville 110, Leavenworth 94, Louisburg 93, Seaman 83, Chase County 63, Atchison 57, Mission Valley 48, Wamego 47, Wabaunsee 38, St. Marys 20.

Championship finals

103 — Provencher, Ross, maj. dec. Garrett, Sea, 18-6. 112 — Singular, CC, pinned Bauer, Wab, 1:34. 119 — Slyter, Pao, dec. Hase, SL, 4-3. 125 — LaMar, SL, dec. Hood, Lou, 4-3. 130 — Noblet, Pao, pinned Wichman, SL, 3:01. 135 — Bowser, CC, dec. Schreiner, Sea, 10-8. 140 — Kirchner, Lou, dec. Davis, CC, 7-6. 145 — Wallace, CC, pinned Hermreck, Pao, 4:38. 152 — Gentry, Ross, pinned Caswell, Lou, 1:00. 160 — Davis, CC, dec. Conaway, Sea, 6-5. 171 — Willmann, CC, won by inj. default over Witt, Lea. 189 — Marrs, CC, dec. Rivard, Wam, 9-7. 215 — Lemke, Lou, dec. Newson, Atch, 4-2 2OT. 275 — Zlatnik, Ross, pinned Johnston, Lea, 0:40.