Cougar Wrestling

By DAVID SEELEY Special Correspondent

ADA — When the Class 5A District Duals continued Tuesday at Cougar Activity Center, both the Ada and Noble high school wrestling teams knew that whoever won their battle against each other would win the district championship — and go to next month’s Class 5A Dual State Tournament — since both teams had beaten Shawnee earlier this season and were tied atop the league standings.

Unfortunately, that team doesn’t wear maroon and white.

The Bears, who trailed for most of the dual against Ada, won three of the last four matches — and kept the Cougars from winning by pinfall in the heavyweight match — to post a 35-32 come-from-behind win to and earn a trip to state.

Both the Cougars and the Bears handled McAlester, winning 72-3 and 62-12, respectively.

Trailing 29-17 after the 160-pound match, the Bears (7-2 in duals this season) got pinfall victories from Hunter Long (171 pounds), Ryan Thomas (189) and Josh Long (215) to take a 35-29 lead going into the heavyweight match.

Ada’s Josh Nail needed to pin Noble’s Greg Kilmer in the heavyweight match to tie the dual at 35-all, and then have tie-breaker’s decide who would go to dual state. Nail edged Kilmer 1-0 but couldn’t record the pinfall, adding just three points to the Cougars’ team total instead of the six needed for the tie.

The Cougars dominated the lower and middle weights. Ada (5-4) got pinfall wins by Jamie Copeland (103 pounds), Jake Todd (112) and Chase Tiller (140). Hunter Bedsole (119) won by an 8-4 decision, while Jeb Todd (125) and Justin Todd (160) won by major-decision scores of 20-8 and 18-10, respectively.

With Noble winning only four of the first 10 matches — a 5-1 decision by Austin Dye at 130 pounds, a 15-0 technical fall by Kaleb Cradduck at 135, a pinfall win by Matt Orr at 145 and a 4-3 decision by Matt Kent at 152, the Bears trailed 29-17 with the final four matches left to wrestle.

The Cougars totally dominated the Buffaloes (2-7), winning 13 of the 14 matches — with four forfeits going to Madison Thornhill (103 pounds), Jeb Todd (130), Derrick Brown (152) and Dean Doolen (215).

Of the other nine matches Ada won, six of them were by pinfall — Copeland at 112 pounds, Bedsole at 125, Eddie Brown at 145, Dalton Thompson at 171, Clint Hoevker at 189) and Nail at heavyweight.

Ada’s other wins came on a 6-5 decision for Jake Todd at 119, a 15-1 major decision for Tiller at 140 and a 22-7 technical-fall victory for Justin Todd at 160.

McAlester’s only win in the dual came from C.J. Rippetou, who earned a hard-fought 6-5 decision over Chase Cummins at 135 pounds.

While the top goal of the day was a trip to dual state — which the Cougars missed out on — there still was another goal for Bohannon and the Cougars. That was to use the two duals as preparations for the Class 5A Regional tournament (Feb. 19-20) — and to get as many Cougars qualified for state.

“We’ve been wrestling a lot lately, and we’ve been on the road a lot,” Bohannon said. “These guys are feeling the fatigue of the month. But we’re working on our ultimate goal to get ourselves ready for the regional, and to get our guys qualified (for state).”

In the junior high portion of the district duals, Ada lost both duals, losing 52-16 to Noble and 50-24 to McAlester.

The Cougars will have two dual dates next week. The Cougars will welcome the Madill Wildcats to the Ada Junior High West Gym for a high school-junior high dual on Tuesday. The high school will wrestle at 3 p.m., followed by the junior high at 4 p.m. since there is high school basketball action that night at Cougar Activity Center with the Lady Cougars and Cougars meeting McAlester.

On Thursday, the Cougars will wrestle rival Ardmore at Cougar Activity Center, with the junior high going at it at 6 p.m., followed by the high school at 7 p.m.