It was a roller coaster ride for the Guthrie wrestling program on day one of the 2012 wrestling State Tournament inside the State Fair Arena.
The BlueJays sent eight grappler’s to the tournament and all eight will return to day two. Despite sending five to the semi’s, just two BlueJays will compete for titles.
Before the semi final rounds started up, the OSSAA recognized the BlueJays for winning the 2012 5A Academic State Championship.
Guthrie will look for more hardware by crowning two state champions on Saturday with Landry Chappell and John Davison.
Chappell and Davison both compiled first round pins and second round decisions.
Chappell, the Oklahoma State signee, will look to make it two in a row and will do so against a familiar opponent in Chickasha’s Jacoby Brown. Chappell defeated Brown for the 2011 state title in sudden death overtime.
The two met earlier this year at the Carl Albert Tournament with Brown collecting the win. The junior Fightin Chick is undefeated with a 39-0 record. Chappell enters 30-2.
Like Chappell, Davison will see a familiar opponent in Ardmore’s Evan McGee. A year ago, McGee defeated Davison to reach the state championship and eventually winning the 2011 crown. McGee is a perfect 34-0 and Davison is 25-1.
Alex Nelson, Austin O’Connor, Timothy O’Connor, Bryan Dutton, Devin Bilyeu and Conner Howard will look to be a state placer in the consolation rounds.
Alex Nelson – 106 pounds
The freshmen got things rolling for the Jays by pinning Western Heights Clayton Bierig with just four seconds left in the first period. However, Nelson ran into the top seed in Markwae Sanders of Duncan and dropped a 9-7 overtime decision. Nelson will need to win his Saturday morning match to place. Photo Gallery
Timothy O’Connor – 126 pounds
O’Connor drew the top seed in Lawton MacArthur’s Colby Powers, but the Guthrie junior gave him everything he wanted with a 5-3 match. O’Connor got in the win column with a win over Altus’ Cameron Loving to improve his record to 30-6. He will need to win his Saturday morning match to place. Photo Gallery
Austin O’Connor – 132 pounds
Every second counts and O’Connor made that statement hold up true. With just 45 seconds left in the match and trailing 4-1, the junior scored five points and sealed the win with a second left on the clock over Duncan’s Colton Jump. However, O’Connor ran into trouble in his semi match and dropped a 4-2 decision to the top seeded Aaron Guery of Western Heights. Photo Gallery
Bryan Dutton – 145 pounds
Dutton dropped his semi final match to Skiatook’s Aaron Gillman. The previous week Gillman defeated Dutton en route to the regional win. Gillman got a 6-4 overtime win. The returning state champion went in for the escape, but could not pull it out and Gillman collected the two points for the win. In Dutton’ first match, he needed just 1:37 to pin Duncan’s Kendall Carnahan. Photo Gallery
Devin Bilyeu – 152 pounds
Bilyeu had success early in his match against Noble’s Austin Anderson, but was unable to get anything going in the second and third periods en route to the 10-5 loss. Bilyeu kept his season alive by taking down Grove’s Drew Hardy in the consolation. Photo Gallery
Conner Howard – 195 pounds
Howard was down 0-2, but rallied to build up a 5-2 advantage before Noble’s Hunter Long collected 10 straight unanswered points for the 12-5 win. Despite the loss, Howard collected his 25th win on the season in his consolation match to advance. Photo Gallery
Landry Chappell – 220 pounds
Chappell will look to become just the second Guthrie wrestler to win multiple state championships since Doug Stalnaker did it 1981 and 1982. Photo Gallery
John Davison – 285 pounds
Davison will attempt to become Guthrie’s 11 state champion in school history. Photo Gallery
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