Burnett’s individual title highlights record day at districts for Platte County

With an altered postseason format providing opportunity, Platte County did not miss a chance to alter a growing legacy of a developing program for the better.

The deepest lineup in the program’s history produced a memorable two-day run in the Class 2 District 4 tournament over the weekend at Pirate Fieldhouse. Platte County junior EmmaLyn Burnett, just a second-year competitor, became just the third individual district champion in program history and combined with senior Lilly Brower to double the number of finalists from the first from the first four years. In addition, seniors Haley Burge and Hannah Mand plus sophomore Giada Cucchiara joined Burnett as first time qualifiers for the Class 2 Missouri State Wrestling Championships.

The five total qualifiers broke the school record of three set just last year, the final season of a one-classification setup for the sport before splitting to two this year.

“We have grown so much as a community, as well as a team,” Burnett said. “I feel like we’re all growing our technique together, and we’re all getting better at a consistent rate, which I feel like is awesome. We all push each other. It’s such a great community.

“It’s almost like one team is one person. Whenever anyone loses, we feel their pain as well. … At the same time, when they’re winning, it’s so awesome.”

In typical fashion, Platte County went the difficult route. Brower (115 pounds) and Burnett (125 pounds) were the only semifinal winners, and the Pirates went 2-3 in the round overall.

However, Burge (110), Mand (120) and Cucchiara (135) all came back to win consolation semifinals to reach the place matches. No moment was more emotional for the team than the pin for Burge — just the second four-year senior in the program’s still short history — on Saturday afternoon that sent her to state for the first time after close calls in larger districts each of the past two seasons.

Platte County entered 11 wrestlers into the district brackets, and freshman Gabriella Ciccarelli (100), sophomore Karrington Friddell (105), junior Sarah Humburg (130) and Nicole Fernandez (190) were all one match away from state qualification. Ciccarelli and Fernandez ended up going 0-2 in eight-girl brackets, but seven wrestlers won at least won match for the Pirates, who were in first in the 20-team standings for most of the first day before ending up fourth with 100 points — just 12 back of third-place Fort Osage.

The toughest result ended up being for Humburg, who was squeezed out of last year’s postseason lineup and made a valiant district debut. However, she dropped a pivotal quarterfinal match before suffering a third loss on the season to Blue Springs senior Mady Banker in the consolation semifinals to bring an end to a short but productive career.

Humburg plans to graduate early and became an honorary part of a five-wrestler senior class.

“Very proud of every one of the girls,” Platte County coach Reggie Burress said. “From Gabriella all the way up to Nicole, everybody gave a good effort; everybody wrestled hard.”

Burnett entered the weekend ranked No. 8 at 125 in the Class 2 Missouriwrestling.com rankings and earned the No. 2 seed. Like Humburg and Mand, she her second season in the sport will end at state, but notably, she joined 2021 graduate Sarina Bertram and 2022 graduate and four-year program standard bearer KayLyn Moon as the only district champions in program history.

After an opening by, Burnett needed just 1 minute, 2 seconds to pin Central (St. Joseph)’s Madelynn Hughes in the quarterfinals. That set up the critical semifinal with Fort Osage junior Allison Kraemer, who took a 2-1 lead into the second period after a takedown late in the first.

Burnett then trailed 4-1 after a clasping penalty point and allowing an escape, but the match irreparably changed midway through the second period.

On what at first appeared a routine takedown for Burnett, Kraemer put her right arm to the mat to brace but suffered what appeared to be a catastrophic elbow injury. Burnett ended up credited with a pin in what easily could have been a medical forfeit that sent her into the 125 championship match under difficult circumstances.

“I still had a lot of nerves,” Burnett said of the finals. “But at the same time, I was like I’m going to state either way, so I either go home a district champion or I go home second place, and I’m happy either way as long as I wrestle my best.”

