EDMOND – The Edmond Santa Fe Wolves hosted the 6A West Regional tournament this weekend with the Wolves finishing in sixth place and had seven wrestlers place, including two State qualifers and one alternate. Broken Arrow outpointed the Edmond North Huskies for the team title.

Senior Walter Smith and junior Brett Dunning were the Wolves two State qualifiers. Smith finished in 2nd place, dropping a 5-2 decision to Edmond North’s Joel Dixon in the Championship finals at 182. Dunning finished in third, defeating Moore’s Colby Moates 5-0 in the consolation finals at 126. This is Dunning’s third consecutive time to qualify for the State tournament.

Senior Eric Hebert finished in fifth place earning a spot as a State alternate at 170. Finishing in sixth place were Andrew Lemoine (106), Greg Spinner (113), Mason Stowers (145) and Brandon Roberts (195). 

The opening round of the 91st Oklahoma State Wrestling Championships begin at 10:30am on Friday, February 24th at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Arena.

Senior Walter Smith finished in second place, losing to Deer Creek’s Nolan Boyd 1-0 in the chamipionship finals at 182 lbs.

Sophomore Mason Stowers finished in fifth place at 152 lbs with a 13-2 major decision over Anadarko’s Cisco.

The Wolves finish their home dual stand Thursday night with Yukon.

YUKON — Edmond Santa Fe had three wrestlers place at the Jay Hancock Invitational Tournament on Saturday.

Senior Walter Smith finished in third place at 182 pounds with a forfeit over Davonte Murray from Putnam City.

Junior Brett Dunning and senior Brandon Roberts turned in a fifth-place finishes. Dunning won by decision over Gareth Ballard from Mustang at 126 pounds and Roberts won by decison over Ruben Hunter from Putnam City North at 195 pounds.

Santa Fe faces Westmoore in dual action on Thursday, January 26th at Westmoore High School. 

Senior Greg Spinner put in third place at 113 pounds, junior Brett Dunning was fourth at 132 pounds and sophomore heavyweight Jon Wynn turned in a fourth-place finish.

Santa Fe will host District duals Thursday, welcoming Putnam City West, Mustang and Tulsa Union. The Wolves will turn right around and travel to the Yukon Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

The No. 6-ranked Huskies lost just one match in a 56-3 win against host Santa Fe, and closed out the title with a gritty 47-16 win over Memorial.

“We haven’t had a whole lot of close duals this year, so it was good to have the crowd in it tonight,” North coach Andy Schneider said. “It was good to wrestle guys that really come at you and bring a lot of intensity.”

North never trailed against Memorial, but found itself in a tight spot midway through the dual. The Bulldogs pulled even when Michael McClish picked up a first-period fall at 160 pounds.

Lance Dixon pushed North back in front with a win at 170, but the Bulldogs answered with a strong showing from Zach Bradshaw. Joel Dixon narrowly escaped a pin by the Memorial senior in the first period, and later pulled out an 11-10 win with a takedown in the closing seconds of the match.

“I really applaud (Bradshaw) for his effort, but I think Joel really rose to the occasion,” Schneider said. “Instead of backing down, he just scraped and fought his way back.”

The Huskies then iced the city championship with wins in five of the final six matches, including pins by Ragan Land and Kevin Orduna.

Memorial coach Darren Huff said he would have loved to see an upset, but was pleased with the way his team overcame a few setbacks on Monday night.

“We had some guys up weights, some guys not in the lineup and some that don’t want to wrestle, but the guys that were here really fought hard,” Huff said. “We got a horrible call in Zach Bradshaw’s match when we didn’t get that fall. So there were some things that could have gone better, but I was proud of our guys.”

The Wolves finished second in the triangular with a 40-22 win against Memorial in the final match of the night. Walter Smith and Jon Wynn came away with pins and Greg Hendrickson added a major decision for the Wolves.

“Memorial has a good team and we knew we’d match up well with them in those upper weights,” Santa Fe coach Tim Draper said. “We knew we’d have to come out and wrestle and the kids met that challenge in the second dual.”

Memorial came out strong against Santa Fe, and went ahead 16-3 when Alec Warren earned a major decision at 152 pounds. The Wolves answered with three straight wins and regained control when Wynn pinned Memorial’s Ryley West in the heavyweight bout.

The Bulldogs got another win from Marcus Delay at 106, but lost the final three matches — two by forfeit.

“Marcus is a tough little kid and he’s wrestling at the right weight now and did a nice job for us,” Huff said.

Brett Dunning had Santa Fe’s only win in the 56-3 loss to North in the opener. The 132-pounder edged North’s Hunter Bright with a 3-1 decision, and later topped Memorial’s Josh Nunley by the same score.

Jonah Moore and Warren each had two wins for the Bulldogs.

Memorial and North are back in action Thursday. The Bulldogs host Perry, while the Huskies travel to Norman North. The Santa Fe boys will head to the Carl Albert Invitational on Friday and Saturday.

The Wolves host Three Dog Night Monday, a triangular with Edmond North and Edmond Memorial. The first dual begins at 3:30pm.

Junior High Division

110 – Conal Person – 1st place

126 – Benjamin Casteel – 2nd place

High School Division

126 – Brett Dunning – 2nd place

160 – Hayden Ball – 4th place

182 – Walter Smith – 1st place

195 – Derrick Wadlington – 1st place

Sophomore Brett Dunning earned a third place finish at State, the Wolves second-ever State medal winner, and finished with a 31-10 record. Seniors Joey Robertson and Thomas Clifton were State Alternates.

 The Junior High team had two State placers at the Junior High State tournament with Eric Sollimano (200) and Jon Wynn (275) placing sixth.

Special thanks to the Santa Fe Coaching staff. Your commitment to making our wrestlers the best they can be is greatly appreciated; Tim Draper, Wes Barnhart, Kyle Baker, Jermaine Brown and Josh Greer.

At the Wolves annual banquet, the following wrestlers were recognized for their hard work, dedication and success in the 2010-11 season:

Dunning defeated the #2 seed from the West Regional, freshman Parker Bohannan from Yukon, 3-1 in the first round. Dunning then faced the #1 overall seed, Lukas Etchison from Muskogee in the championship semi-finals. Etchison got the early lead and held off several late flurries from Dunning to secure the 4-2 decision.

On Saturday, Dunning faced Irwin Adaco of Owasso in the consolation semi-finals. Dunning dominated the match from beginning to end with a 9-2 decision. In the consolation finals, Dunning defeated Nathan Clark from Broken Arrow 3-2 to earn the third place medal.