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Bluejays place two in State Tournament

By: Casey Porter

            The Bluejays had a good showing at regionals this weekend, and, although they had hopes of four and possibly five wrestlers qualifying for the State Tournament, were able to qualify two: Ryan Bilyeu and Kolt Rhinehart. Rhinehart finished fourth in his bracket while Bilyeu brought home the gold. Several other wrestlers had opportunities to place but fell just short. Coach Jack O’Connor was pleased with his teams showing.

            “Coming into regional we hoped to place as many as four, and were close to doing so. But we came away with two, and we feel like we have wrestlers returning that will have a good chance next year, and our senior, Corey Cummings, just fell into some tough luck.”

            The tough luck O’Connor is referring to had to do, in part, with the fact that senior Corey Cummings, who, having recently recovered from a knee injury, could not get seeded. This forced him to have to wrestle the #1 ranked and defending state champion in the first round. Despite a valiant effort, he dropped this match and was forced to fight his way through the consolation bracket.

            Cummings made it to the consolation semifinals when his luck reared its unlucky head once again. Cummings wrestled his rival from Deer Creek and thought he had won the match at the buzzer after he had finished a takedown but was not rewarded back points.

            The back points would have given Cumming the win and put him one match away from qualifying for the State Tournament. Instead, Cummings career came to a disappointing end. O’Connor was disappointed for Cummings, but felt like he wrestled very well and very tough.

 “Corey wrestled very well and very tough, we just couldn’t get him seeded. He wrestled the defending state champion better than anybody else, and we really felt like he won the match against the kid from Deer Creek. But, that’s how it goes sometimes and I’m really proud of Corey because he’s done a great job his senior year.”

Junior Dillon Turpin also had a chance to place this weekend making it to the consolation semifinals before falling short. Turpin showed much improvement this year, his junior year, as he finished well over .500. His record this year is a substantial improvement from his sophomore campaign and, according to O’Connor, Turpin will have a good chance at making it to the State Tournament next year as a senior.

“Dillon went from having a .500 record as a sophomore to being well over that as a junior and has placed at several tournaments as well. So, it’s easy to see his improvement and he’ll have a good shot at making state next year, so we’re excited about that.”

While Turpin and Cummings suffered heartbreaking defeats, sophomore Rhinehart finished on the other end of that spectrum. Rhinehart wrestled his way into the consolation semifinals on Friday evening and set himself up for a winner take all match on Saturday morning.

The consolation semifinals match placed the winner in the consolation finals, guaranteeing them a place at state, while the losers season would be over. As dramatic as that sounds, the match was its equal. Rhinehart used a takedown in overtime to win the match and place himself in the consolation finals, a match he would not win. But, Rhinehart had already qualified for state. O’Connor was very excited for Kolt. 

 “Kolt had whole slew of wrestlers at his weight that were returning state placers, so his weight was much tougher this year. But, Kolt has persevered and wrestled his heart out and made it to the state tournament. We’re all proud of Kolt.”

Ryan Bilyeu had yet another dominant weekend finishing atop of the west side of Oklahoma at 145 pounds. Bilyeu is now the number one wrestler on the West side and will face the three seed on the East side in the State tournament. Bilyeu faces the three seed instead of the four seed, due to extra ordinary circumstances. Bilyeu and Rhinehart will both wrestle on Friday.

For more information please visit the Podcast page and listen to the Wrestling Coaches Corner with Jack O’Connor.

Pee Wee Wrestling

OKWA State Tournament

The Bluejay pee wee wrestling programs combined to qualify twenty one wrestlers for the OKWA open state tournament.  Team Guthrie qualified nineteen of its twenty two wrestlers, while the Bluejay Pride program qualified two as well.

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