In the finals later Saturday, Burnett (26-9) did not trail and controlled top-seeded Staley sophomore Brianna Simpson from start to finish for a 6-4 decision victory. Burnett had both takedowns in the first period, and a third with 1 minute left in regulation increased her lead to 6-3.

Simpson scored an escape with 25 seconds left, but a late shot going for a tying takedown ended with Burnett sprawling back comfortably in defense to hang on for the win.

“I think the first takedown kind of cleared her mind, and then she got the second one — and it was really nice,” Burress said. “She fights really hard and wants to be successful.”

Burnett pushed her way into the lineup in front of Humburg last season and then showed obvious frustration with coming up two wins shy of a state berth in her first season. She made huge strides as a junior and built on that foundation.

“She did, and the first tournament of the year she struggled,” Burress said. “But she came back, and she made the adjustments she needed to make. And boy it has paid off.”

Burnett’s victory came minutes after Brower (9-4) went after the second district title of her out-of-the-ordinary career. A state finalist as a freshman at Excelsior Springs, she returned to the sport at Platte County this year and regained her eligibility after transfer in January, and her record includes a pair of retroactive forfeits due to complications with the process.

Brower recorded first period pins in each of her first three matches in the 115 bracket to setup an intriguing rematch with Park Hill sophomore and defending state champion Angelina Vargas (36-1), who won the previous matchup this season with a second period pin after taking a 2-0 lead out of the first.

This time around, Brower closed the gap despite going behind 4-0. She countered with a rare reversal on Vargas to close the first period and almost tied the score, but the official waved off potential back points with time having expired.

Brower started the second on top and did get the tying turn only for Vargas to almost immediately go back in front for good with a reversal. She then scored the only points of the third quarter with a takedown at the 1:46 mark and held on for an 8-4 decision victory.

“Very positive,” Burress said. “(Brower) fought hard; she didn’t quit. She scored some, and now, we’ve just got to build on that.”

Like the semifinal round, Platte County went 2-3 in medal matches with Cucchiara recording the only third-place finish. The two fourth-place seniors took dramatically different paths to earning state debuts.

Burge (22-14) became a mainstay in Platte County’s lineup starting with her freshman year and challenged for state spots each of the past two seasons, missing by just one win as a junior. She made a team-first move down a weight class to make room for Brower in the lineup, and the 110 District 4 bracket featured a daunting 1-2 of Fort Osage junior and eventual champion Aroma Marrufo and Liberty junior Jaden Breeden.

Eventually going 2-2 over two days, Burge wrestled for the first time in a month in Friday’s quarterfinals and pinned Liberty North freshman Carlie Hulme in the first period. Burge’s layoff came as a quirk of not having any matches during the Pirates’ closing stretch of duals.

“I was scared I was going to forget how to wrestle,” Burge said.

After a loss to Breeden in Saturday morning’s semifinals, Burge went into the second period tied 0-0 with Blue Springs South junior Ariel Adams. Burge turned her twice in that period for a 6-0 lead but left some nervous moments while not being able to secure the fall that eventually came in the third period at the 4:41 mark.

“I was just so relieved that I made it and that the match was over,” said Haley Burge, who lost by second-period fall to Staley sophomore Ellie Marrah in the 110 third-place match.

Burge joins her father Kevin Burge as state qualifiers for Platte County while older brother Hunter Burge, a 2021 graduate, only missed out on the distinction after he placed fourth at Class 3 District 4 in his senior season when the state limited the number of wrestlers advancing at each weight to three due to COVID-19 protocols.

After her win over Adams, Burge received congratulations from a mob of teammates and managers before sharing in the accomplishment a long time coming with her parents and other family members in the stands.

“It’s one of those things where if you stay the course, and you stay the direction you’re going and being positive, good things happen,” Burress added.

A second-year senior, Mand (28-10) ended up holding seed in the 120 bracket with her fourth-place finish behind a trio of returning state medalists.

