Fernandez goes from unseeded to 4th place at always-tough KC Stampede tournament

Jake Fernandez took the long and difficult road to a second straight medal at Kansas City Stampede — through no fault of his own.

Due to a quirk in the seeding process for one of the strongest and deepest tournaments in the country, Platte County’s junior defending state champion didn’t receive one of the 12-seeded spots into the 215-pound bracket. He responded by going 7-2 over the two-day event at Bartle Hall Convention Center with wins over Nos. 3, 8 and 12 seeds on the way to a fourth-place finish.

Fernandez’s losses came in a high-profile rematch from last year’s Class 3 Missouri State Wrestling Championships to the eventual Stampede runnerup and a loss in the third-place match to the No. 4 seed.

A year after finishing eighth at 220 under the previous weight class system, Fernandez didn’t back down from any challenges and opened with a pair of wins to reach the round of 16 where he faced off against McDonald County junior Samuel Murphy. The two previously met at state last year in a contentious semifinal with Fernandez earning the win in overtime tiebreakers after a controversial but ultimately accurate decision to wave off an apparent winning takedown for Murphy in sudden-death.

The match ended up similar to the last with the two going to overtime tied at 1-1. At the tail end of the 1-minute sudden death period, Fernandez — hit for a stall warning in the opening moments of the first period — engaged in an underhook tie-up, and Murphy threw the winning takedown in the waning moments for a 3-1 victory.

Fernandez went into the consolation bracket needing three wins to reach the medal rounds. He started with a tidy 3-0 decision over unseeded Christopher Wash of Mill Valley (Kansas) and then pinned Neosho’s Everson Tomlinson.

The next round produced a tricky scenario against No. 8 Jacob Hanes of Pleasant Hill. Fernandez produced all three of the matches takedowns but uncharacteristically gave up reversals in the closing seconds of both the first and second period plus a technical violation penalty point assessed after occurring just before the second.

Hanes went into the third period tied 5-5, and Fernandez gave him a one-point lead with an escape and 1 minute, 54 seconds left in regulation. He earned the winning takedown at the 56-second mark and then held the top position for the remainder to win a 7-6 decision.

Guaranteed a medal at that point, Fernandez defeated No. 12 Collin Hulbert of Creighton Prep (Nebraska) in a 7-2 decision and then pinned No. 3 Brennan Carey of Nixa in 3:22 to reach the third-place match. Carey led 1-0 going to the third period when Fernandez reversed him to his back and pinned him despite suffering a twisted ankle in the process.

Gabriel Roland — the No. 4 seed from Ponca City (Oklahoma) — dominated the third-place match with Fernandez feeling the affects of the injury in a 13-0 loss by major decision.

Murphy went on to lose in tiebreakers to Rylan Kuhn of St. Pius X (Missouri) in the 215 final. However, Kuhn is in Missouri’s Class 2 and Carey in Class 4, while Murphy and Fernandez will likely be the top two ranked 215 wrestlers in Class 3 all season on a seeming collision course for the state tournament again.

Platte County’s lone medal helped the Pirates place tied for 53rd out of 67 teams despite losing both freshman Quinn Lightle (190) and Darrell Smith (157) to injury in their opening matches. They were also again without expected senior starters Bryan Jennings (165) and Mar’Ques Brown (285).

The next best tournament run for Platte County came from freshman Cole Johnson at 175. After opening with a loss to fifth-seeded and eventual tournament champion Peyton Westpfahl of Liberty, he came back to win three straight in the consolation bracket.

Johnson overcame an early 2-0 deficit to beat Belton’s Joe Juitt 6-4 in a pigtail match then pinned Whitfield’s Peter Blix. The final win for Johnson came against Demetrius McGriff of Pine Creek (Colorado). McGriff led 5-3 after a reversal early in the third period, but Johnson came up with an escape seconds later and then went ahead 6-5 on a takedown with 49 seconds left on the clock. He then held on for the one-point decision by riding out McGriff the rest of the way, enduring two blood-time stoppages along the way.

The consolation run for Johnson ended with a 15-2 loss by major decision to Luke Hancock of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Platte County junior Caden Hulett — a two-time state qualifier — ended up the only other member of Platte County’s lineup to win two matches in the straight bracket portion of the meet. He lost in the opening round at 113 to Chad Teters of Chaparral (Colorado) but came back to pin Neosho’s Brody Mitchell and decision Liberty’s Will Phifer.

To guarantee more matches, All of Platte County’s wrestlers outside of Fernandez went into “second-chance” matches. Hulett and freshman Grant Fadler (126) both ended up champions of those four-man mini brackets, while senior Draiden Chilcoat was second at 144. Pirates senior David Olson (150) and Johnson were third, while senior Alex Escabi (120), junior Shane Leary (132) and sophomore Kameron Doyle (285) were fourth.

Platte County 47, Kearney 25

In a dual beneficially starting at 150, the Pirates never trailed in Wednesday’s home opener at Platte County High School in what is now a non conference rivalry matchup.

Olson, who recently earned the starting spot at 150, opened with a dominant 12-3 major decision with four takedowns in the third period against Tye Mills. Platte County then took forfeits for Smith at 157 and Johnson at 175 around a first-period pin for junior Kevin Taylor at 165. The Pirates led 22-0 at that point.

Kearney earned two of five total wins over the span of the next three matches with pins at 190 and 285 around Fernandez’s pin of Jase Jackson at 215. Platte County led 28-12 and then extended that with a pin for freshman Gabriel Wittel (106) and a 10-2 major decision for Hulett (113). The Bulldogs won three of the final five matches but only one by pin (sophomore defending state champion Ryder Shelton at 120).

Fadler locked up the win for Platte County with a dominant 6-0 decision over Caden Underwood at 126. He opened up the final margin with a reversal and two near-fall points in the third period. Chilcoat closed the night with a second-period pin of Damien Carter.