Evan Maccuish realistically profiled as a leader coming into the season, but circumstances only increased the importance of his role on a deep team with high expectations.
Platte County senior Evan Maccuish wrestles in the 157-pound match of a dual with Raytown on Wednesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
On Wednesday night, Platte County’s high-impact senior put a developed aggressive mentality on full display, recording pins in both of the 157-pound matches in dominant Suburban Conference White Division dual wins over Raytown and Ruskin. A state championship run for the football team combined with offseason and aggregated injuries have led to unexpected opportunities in the lineup.
Platte County honored Maccuish, the steadying presence so far this season, and five more with senior night ceremonies between the two home duals — a reminder the stretch run now awaits.
“This is just the time to start putting everything together that we’re learning,” Maccuish said. “We had the hard tournaments at the start of the year, which is just to push ourselves. … Now, we’re just putting the pieces of the puzzle together.”
Platte County’s senior class includes a pair of two-time returning Class 3 MSHSAA Wrestling Championships qualifiers in Maccuish and Darrell Smith, a fifth-place state medalist at 165 pounds a year ago. However, Smith didn’t debut this season until after the holiday break with the football team playing until early December.
Platte County senior Darrell Smith goes to record a takedown in the 165-pound match of a dual with Raytown on Wednesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
In addition, Platte County senior Zach Olson became a starter at 175 pounds in just his second year on the roster with sophomore Jack Johnson dealing with a collarbone injury. His status for the rest of the season remains uncertain.
With Jack Johnson out and Maccuish and Smith both likely to drop a weight class, Platte County seniors Isaiah Seymour and Brock Myers both saw action at 150 pounds against Raytown and Ruskin with one of them possibly ending up in the postseason lineup.
“In my mind with some of these duals, (team) score isn’t the biggest thing,” Platte County coach Reggie Burress said. “It’s finding some wins for these guys, finding some improvement is the greatest thing.”
Platte County returned six total state qualifiers — two medalists from the fifth-place team in Class 3 last season — but only has five at the present time. The Pirates also put four freshman in the lineup against Raytown and Ruskin.
Raytown even took an early lead in what ended up a 59-16 loss.
Platte County freshman Cade Crawford opened with a 15-0 technical fall at 106 pounds, but the Blue Jays went up 6-5 with David Ayala’s pin of freshman Lennon Fitzpatrick at 113. The deficit didn’t last for the Pirates with sophomore Jaxson Shute, a state runnerup at 106 pounds last season, recording a 17-1 victory in the 120 match.
Platte County sophomore Jaxson Shute wrestles in the 120-pound match of a dual with Raytown on Wednesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Shute has not lost a match since the return from the holiday break, and the win over Raytown’s Atilano Madrid marked a fourth consecutive win by technical fall — a buildout of confidence in his offense against overmatched opponents that hopefully benefits his postseason push.
“Scoring points. That’s what we’ve got to do,” Burress said. “He’s got to score points. He’s got to score points. We’re going to push him into doing that and help him mentally in those situations.”
Platte County freshmen Hank Marriott (126) and Ian Giese (132) added back-to-back victories. Marriott, injured for a large part of December, came back from a pair of three-point deficits and scored the winning takedown of an 8-7 decision in the closing seconds.
Seeing more time in the lineup with junior returning starter Liam Franksen out injured, Giese recorded a first-period pin.
Platte County freshman Ian Giese records a pin in the 132-pound match of a dual with Raytown on Wednesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
“(Giese’s) taking advantage of his opportunities,” Burress said. “A kid like that, we’ve had to have him go in there. He jumps in there; he gets a couple of wins, and he’s doing good. You just never know what that’s going to do for the future of somebody like him.”
Platte County led 19-6 at that point, and junior Grant Fadler (144), another returning state qualifier, Maccuish (157) and Smith (165) added pins in three of the next four matches. Maccuish quickly worked for three takedowns against Raytown’s Edgar Orozco and then recorded the fall in just 1:44.
“We put the work in every day, so I mean I’ve just got to trust that,” he said. “That’s big thing: trust the training that I do every single day and then it just comes together. Put the hours in, and it’s going to pay off. I always try to push the pace in every match. I try to break them. That’s part of what pushing the pace does for me.”
“Maccuish has found another gear,” Burress said.