Mand opened with a quarterfinal pin in the third period against Liberty North junior Ashlynn Pershing, who went into the second period tied 2-2 but did not score again. After semifinal loss to top-seeded Liberty junior Julia Breeden, Mand faced a rematch Blue Springs sophomore Audrey Cody in a rematch of a dual meeting last month that ended with a quick pin.

Looking to recreate the result, Mand came out fast with a takedown, went into the second period tied 2-2 and then took a three-point lead before looking to hit a wall as a result of high-energy pace to start the match. Cody tied the score 5-5 on escape granted to start the third period, fell behind 7-5 but would lead 8-7 and 10-8.

Mand came up with a reversal and two takedowns in the final 40 seconds around a pair of escapes and a penalty point for Cody. The end result was a wild 14-13 decision victory for an exhausted Mand, who came up with the winning takedown with only 12 seconds on the clock and then shared a moment of relief in a hug with her equally exhausted opponent after the final whistle.

“Oh man. They strengthen my heart all of the time,” Burress said with a laugh of Mand’s dramatic victory to reach state. “And you’ve seen my heart in 26 years now get strengthened a lot around here, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

After Mand dropped her third-place match by fall in the first period to Winnetonka senior Madison Leverknight, Burnett secured the first place-match victory of the weekend for Platte County. Cucchiara, a first-year sophomore, closed out the proceedings for Platte County with a victory. She recorded a trio of pins over the two days with her lone loss in the semifinals to Park Hill sophomore and eventual champion Rylin Beatty.

Cucchiara (24-8) went to the second period with both Oak Park junior Candice McGhee in the consolation semifinals and Liberty North junior Alexis Rusley in the third-place match before continuing to display her already-evident potential.

“She’s got a little gritty side to her that you can see in a match,” Burress said. “The biggest key to Giada was her and Sarah Humburg worked really well together. Sarah taught her a lot, and they got better together. Sarah didn’t quite get (to state), but Sarah should be proud of helping Giada get to where she’s at.”

Liberty pulled away for the district team title with 134 points, while Park Hill came in second.

Platte County made a run at a top-three showing but came up just short despite a spirited effort from a lower part of the lineup that formed the identity of this year’s team. The Pirates consistently rallied around each other, most notably mobbing Burge in a group hug following her consolation semifinal victory.

The only true disappointment ended up being Humburg’s finish. She earned the No. 4 seed at 130 but faced a pivotal quarterfinal matchup with Liberty North senior Chloe Taylor on Friday night. Taylor took a 6-0 lead with a five-point move in the second and held on from there despite Humburg earning a late escape and a reversal early in the third.

Humburg (24-13) immediately got called for locked hands to give away a penalty point, and she could not recover. That set up the third meeting of the season with Banker, who won a pair of tight decisions in the first two. She took a 4-0 lead in the first with Humburg again ending up on her back in a four-point move. She tied the score and nearly came up with a pin in the second period before allowing the final four points of the match in an 8-4 loss.

In the end, Humburg came up just one win short of joining Elizabeth Humburg as a state qualifier and becoming the program’s first sisters to achieve that distinction. Elizabeth Humburg was part of last year’s record state-qualifier group

“Everybody cheers for everybody; everybody wants everybody to do well,” Burress said. “The first person that hugged Giada when she got off the mat (after the third-place win) was Sarah Humburg. That tells you their relationship, and the program’s relationship as a family between these young ladies.

“I’m so proud of (Humburg). She gave everything she had to this team.”

After sending three to state last year, Platte County takes a qualifying contingent in 2023 with aspirations of a solid team finish. Bertram and Munn are the only two state finalists and medalists in program history, and Munn became the program’s inaugural champion a year ago. Brower could join any of those lists, while the other four could battle for top-six spots depending on the bracket shakeout.

Only Brower has experience in a state tournament, which will be reduced to two days this year for the first time in recent history.

“If you’ll come in and believe and work hard, you can get to the top of that podium,” Burress said. “If more people would just give it a chance, they’d find themselves successful.”