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The Saint Francis high school hosted the annual Buffalo Invitation in a favor to the Rawlins County school system. For the last two years the tournament has been moved to Saint Francis after the gymnasium in Atwood was destroyed in a fire. By the end of the day, Colby edged out Norton for the championship winning with 169 points to Norton’s 162.
Norton came into the day with a handful of 321A ranked wrestlers, and two freshman studs ranked in all-classes. Kaison Miller at 115 pounds is currently ranked first, and Halle Pfannenstiel at 140 pounds is ranked third.
Both girls went on to win their bracket, with Miller having an unusally small bracket at her weight. She was in a three-man round robin and pinned her way through the bracket in less than a minute each. Pfannenstiel had her own three-man round robin, but hers featured Goodland’s 4A ranked Destiny Gonzalez.
Sophia Kane at 170 pounds, Cadence Greeson at 190 pounds, and Adriana Winters at 235 pounds also found themselves with gold medals. Lorelei Granberry took second after losing by decision against Colby’s Cheyanne Hill. Isabella Garrity finished the day with third after a tough fight between Atwood’s first ranked Maggie Holle, St. Francis’ second ranked Cheyenne Labarge, and herself ranked at sixth.
Kieryn Aitken and Lilli Puga also finished with bronze to help Norton make it a contested tournament, but Colby had a great day with six champions, two runners-up, and one third placer.
Senior Aspen Sharpe won a tough championship match against Leoti’s tenth all-class ranked Jentry Porter at 105 pounds. The two have wrestled four times entering the Buffalo Invitational, all matches have gone to Porter, but trends were set to change.
Sharpe forced the issue making Porter uncomfortable early, and grinded out a win against her ranked adversary 3-2. Sharpe was joined at the top by Adrian Salcido, Gala White, Joslyn Bartlett, Morgan Hills, and Makenzi Rhymer.
Dallis Stieben and Alana Fabrizius finished in second, Heidi Gray in third, Faith Hoover and Cheyanne Hill finished in fourth.
St. Francis finished the tournament in third with 85 points, four girls made it to the finals but were unsuccessful in collecting a title. Dailey Rose, Sierra Milne, Makayla Hays, and Cheyenne LaBarge all finished with silver.
LaBarge led St. Francis entering the tournament as the second ranked 125 pounder but met first ranked Maggie Holle from Atwood in the finals. The two battled for nearly two-and-half minutes before Holle captured the fall in the second period.
Breck Lohr earned a bronze finish after losing by fall to Norton’s Granberry, and Goodland’s Danica Dautel. Madisyn Hays rounded out St. Francis placers with third.
Oakley brought a small team to the tournament due to their wrestlers running out of season points allowed by KSHSAA, first ranked Cali Wagoner was participating due to missing tournaments early with injury.
She took first in her bracket after collecting four falls against Norton’s Olivia Graham, Leoti’s Jaelene Vestal, Goodland’s Danika Corke, and Colby’s Dallis Stieben. Goodland also brought a small team.
Danica Dautel led the team with a first-place finish at 130 pounds after collecting three falls over Leoti’s Lynett Loya-Magadan, Norton’s Granberry, St. Francis’ Lohr, and a technical fall over Colby’s Hill.
Destiny Gonzalez and Allison Sotel finished in second place at 140 pounds and 120 pounds respectively, and Ashlyn Franz finished in third.
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