Two Diamonds-Seth Cox and John Petree-won individual championship and four others placed in the top four of their respective weight classes as Sallisaw came in fifth out of 10 teams at the annual event.
Deer Creek, the No. 7-ranked team in Class 3A, crowned four champions on Saturday while totaling 169 points. Poteau was the runner-up with 123.5 points, followed by Cascia Hall, Fort Gibson and Sallisaw among the top five teams.
Cox, a senior 130-pounder, defended his 2003 title by pinning Poteau's Chris Wise at the 1:33 mark of their championship bout. The win capped an undefeated tournament for Cox, who dominated all five of his matches while pushing his record to 20-3 on the season.
"Seth handled everybody. He had one technical fall in the prelims where he got most of his points in the first period and he pinned everybody else. He's a tough kid and I'm hoping he'll get stronger and stronger as we go," said Sallisaw head coach Darrel Hume.
Petree pinned all five of his opponents at the tournament and seized the championship in the 171-pound weight class by defeating Fort Gibson's Sammy Johnson. The Sallisaw senior used a near-fall in the first period to build a 5-0 lead and led 7-2 after two periods. He pinned Johnson 48 seconds into the final round.
Petree wrestled just once during the first semester due to an elbow injury, but the senior is coming on strong and has lost just once since Christmas.
"John's a little bit out of shape and hasn't wrestled much because of his elbow," said Hume. "We need to work on his shape and that's about it. He's getting healthier every day."
The Diamonds got a pair of second-place finishes from junior 112-pounder Josh Hume and sophomore 135-pounder Randy Johnson.
Hume wrestled with a bruised knee, but won his first five matches at the tournament. The injury kept him out of the finals, allowing Cascia Hall's Gregg Cannon to win by injury default.
"Josh wrestled his preliminary matches fine on Friday and only had to wrestle once on Saturday. I held him out of the finals match because Cannon is tough. It would have been a fight and, with Josh on one leg, it wouldn't have been a fair fight," said coach Hume.
Johnson made it to the finals for the second-staight year, but was denied a championship with a 5-2 loss against Deer Creek's Blake Boyd.
Hume praised Johnson for bouncing back from a close loss in the preliminary rounds to advance to the championship bout.
"Randy took a loss in the preliminaries, but then he came back and won in the semifinals and then he wrestled that Deer Creek kid tough in the finals. He handled us in the first period, but Randy wouldn't quit, made it a tough match and almost won it," said Hume.
Sallisaw 103-pounder Blaine Teague came in third place by defeating Stilwell's Daniel Diagnault. However, the team didn't receive any points from his triumph since he was competing apart from the Diamonds as a member of the Mystery Team.
"He came in third behind two real tough kids, so there's nothing wrong with that. With him getting third place, we would have finished a spot higher in the team standings, but they had ranking matches and Jay Calhoun earned his spot," explained Hume.
Calhoun, who competed for Sallisaw at 103, came in fifth.
At 152 pounds, B.J. Hurley advanced to the semifinals before a pair of losses left him with a fourth-place showing.
"He did real well," commented Hume. "B.J. is not a natural athlete, but he works hard and that's why he's doing so well."
Sallisaw had three other fifth-place finishes in addition to Calhoun's. Cash Vaughan got fifth at 125 pounds, Colt Sanders at 145 and Randy Tonche at 160.
A couple of other Sallisaw wrestlers didn't place, but still earned praise for their efforts at the two-day event. Hume said he was pleased with the way freshman 119-pounder C.J. Anderson and sophomore 140-pounder Job Thomas competed.
"C.J. Anderson is one of the toughest young men we have. He's a beginner wrestler, wrestling in high school his first year. It is unbelievable how hard he fights to win. He got my hustle award last week at the Jay tournament and I'd have to give it to him again this week. He doesn't quit and he doesn't care who he wrestles," said the coach. "Job Thomas wrestled for the first time at the Jay duals last week and got his first win at this tournament. Job is just a great natural athlete."
Wrestling Notes
