By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
PARK CITY -- After winning a second straight Class 6A state title, Washburn Rural junior 113-pounder Jacob Tangpricha had plenty to celebrate Saturday night at Hartman Arena.
The fact that he got to share his title celebration with teammates Jonathan Morrison and Bishop Murray as part of three straight Rural wins in the finals on the way to a dominating team championship made the night even more special.
"It was way more fun because I had my little brother (Morrison) at 106 and then I had my big brother (Murray) win right after me," Tangpricha said.
Junior Jacob Tangpricha was one of three individual champions for Class 6A state champ Washburn Rural Saturday night, with Tangpricha winning his second straight title. [Submitted]
Washburn Rural senior 120-pounder Bishop Murray captured his third Class 6A state wrestling title Saturday night at Hartman Arena. [Submitted]
Murray, the Junior Blues’ star 120-pounder, joined Tangpricha as a repeat champ and became Rural’s first three-time state champ.
“I’m just happy I could give my team and my family this good time and have this good time myself with my coaches and everybody else,’’ Murray said. “I’m so thankful that I got to experience it with my brothers and my family.
“They come here every year and they show out for me and I’ve got to show out for them.’’
Washburn Rural's Jonathan Morrison won a state title in his first Class 6A state meet, helping the Junior Blues roll to the team title. [Submitted]
Morrison, a freshman, was the first of the three Rural wrestlers to win titles and his win was the most intense of the three.
Morrison fell behind 8-4 when Derby senior Cody Woods was awarded a near fall and then 8-6 at the end of regulation as Rural coach Damon Parker waited to appeal the near fall decision.
After several minutes of discussion Woods’ points were taken off the board and the match went to overtime tied 6-6.
“When they overturned it, that was the right call," Parker said. "To establish near-fall criteria, your shoulder blades have to be within four inches of the mat. John was in a high bridge and his head wasn't even on the mat."
Morrison (29-3) admitted he didn’t know exactly what was going on during Parker’s discussion with the officials, but was happy to get a second chance in OT and delivered a win by pin at the 7:21 mark
“I was just worried that something had happened,’’ Morrison said. “I feel bad for the other kid because it was his last year, but you’ve got to lose sometimes and I’m just happy that I did this my first year here.’’
After Tangpricha (33-2) took a 3-1 win over Olathe North’s Cael Alderman in the 113 final, Murray fell behind Lawrence’s Kevin Honas 2-0 before dominating the rest of the match en route to a 9-2 decision.
“He scored 2 on me and I was like, “Screw that, I’m going to put it on him now,’ ‘’ said Murray, who capped a 29-1 season. “It made me mad that he thought he could score 2 and then did score 2. It was like, “Now I’ve really got to put the points on this kid,’ and I did.
“My team pulled through just as hard as I did.’’
Bishop Murray’s twin brother, Bowan, was pinned in the quarterfinal round, but battled back to finish third at 138 pounds and give the Junior Blues a boost.
“We knew Bowan's character, that he wasn't going to tuck tail and run the rest of the day," Parker said. "He did what we expected him to do. Obviously we wanted him in the finals, but I talked to him briefly afterwards and told him, 'You can be mad for four or five minutes afterwards, but then you get your chin up, support your teammates and have a positive attitude because your attitude, whether it's positive or negative, is contagious.' He had a great attitude the rest of the day."
Junior 170-pounder Austin Fager and 285-pound senior David Huckstep made it five Junior Blues in the state finals, with Fager dropping a 5-1 decision to Olathe South’s Blake Jouret and Huckstep losing 9-4 to familiar foe Damian Ilalio of Manhattan.
But even though Huckstep would have loved to win a title in the final match of his high school career, he said that losing to Ilalio was nothing to hang his head about.
“He’s a tough opponent and one of the things I love about him is every single time we’ve weighed in, it’s respect,’’ Huckstep said. “There’s no trash talk or anything and when I beat him he was very respectful about it and when he beat me I was very respectful about it.’’
And the fact that Washburn Rural was able to win the city of Topeka’s first-ever boys state wrestling team title by a whopping 159.5-112 margin over Olathe North made everything worthwhile.
“I’ll trade a bracket (given to individual champions) any day for a state title,’’ he said.
