Platte County junior Charley Sims wrestles in a 115-pound match earlier this season at Pirate Fieldhouse. ROSS MARTIN/PC Preps Extra

Despite dual loss, Platte County likely headed for share of conference title

Pirates need win over Truman in regular season finale to officially lock up piece of White Division championship.

Belton benefitted from a forfeit and came up with pivotal decisions to pull away and earn a 49-27 win over Platte County in a Suburban Conference White Division dual Tuesday in Belton.

However, the teams’ prior results this season against Fort Osage — a victory for Platte County and a loss for Belton — forced a likely three-way share of the league title. All three still have White Division duals left on the schedule but will be overwhelming favorites on sheer numbers alone the rest of the way.

Platte County (10-1, 5-1) hosts Truman this week in conference action with a chance to officially lock up a share of the program’s second-ever conference title.

In position to possibly win outright, Platte County went in one wrestler shorthanded against one of the state’s top-ranked teams. Belton features four returning qualifiers — two state finalists — from last year’s Class 2 MSHSAA Wrestling Championships that singlehandedly put up the points for a ninth-place finish.

Platte County earned maximum points in the dual on pins for junior Charley Sims (115 pounds) and seniors Taylore Lavery (125 pounds), Alivia Juarez (170 pounds) and Madeleine Stone (235 pounds), while senior Annabel Beeman added a 6-3 decision victory at 130 pounds to account for five victories. However, Belton benefitted from an open at 155 pounds with Platte County sophomore Mila Cucchiara still out of action due to a head injury leaving the only current open spot in the lineup with the deepest roster in program history.

Belton also jumped to an 16-0 lead with three straight victories, starting with an important 19-7 major decision for J Colbert over freshman Harper Golden at 100 pounds. The run also included a pin for Rylee Jones, a returning qualifier, at 105.

Platte County also suffered losses by fall at 120, 135 and 140 to help Belton essentially lock up the result. Those weights feature returning qualifier Sydney Stifter (120), two-time finalist and 2024 state champion Savannah Franklin and two-time state medalist Louis Just, respectively.

Juarez’s first-period pin closed Platte County’s deficit to 46-21, and junior Nicole Fernandez lost 1-0 in ultimate tiebreaker — the last of three potential parts of overtime — in an otherwise scoreless match for the other 8 minutes against Emily Kilpatrick. Fernandez lost the coin toss to determine choice in the 30-second deciding period, and Kirkpatrick chose the top position and prevented an escape or reversal to earn the winning point.

One of two for Platte County with prior state experience, Stone followed with a 30-second pin of Malena Borja in the final match. Stone went to state in her first year on the team and went 1-2 as a junior in 2024.

Platte County senior Giada Cucchiara qualified for state as a sophomore but missed all of last season while rehabbing a torn ACL. She matched up with Franklin in the 135 match.

The Showdown in Joe Town

Sims (115) and Stone (235) both finished in the top-tier of the weight class round robins in Friday’s tournament at Civic Arena in St. Joseph. No team scores were kept and wrestlers were seeded into pools ranging from A to D depending on the number of competitors with a maximum of three matches.

Sims, who came up one win shy of a state berth out of Class 2 District 4 as a sophomore, won each of her first two matches with pins against Bayleigh Cooper of Riverside (Kansas) and Gianna Hoover of Smithville. In the deciding match, Sims earned a 6-0 decision over Warsaw’s Emersynn Miskell.

With only three in the 235 A pool, Stone didn’t allow a point in 7-0 and 1-0 decision victories over Warsaw’s Brooklyn Jackman and Adrian’s Annabelle Rowe, a returning state champion in Class 1. Stone (28-6) only has two losses to wrestlers from Missouri this season and both came to Grain Valley junior and defending Class 2 state champion Jayden Moehle.

In addition, Golden (100), Juarez (170) and Fernandez (190) all finished second in A pools. Golden won a 3-0 decision over Smithville’s Kyndal Holderby but ended up as runnerup after a 4-1 loss to Lathrop junior Aubrey Schrunk, a Class 1 state runnerup at the weight a year ago. Juarez also competed in a three-team pool and split two matches with a pin of Lawson’s Eva Moore while dropping a 12-4 major decision to Adrian’s Addie Davis. Fernandez lost a 3-0 decision to Central (St. Joseph)’s Hailie Wagner, a returning state qualifier at 190, in the opener and then shut out Benton’s Kamri Kidd in a 5-0 decision before finishing with a pin against Park Hill South’s Graciella Ortiz.

Platte County freshman Ava Blankenship took first in the 140B pool with pins all three matches, which lasted just over 2 minutes combined. This included a 27-second fall against Moberly’s Addison Orscheln, a state qualifier last season in Class 1. The Pirates’ other runnerup finishes in B pools included juniors Karrington Friddell (105) and Gabriella Ciccarelli (120) and senior Maddie Nichols (145).

Friddell pinned both Lawson’s Skylar Teegarden and Park Hill South’s Eva Estrada but lost the deciding match to Adrian’s Dallys Shaffer, who broke a 3-3 tie with a reversal in the second period that led to a fall in 3 minutes, 26 seconds.

Ciccarelli pinned all three of her opponents, including a the decider against Platte County sophomore Anna Wiesehan — the second-place finisher in the 120B pool. Down a weight class along with Blankenship due to Mila Cucchiara remaining out, Nichols also went 2-1 with another loss to Park Hill South’s Lucia Henriquez, a state qualifier at 140 last season out of Class 2 District 4.

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