Michael Smith DC Gold was loaded.
That was one of the teams that included all Kansas wrestlers at the annual Girls Summer Scuffle Tournament on Jan. 19 at Gardner-Edgerton High School.
Not only did the team have a lot of talent, the wrestlers had good chemistry with each other. That’s what led to DC Gold taking first place by going 7-0 in the tournament, including a 57-21 victory over Bellatrix Wrestling in the championship match.
Wrestler Interviews:
- Olivia Stean, Bonner Springs
- Keera Lacock, Rossville
- DC Gold coach Michael Vander Linden
- Hailey Conley, Olathe North
- Olvia Lyons, Burlington
- Elee Pittman, Baldwin
- Mikayla Boll, Olathe West
- Aileya Sath, Wichita North
- Audrey Darnell, Baldwin
- Kendra Hurla, Rossville
- Kaylan Hitchcock, Olathe North
- Amara Ehsa, Derby
- Holly Thatcher, Oskaloosa
“I think the girls really rallied around each other and stuck with each other,” DC Gold coach Michael Vander Linden said. “They were from all over (Kansas) but they had a lot of fun and it showed on the mat.”
Bellatrix took second place and DC Red was third.
The event was a dual freestyle tournament. Ten teams were divided into two pools – Red and Blue. Each team had four pool matches to determine their seeding in the final bracket. DC Gold ended up getting the top seed and rolled through the tournament, and won all duals by no less than 36 points.
It was pure domination.
“We were all joking. I came in and my job was easy,” Vander Linden said. “If I could walk out here and coach them with one good piece of information, that’s it. All of them are high level.”
One of those girls who showed they were at a high level was Bonner Springs’ Olivia Stean (170 pounds). She earned a first-period pin in all of her contest matches, with none of them lasting longer than 1 minute and 13 seconds. She finished the tournament 7-0.
“I tried to force a throw and she was not pushing in,” Stean said of her final match against Grace Johns of Bellatrix, in which she got a pin in 56 seconds. “I just recovered and stuck her. I used a lat drop. That’s the first time I have done one in a while.”
Stean wasn’t alone in being undefeated on her team. Rossville’s Keera Lacock (138) also went 7-0, pinning all but one of her opponents.
“My team was full of really awesome people,” Lacock said. “We were all happy to be here and be able to wrestle. Even when someone lost we kept the morale up.
“I think I started off worse and I got better throughout the day. “I didn’t have a bad first match (a 9-3 decision), but I pinned everyone else for the rest of the day. The first match was a little sloppy but I got more coaching throughout the day and got better.”
Her high school teammate, Kendra Hurla (126), had an impressive showing herself, getting pins in all of her matches and only two of them went into the second round.
“I thought it was a good match,” Hurla said of her pin against Bellatrix’s Alayna Slifer in the championship. “I used the out-of-bounds line and stayed in to pin her. Was good. I think I advanced a little more with that one.”
Steam also wasn’t the only Olivia to go unbeaten in the tournament as Olivia Lyons got a pin in all of her contested matches except one. In that match she earned a 4-2 decision against Naomi Mayfield of Blazing Trails.
“I did singles a lot today, so that’s been something I have been workin on,” Lyons said. “There were girls from all around so there was a lot of great competition.
MaKayle Sutton (94) was the other DC Gold member to go 7-0. Morgan Base (88), Destiny Jones (101), Amara Ehsa (109), Audrey Darnell (138), Aileya Sath (143) and Mikayla Rivera (235) each finished 6-1.00
