Posted on Sun, Dec. 21, 2003
St. Thomas Aquinas captures tournament
Saints seize Johnson County Classic
By MARCUS R. FULLER The Kansas City Star
It certainly seemed as if St. Thomas Aquinas was headed for a runaway repeat at Saturday's Johnson County Classic wrestling tournament.
Aquinas had five wrestlers in the finals, but three suffered tough losses after freshman R.J. Null (11-0) kept his record undefeated with a 112-pound title.
Spring Hill was within 23 points heading into the championship round, so there was some extra incentive for Aquinas junior Neil Cisper to defeat Spring Hill's Drew Hudgins by the time the 171-pound final came around.
Cisper won 8-1 against Hudgins, whom he defeated for last year's 160-pound title. Aquinas also held on to beat Spring Hill for the team championship by a score of 220 to 186.5.
Blue Valley Northwest finished in third with 182.5 points followed by Olathe South and Shawnee Mission North with 147 and 137.5 points.
“We had a couple guys lose, so I felt like we needed to end with a win,” said Cisper, who also beat Hudgins in overtime in the finals of the Spring Hill tournament last weekend.
“They have a young team and have certainly improved a lot. I'm taking on more of a leadership role this year.”
Spring Hill lost one of its top wrestlers to a sprained ankle Friday, but coach Tom Carbajo told his team not to let that be an excuse for a letdown.
Carbajo said one of the most exciting matches he's ever seen came in junior Cory Bloodgood's comeback against Aquinas senior Tim Munyan to win the 119-pound title.
Bloodgood was behind 11-2, but pulled out a 14-12 victory in the final seconds.
“I don't ever consider him out of a match,” said Carbajo of Bloodgood, who finished sixth in 4A last year. “We're a small school, but we certainly don't look at it that way. We only lost three seniors from last year, but our junior class has gotten so much better.”
Cisper, who helped Aquinas beat Spring Hill for the third time this season, was one of three wrestlers who defended their title Saturday.
De Soto sophomore Neil Erisman, last year's 145-pound champion, moved up to win the 152-pound title. Olathe East's Daniel Elsrode at 125 pounds and Blue Valley's Dane Hammett at 160 pounds also won for the second straight year.
Erisman, who remained undefeated at 8-0, has lost just once in 41 matches dating back to last year's gut-wrenching loss in the 4A finals.
“I've been thinking about it a lot,” he said. “There was a picture of me losing in the paper that I put on my bedroom wall. Since then, I've been trying to work hard and improve in every match. I don't even worry about losing.”
In the only final match of unbeatens, BV Northwest's Garrett Jones defeated SM North's Ray Carrera 10-4 for the heavyweight title. It's the first time in two years that someone other than former Olathe North wrestler Adam Venegas won the championship.
“This was my toughest match against Ray, but I wish I had a chance to wrestle Adam again,” Jones said.
