Haley Burge waited well over an hour for the chance to take the mat against Blue Springs.
Platte County senior Hannah Mand looks to finish a pin in the 120-pound match of a dual with Blue Springs on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
With the outcome of the dual long ago decided thanks to a series of forfeits, Platte County’s senior knew what she wanted to do against Payton Hughes. Burge needed just 46 seconds to record a pin in the 115-pound match Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse — even if the proceedings didn’t go exactly as she envisioned during the lengthy buildup.
“I was pretty ready,” Burge said after Platte County’s 54-9 victory. “I was excited; I was thinking about my match the whole time I was waiting, thinking about what I was gonna do.
“I’m happy with it. It wasn’t what I was planning on, but it worked.
With Burge’s fall, Platte County ended up going 3-2 in the five matches wrestled. The Pirates also received 36 points with freshman Gabrialla Ciccarelli (100), sophomore Adrianna Ciccarelli (105), sophomore Giada Cucchiara (135), sophomore Caitlyn Roudebush (145), junior Haley Moser (170) and freshman Nicole Fernandez (235).
The dual opened at 120, leaving Burge at the tail end.
Platte County junior EmmaLyn Burnett works for a pin in the 125-pound match of a dual with Blue Springs on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Platte County senior Hannah Mand ensured the Pirates wouldn’t trail, recording a pin against Audrey Cody in 2 minutes, 39 seconds. Cody nearly scored early, but Mand eventually ended up with a 4-0 lead after the first period and then turned her second takedown into a fall.
“She gets going the later the match goes,” Platte County coach Reggie Burress said. “She’s in great shape; she works hard. Once she gets going, she really gets going.”
Platte County made it 12-0 with junior EmmaLyn Burnett recording a takedown and turning Mya Nelson to her back three times in the first period. Burnett turned the third into a pin in 1:45. That set up the first of two matches featuring Blue Springs wrestlers in the Class 2 Missouri Wrestling individual rankings.
In a rematch from the Kansas City Stampede tournament in December, Platte County junior Sarah Humburg continued to close the gap on Mady Banker, a returning Missouri State Wrestling Championships qualifier.
Banker ended up with the only takedown of the 130 match and took a 2-0 lead into the second period. Humburg leveled the score on an illegal hold penalty point and an escape in the second period. She went behind again in the third after picking up two stall warnings resulting in a penalty point, and Banker held on for the 3-2 decision victory.
Twice late in the match Humburg nearly came up with a winning takedown but finished two blast shots well out of bounds.
Platte County junior Sarah Humburg looks for a takedown in the 130-pound match of a dual with Blue Springs on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
“We’ve just got to learn to finish a little quicker on that, maybe not drive as far,” Burress said. “On bottom in the first period, we had a chance to get out and tried to get in behind instead of out and that made a big difference. There’s little things we can do to help.”
Platte County’s next four wins came by forfeit and increased the lead to 42-3.
Blue Springs picked up a pin from Holly Emmons at 105 against Pirates sophomore Karrington Friddell then gave up an another forfeit, setting up Burge’s match. She needed little time after the initial takedown to finish the job after weighing in at 110 to give her additional options for the postseason but still wrestling at 115.
“We’re wrestling pretty well on the girls side, pretty consistent,” Burress said.
Kearney Tournament
Platte County finished with five individual round robin winners in the Kearney Tournament, held Friday at Kearney Fieldhouse in Kearney. Competitors were divided into round robins with two or three matches with A the highest level and moving down from there.
Mand ended up as the only A champion for Platte County, going 3-0 at 120. She recorded a fall in the opening round then took a 15-4 major decision and a dominant 7-0 decision over Jaylenn Hudlemyer of Excelsior Springs to finish first in her group of four.
Platte County sophomore Karrington Friddell starts the 105-pound match during a dual with Blue Springs on Thursday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Friddell (105), senior Lilly Brower (115) and Burnett (125) all won B round robins for Platte County.
At 105, Friddell toughed out an opening 10-5 decision over Izabella Morgan of Excelsior Springs and then closed with a 7-5 decision over Odessa’s Payton Coe. In between, she had a first period fall in 0:44.
Brower made her debut for Platte County and could add additional punch to a deep lower portion of the lineup. Just now eligible after transferring from Excelsior Springs, she reached the state finals as a freshman but did not complete either of the past two seasons with the Tigers. Her two matches with were both first-period pins and took a total of just over 2 minutes.
Burnett turned in one of the best performances of her two-year career. She needed decisions of 5-1 and 9-5 to open undefeated then finished off her third victory with a pin of Excelsior Springs’ Alyssa Betts in 1:53.
Gabriella Ciccarelli went 2-0 at 100 with a pair of pins to win a C round robin, while Platte County sophomore Alivia Juarez won a 9-2 decision plus a pin to place first in 155D. Humburg went 1-1 in 130B with one win by pin and one loss by pin.
Burge competed in the 110A pool and went 1-2. Her losses included a 13-4 major decision against returning Class 2-No. 2 ranked Aroma Marrufa of Fort Osage where Marrufa spent about 20 seconds on her back but recovered to record the win. Burge also pinned Stori Clark of Park Hill South and lost by fall to Jordyn Smith of Lawson.
