Absences, injuries leave Platte County far from full strength at KC Stampede

Already shorthanded, Platte County took proverbial lumps and literal physical injury concerns over the two days of the KC Stampede, an annual tournament featuring top competition coming from a double-digit number of states from the Midwest and beyond. The Pirates ended up without a medalist and finished 70th in the final standings out of 76 teams.

Platte County entered with three open weight classes, held out six expected starters still transitioning seasons after helping the football team to a second straight Class 5 state championship in early December, and injuries to juniors Jaxson Shute (shoulder) and Chase Hulett (knee) on Friday further diluted an already thin lineup. Both defaulted out of Saturday’s consolation brackets.

All of this combined to make the results somewhat secondary.

Platte County sophomore Cade Crawford, one of only two returning state qualifiers to participate, went 5-3 overall at 113 pounds but bowed out of the double-elimination championship bracket after four matches. His first loss in the second round came to Stillwater freshman Jett Kline, who went on to place third.

Seeded 10th, Crawford came back in the “hard luck” consolation bracket to win three of four matches and place third in that segment of the tournament, designed to increase match opportunities for those knocked out early.

The No. 8 seed, Shute — a two-time state finalist and Class 3 champion at 120 pounds last season — reached the third round at 138 pounds but suffered a 5-2 loss in sudden victory to Fort Osage senior Antonio Martinez, who came up with the winning takedown at the edge of the mat after the two ended regulation tied 2-2. Shute came back with a victory before facing Millard South (Nebraska) senior Kiernan Meink in a high-stakes consolation bout.

Meink owned the No. 1 seed but entered his matchup with Shute off of an upset loss to North Point junior and eventual champion Brody Kell.

Out to a 4-0 lead, Meink started the third period on top and proceeded to use a power half three different times against Shute with the official stopping the first two for potentially dangerous situations. Shute experienced obvious pain in his shoulder all three times and eventually ended up needing to medically forfeit the match. Meink came back to place third while Martinez ended up seventh

The severity of the injury remains to be determined, but he faces the probability of being unavailable when Platte County travels to the Carthage Dual Tournament on December 30.

Hulett wrestled his first live folkstyle matches in 999 days, having been out as a freshman and sophomore due to torn ACLs in his left knee suffered during the preceding football seasons. He opened against eighth-seeded Creighton Prep (Nebraska) sophomore Kameron Green in a match that went scoreless until the second period.

Green then went ahead 1-0 with an escape and used an unorthodox scramble to advance with a pin at 3 minutes, 1 second.

Having taken a forfeit in Platte County’s season-opening dual with William Chrisman, Hulett bounced back to earn the first contested win in the consolation half of the championship bracket with a 5-3 decision over Francis Howell Central junior Owen Eiswerth. Hulett then also recorded wins over Smithville freshman Hayden Jackson (16-2 major decision) and Rogers (Arkansas) senior David Ruvalcaba (7-4 decision) to move closer to a potential medal.

However, Hulett trailed Baylor (Tennessee) senior Malachi Puckett by a score of 11-0 in the third period of a fourth-round consolation match. He picked up Hulett’s right leg at one point and left him hopping on his previously injured leg.

Hulett felt a twinge of pain and went down with a scream and forfeited the match, but a followup examination revealed no structural damage in his knee, which likely had some scar tissue from the past ACL reconstruction surgeries break loose. He is set to wrestle at Carthage along with the potential season debuts for seniors Grant Fadler (157), Cooper Hammontree (190), Cole Johnson (215) and Quinn Lightle (285); junior Jack Johnson (175) and sophomore Hank Marriott (165).

All six qualified for state last season with Johnson (second, 215) having earned a medal in Class 3.

Johnson and Lightle both have specific injury concerns which could delay their debut until the 2026 portion of Platte County’s schedule or potentially keep them out for the season. The Pirates have pieced the lineup together to this point with freshman Phin McMain (190) receiving extra mat time and overcoming an 0-2 start at Stampede to finish second in his hard luck bracket Saturday.

Platte County faces a critical stretch of determining the severity of injuries and maximizing mat time with the Pirates set to move up to Class 4 District 4 for the first time in program history in what becomes a more daunting path to state advancement.