Bronzed opportunities for KHS

Brayden Kochenower lay flat on the mat for the briefest second.

The Kingfisher senior’s dream of gold had just been dashed when his slight mistake ended up getting him pinned 35 seconds into a quarterfinal match against Blackwell’s Mason Young.

Kochenower wouldn’t get his state championship, but he would eventually get bronze…and some redemption.

Two Kingfisher High School wrestlers brought home medals from the Class 3A state tournament over the weekend at OG&E Coliseum.

Junior Jaxon Sheppard finished third in the 138-pound class while Kochenower followed that up by doing the same at 144 pounds.

Kochenower was a state runner-up as a sophomore at 138 pounds, but didn’t get to compete as a junior.

He entered state this year as the west regional champ at 144 and coach Steven Wilson said Kochenower had “strung together his best wrestling in the last few weeks.”

As his match with Young got started, it was more of the same.

Kochenower earned an early takedown and was seemingly in command when moments later he was on his back.

Just like that, the match was over.

The senior gathered himself and returned Friday evening to pin Lincoln Christian’s Gabe Huntsinger in just 1:51.

That pitted him against Luke Prince of Vinita in the consolation semifinals.

Prince was the east regional champ, but was knocked off in Friday’s semifinals.

The showdown of the two regional champs saw Kochenower quickly take care of business as he needed just 1:30 to garner a pin and make his way into the third-place match.

And that match offered him up the dish of a rematch against Young.

After defeating Kochenower, Young lost to Community Christian’s Cade Maynes in the semifinals. Maynes went on to win gold.

Young won his consolation semifinal, but had to face a determined Kochenower for bronze.

It was all Kochenower as he earned a fall in just 1:45 to give him three straight consolation wins and his second trip to the state tournament podium in his career.

Sheppard didn’t have the early setback.

The junior - and threetime state qualifier - took care of business against Watonga’s Brayson Gordon with an 11-4 victory in the quarterfinals.

Sheppard saw an early lead get trimmed to 5-3 in the third period before he strung together a pair of takedowns to pull away.

His loss came in the semifinals as Salina’s Spencer McClellan picked up a 13-8 win to advance to the finals.

Sheppard’s path to third place then mirrored Kochenower’s in that he - the west regional champ - had to face off against the east’s regional champ Saben Batten of Blackwell in the consolation semifinals.

Batten was upset in his quarterfinal bout and was trying to work his way to the medal stand in the consolation rounds. It didn’t happen.

Sheppard out-classed the Maroon for an 8-1 decision on Saturday morning.

Then, Saturday afternoon, Sheppard shutout Lone Grove’s Luke Stinson for third place.

Sheppard finished his year with a 35-4 record.

Kochenower was 26-5 on the season.

They were joined at state by a pair of first-time qualifiersinfreshmanKaden Willms at 120 pounds and junior Chase Price at 150.

Both Willms and Price were in wrestle-in matches on Thursday night, which they needed to win to advance to Friday’s main bracket.

And both did. Willms beat Tonkawa’s Kamden Sparks 7-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.

Price pinned Victory Christian’s Elijah Tolander with just 10 seconds remaining in their match.

Once in the main bracket, both Willms and Price lost consecutive matches to get knocked out of the tournament.

Kingfisher scored 25 points and placed 10th out of more than 40 teams represented at state.

Blackwell was the state champ with 182.5 while Salina finished as state runner- up with 106.