Cody Thorn More than a dozen of the top-ranked girls wrestlers listed on the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association state rankings converged at the Olathe South Mixer on Saturday, Jan. 9.
The field featured Olathe East, Olathe South, Olathe West, Baldwin, Fort Scott and Platte County (Mo.) in what was a round-robin five-round competition.
Full results were not available as results were kept on paper and not posted online, but a handful of schools had wrestlers that stood out in the stacked field.
Baldwin had three wrestlers post undefeated records on the day: Hayleigh Wempe, Audry Darnell and Emma Grossoehme – the latter two are returning state qualifiers for the Bulldogs.
Baldwin is ranked No. 3 in Division II in the team standings, one behind Fort Scott, and had six girls ranked in their respective weight classes.
“I think it is great with girls wrestling is that you can see girls who are new and girls that work really hard,” said Darnell, who was 3-0. “It is fun to compete and have a lot of competition. I think it is cool to see how they are taught differently and are taught different stuff. So it is interesting to see the variety of moves and ways girls wrestle.”
Grossoehme was one of three wrestlers ranked at 143 and posted a win over Olathe West’s Ingrid Beltran-Gonzaga in a matchup of returning state qualifiers. Grossoehme went 4-0, while Darnell and Wempe were both 3-0.
On the year, Grossoehme is 13-3; Wempe, 13-1 and Darnell, 8-1.
Olathe South freshman Nicole Redmond, ranked No. 1 in Division I 120-pound class, was the lone undefeated wrestler from the host squad. Redmond posted a win over Rylee Cagle of Fort Scott, a returning state qualifier who is ranked No. 4 in 109 in Division II.
Olathe West had a pair of undefeated wrestlers in Elle Fishburn (132/4-0) and Makayla Rivera (235/2-0) – a state runner-up in the weight class last year. Rivera is currently the top ranked wrestler in her weight class, according to the KWCA poll.
Olathe East senior Erin Wetterstrom went 5-0 to win the 109 class, which included a win over Fort Scott’s Nicole Montojo, ranked No. 2 in 101 in Division II.
Other ranked matchups pitted Fort Scott’s Makayla Rusk vs. Olathe West’s Laney Finzzo, Baldwin’s Daniela Kozacova vs. Platte County’s Sarina Bertram, Olathe East’s Akaiya Tinsley vs. Baldwin’s Madi Hargett, Bertram vs. Rusk, Baldwin’s Jasmine Renyer and Platte County’s KayLyn Munn and Kozacova vs. Finzzo.
“It is good to come up and see this competition,” said Fort Scott coach Alvin Metcalf Jr., a former state champion at his alma mater. “It is good to get out of southeast Kansas. Most of all our events have been in southeast Kansas. We have had a program before it was official and some of my girls have experience. No offense to the SEK (Conference) but most are a little behind. It is good to have this type of competition. You don’t always see that and with COVID restrictions you wrestle in your area but our administration let us go some places.”
