Pioneer wrestling vying for program's ninth state title

Feb. 27—Stillwater High wrestling heads to the Class 6A state championship at Jim Norick Arena with an expectation of winning the program's ninth state title, but the knowledge that there is a lot of work to do in order to achieve that.

The Pioneers didn't even win their regional — despite six champions — in large part due to Broken Arrow advancing 11 wrestlers to the championship round. However, only three of the BA wrestlers won their respective finals match.

Now, with the cream of the crop across the state all in one tournament, the balance could potentially lean toward the Pioneers with the amount of talent they have among their top contenders.

"We want the environment to be difficult, we want the conditions to be hard," Stillwater wrestling coach Ethan Kyle said. "We want tough brackets, tough matches and that's going to be the difference between last week and this week. A deeper field is going to help. It's going to help us separate from the other schools altogether if we can lead from the front."

Stillwater will have six wrestlers who are the top seed on their half of the bracket due to winning a regional title within the past week. None of them know who they will wrestle in the first round, however, as they will be waiting on a pigtail match — which are supposed to kickoff action at 10 a.m. Saturday — between wrestlers who finished fourth and fifth at the regional tournaments.

Instead, they will get a chance to see their first opponent up close prior to facing them in the quarterfinals, which are set to begin at 11 a.m.

Two of those wrestlers are defending state champions in Oklahoma — sophomore Cael Hughes, who is wrestling up at 120 this year after winning at 106, and senior Carter Young, who is looking for his third state title.

There is also a state champion from another state who will be a top seed for the Pioneers.

Senior Teague Travis, who won the 145-pound regional title last weekend, moved from Columbia, Missouri, prior to this school year and signed with Oklahoma State wrestling this past fall. He was a two-time state champion in Missouri.

Stillwater also has a pair of brothers who transferred in before the season who head to state as regional champions. Angelo Ferrari (152) and Anthony Ferrari (160) are the younger brothers of highly recruited AJ Ferrari, who is starting as a freshman for Oklahoma State.

"It's boiled down to two guys for them, but it's kind of predictable most times — the guys know what to expect," Kyle said. "... The guys know that if they get themselves a good warmup, get their mind focused properly and focus on their own performance and execute, the results will take care of themselves."

There are two other wrestlers already locked into the double-elimination portion of the state brackets, and already know who they will face in the first round.

Cade Nicholas, who was a regional runner-up at 132 pounds, will take on Edmond North's Jude Randall, who finished third at West Regional. Brett Black (220), a fellow second-place finisher at regionals, will go head-to-head with Moore's Blake Jaques, who also finished third at West Regional.

Gabe Fontanez (113), J.J. McComas (126), Dax Hughes (170) and Jakobe Sanders (285) are Stillwater wrestlers who will be involved in the pigtail matches in the morning. They must each win that match to earn a spot into the double-elimination bracket. If they lose the pigtail match, their tournament is over.

Fontanez, who finish fifth at the East Regional, will face Yukon's Kaleb Kerr — the fourth-place finisher from the West Regional — for a spot in the double-elimination portion. McComas, the fourth-place finisher at regionals, will have to go through Lawton's Jacquvis Paoli, the fifth-place finisher from the West.

Hughes will square off with Yukon's Shane Scott, who finished fourth in the West Regional, and Sanders will meet with Mustang's Christian Rowland, who finished third at the West Regional.

"Looking at those pigtail matchups, I think we're in good shape," Kyle said. "... It's obviously important, because if you don't get into the bracket, then you don't get that second chance. If we're going to do something special this weekend, we're going to need pretty much everybody that's entered in the tournament to contribute."

The first session will wrestle all matches up through the championship semifinals and consolation semifinals. All medal round matches — finals and third-place matches — are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.