KHS wrestlers 7th at conference

Kingfisher had three wrestlers reach the championship round, but couldn’t quite pull off individual gold at last weekend’s Western Conference Tournament.

Heritage Hall won the team title and KHS placed seventh in the event that - between junior high and high school - was spread over three days at the APB.

Gant Browning was runner-up at 106 pounds, Rhylee Toepfer second at 120 and Isaac Long the same at 160 to lead Kingfisher’s charge.

They helped the Jackets to 83 team points.

Heritage Hall secured 163.5 points while Elgin was the runner-up with 124. Cache (119), Harrah (106), Pawnee (97) and Clinton (85) rounded out the top-six.

Browning, a freshman, pinned Cache’s Conner Rodriguez and knocked off Anadarko’s Evan Eden 6-2 to earn his spot in the finals.

That’s where Harrah’s Liam Russell won the gold with a 10-0 major decision.

Toepfer was able to grind out a 9-7 win against Aiden Folland of Cache in the quarterfinals and followed it up with a second-period pin on Harrah’s Colby Winstead.

The finals saw Cache’s Clayton Lane hold on for a 6-3 win.

Long was impressive in his quarterfinal and semifinal bouts.

He needed just 1:18 to pin Davis’ Chase Stewart and then got a 13-4 major decision against Elijah Smith of Cache.

But the championship bout didn’t go his way as Heritage Hall’s EJ. Beloncik pinned him in 5:50.

Long was the heaviest KHS wrestler to place as a bulk of the Jackets’ success came in the lightest weights.

Junior Dawson Garvin was fourth at 113 pounds as he went 2-2 in his bracket matches.

Kole Lambert, a senior, also went 2-2 and took fourth at 126 pounds.

Senior Presten Coughlan ended up sixth at 132 pounds.

Twenty teams were represented in this year’s tournament.