Platte County senior Isaiah Seymour wrestles in the 150-pound match of a dual with Raytown on Wdnesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Maccuish started a run of six straight victories for Platte County to conclude the dual. Olson recorded three takedowns and put Roman Butler to his back once for four points in a 13-2 major decision at 175, while juniors Cooper Hammontree (190), Cole Johnson (215) and Quinn Lightle (285) — three more football players held out until last week’s dual with Kearney — all came up with pins.
In the final three matches, only Hammontree’s went past the first period.
After the victory, Platte County honored the senior class, which also includes Damond Tillotson, and then went straight into the second dual. Ruskin also held an early lead with a pin in the opener at 113 pounds, but Shute, Marriott, Giese, junior second-year starter Jackson Woolsey (138), Fadler, Myers and Maccuish all followed with pins before Smith took a forfeit at 165 to put the Pirates ahead 48-6.
Notably, Seymour let Myers take the matchup at 150, and he responded with a fall in just 42 seconds.
Platte County senior Brock Myers wrestles in the 150-pound match of a dual with Ruskin on Wednesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
“We’re all in the every day,” Maccuish said. “Brock, Isaiah, those are two of the main dudes that don’t get recognized as much just because they haven’t cracked the lineup, but now that they’re actually getting in the lineup, getting those matches, they’re proving themselves that they can those wins.”
Hammontree also took a forfeit before Cole Johnson and Lightle recorded pins in a matching time of 1:37. Cole Johnson rounds out Platte County’s group of two-time state qualifiers on the roster, while Lightle hopes to breakthrough in his third season as a starter.
Crawford closed out the dual with a 10-4 decision.
With just one loss in eight matches since the holiday break, Crawford put up the first two takedowns and led Ruskin’s Damian Martinez 6-0 going to the third period. He cut the deficit in half but gave an escape and another takedown, although the new scoring system instituted at the National Federation of High School Activities Associations level left him with a chance at a winning seven-point move in the final seconds.
Platte County freshman Cade Crawford wrestles in the 106-pound match of a dual with Ruskin on Wednesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
Crawford held on, wrestling deep into both of his matches on the night while gaining more valuable experience.
“Those are the ones we need going into districts. There’s not a lot of (106)-pounders. We need to beat the ones we need to beat,” Burress said.
Platte County 43, Fort Osage 33
The Pirates remained unbeaten in White Division competition as part of a triangular Thursday night in Independence.
Looking to repeat, Platte County moved to 4-0 in conference with Tuesday’s matchup with Grain Valley likely to decide the championship for this season. The Pirates are looking to repeat.
Platte County overcame a 22-15 deficit to beat Fort Osage, which rattled off consecutive wins at 126, 132 and 138 to build the advantage. Fadler closed the gap with a pin at 144, but the Pirates didn’t retake the lead until Maccuish, Smith and Olson took maximum points in three straight matches.
Platte County junior Quinn Lightle records a pin in the 285-pound match of a dual with Ruskin on Wednesday night at Pirate Fieldhouse.
After Maccuish took a forfeit, Smith and Olson won the 165 and 175 matches with second-period pins.
Fort Osage returning Class 4 state medalist Isaac Ward’s technical fall in the 190-pound match set up a decisive finale. Cole Johnson just needed to avoid being pinned and dominated start to finish in a 14-0 major decision to finish off the scoring.
Lightle’s 7-1 decision over Fort Osage’s Nathan Parker to open the dual, and Cade Crawford’s pin gave Platte County an early 9-0 lead that increased to 15-6 after Shute’s pin at 120. The Indians did not bump 113-pound standout Kaison Schreier to match up with Shute and instead chose to split the 12 points in those two bouts.
Platte County 57, Blue Springs 23
The Pirates never trailed after Cole Johnson, Lightle and Crawford opened Thursday’s other dual in Independence with three straight pins.
Blue Springs won just four of 14 bouts in a matchup of two completely full lineups. Platte County recorded eight victories by fall out of 10 with Marriott putting up a 20-4 technical fall at 126 and Smith adding a 13-3 major decision at 165. The Pirates gave both 150 matches to Seymour, who pinned Blue Springs’ Anthony Brown in the first period as a part of four straight wins for the Pirates from 144 to 165.
