Jackets land 4 grapplers at state

As his team was preparing to depart for the Class 3A west regional, Kingfisher High School wrestling coach Steven Wilson said he was hopeful four Yellowjackets would qualify for the state tournament.

As he left Watonga High School, site of the regional, on Saturday evening, Wilson had four state qualifiers to bring back home.

That included a pair of regional champions in junior Jaxon Sheppard and senior Brayden Kochenower, both of whom are now multi-time qualifiers, and first-time qualifiers in freshman Kaden Willms and junior Chase Price.

Even more rewarding, said Wilson, was Kingfisher’s finish.

The Jackets scored 114 points to place fifth as a team out of the 32 schools that were represented in the tournament.

“We honestly didn’t think we’d be able to score that high,” Wilson said. “But we really had some kids get some big wins in the consolation bracket.

“Even though they might not have qualified, they got us some points and stepped up for the team in a big way.”

Marlow won the regional title with 224.5 points while Salina was the runner- up with 209.5.

Lincoln Christian was third with 166 and Comanche fourth with 138.

Cashion, which had two state qualifiers, came in at 11th with 83.5 points while Hennessey placed 24th with 29 points.

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Brayden Kochenower burst onto the scene as a sophomore as he made it all the way to the 138-pound championship match at the state tournament as a sophomore.

As a junior, Kochenower wasn’t able to compete for much of the season and was unable to follow up that success.

Now a senior, Kochenower has been able to focus more on the sport and Wilson said it’s showing up on the mat.

“I would say he’s strung together his best wrestling in the last few weeks,” Wilson said.

He entered the regional as the third-ranked 144-pounder.

“The only reason he wasn’t higher was the top two seeds were returning state qualifiers and he wasn’t,” Wilson said.

Kochenower, though, was virtually untested.

None of his first three matches went beyond the first period. The longest was 1:27 when he pinned Ashton Lankford of Hobart in the quarterfinals.

His lone match to go the distance was his semifinal win over Marlow’s Cooper Ortega. Still, that was a dominating 11-1 major decision for Kochenower.

That pitted him against Asher Digby of Davis in the championship.

The two had faced off in the finals of the Western Conference Tournament in Kingfisher earlier in the season and Kochenower pinned him in 47 seconds.

“He had a lot of confidence going into it,” Wilson said.

This match didn’t go nearly as well…it took Kochenower a full 48 seconds to pin Digby this time around.

Kochenower’s performance lands him at state for the second time in his career, but the first time as a regional champ.

•••

Take him into the “deep waters.”

That was the scouting report Wilson had received on Lincoln Christian’s Hudson Farris who was the top-seeded 138-pounder at the regional and a potential foe for Jaxon Sheppard.

Farris placed third at 132 pounds in last year’s Class 3A state tournament.

Sheppard was in that same bracket, but after winning a wrestle-in match, he was defeated twice and the two never met up.

A year later and both are wrestling at 138 and it’s been Farris who had all the accolades.

He spent most of the season as the No. 1-ranked 138-pounder according to owrestle.com and only recently dropped down to No. 2.

Although he hasn’t lost to an Oklahoman this year, Farris also wrestled a lot of out-of-state foes, leaving Wilson little to go by to provide Sheppard with a full-bore plan.

But one thing he was told was that if Sheppard could get Farris late into the match, there’s a chance he could wear him down.

But first, the matchup had to happen.

Already a two-time state qualifier, Sheppard did his part.

He won his opening match via a technical fall and then pinned Lane Burnam of Mangum in 4:32 in the quarterfinals.

That set him up against Luke Stinson of Lone Grove in the semis. Sheppard shut him out in a 4-0 victory to set up the match with Farris.

And, as suggested, Sheppard pushed Farris into those deep waters of the third period.

Along the way, he picked up about a six-point lead before pinning his shoulders to the mat at 5:23.

It’s Sheppard’s second regional title as he also won it at 126 as a freshman.

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Coming into the season, Wilson had Chase Price tagged as someone who could emerge as a state qualifier.

Although he had a solid junior campaign, Price was done no favors when it came to seeding the 150-pound bracket at the regional.

“He was the first one out when it came to seeding,” Wilson said. “So if he was going to make it, he was going to have to make his way through unseeded.”

Price started making his way with a pin of Broderick Jauregui of Okemah in the first round.

He got knocked into the consolation bracket with a narrow 5-3 loss to Manny Botone of Anadarko.

That began the long journey of three consecutive wins with his season on the line.

Price beat Dub Montgomery of Hobart with a pin at 1:45 and Klayton Smith of Comanche 7-4 to land in the consolation semifinals.

He punched his ticket to state by pinning Zack Griffith of Bethel in 5:53.

Price still had a shot at the bronze medal and rematch with Botone, but was defeated 9-3 to place fourth.

•••

When running down his list of potential qualifiers, Kaden Willms was on it, but was far from a definite.

But, like Price, Willms fought his way through the consolation bracket and made good on his final opportunity to punch his ticket.

Willms outlasted Bruer Vankirk of Marlow 5-3 to place fifth at 120 pounds.

It was Willms’ sixth match of the tournament.

It started with a pin over Tyce Herring of Dewar in 2:54 in the first round.

That was also the length of his quarterfinal match against Comanche’s Aidan Frye. Unfortunately, it was Willms who got pinned.

Frye went on to be the runner-up.

“Kaden went toe-to-toe with him,” Wilson said. “He had him on his back and was up, but it didn’t hold up.”

Willms got a forfeit win in the consolation bracket, then got a technical fall over Davis Klingenberg of Crossings Christian.

That put him in the consolation semifinal, meaning Willms had two chances to win one match and qualify.

It didn’t happen the first time as Tommy White of Anadarko pinned him in 1:01, putting him into the fifth-place match.

Willms prevailed. “He put together some tough wins,” Wilson said. “I was proud of him.”

Camden Weinmeister fell short at 165 pounds, but was one of those Wilson said “really stepped up” in the consolation bracket.

After losing his opening match, Weinmeister won two straight consolation bouts before falling short in the four round of consolations.

He scored 7 team points.

Noah Bradford, Jacob Crum and Abe Prieto each made it to the third round of consolations and scored 4 points each at their respective weights.