Durant sophomore Aiden Polk and senior Adam Haney punched their tickets for the Class 5A state wrestling tournament with solid regional tournament performances last weekend in Claremore.
Polk claimed third place in the 144-pound division while Haney finished fifth at 165 pounds to lead the way for the Lions, who also had Mac Barbush and Britton Trotter fall just shy of qualifying matches for the last state tournament ever to be held at The Big House in Oklahoma City.
In his opening two matches Polk had little trouble as he cruised into the weight class semifinals, posting a 14-3 major decision over Robert Miller of Tulsa Edison as well as picking up a fall in 2:23 against Grove’s William Dunaway.
A narrow 8-5 decision loss to Kade Carter from Shawnee forced the Lion standout into the consolation bracket where he excelled with back-to-back triumphs. He eliminated Michael Robertson of Claremore in an 8-3 decision and then stopped McAlester’s Kale Livingston for a 1:13 pin fall triumph for the third-place medal.
Haney got off to a good start as well with back-to-back wins as he dispatched Gavin Cloud from Ada by fall in only 24 seconds and Coweta’s Ben Mendenhall in a 4-1 decision.
Consecutive fall losses had the Durant grappler on the brink of elimination but he answered the bell in his final match with a 13-2 major decision over Nathan Rampey of McAlester to advance to this week’s state event.
Barbush notched a 2-2 overall mark at 138 pounds, receiving a first round bye ahead of a wild, high-scoring 19-13 decision against Tulsa Edison’s Franke Rodriguez.
A quarterfinal loss to Gunner Murray from Claremore sent him to the consolation bracket where he notched another 1715 marathon decision triumph against Ethan Soliz to stay alive. Barbush then bowed out of the tournament with a 21-5 technical fall verdict to McAlester grappler Anthony Noble.
Wrestling at 157 pounds, Trotter also received an opening round bye en route to a 2-2 record. He fell in a first-round fall during his first match but bounced back for consecutive consolation victories, stopping Tripp Turner from Tulsa Edison in 1:56 fall as well as Luke Walker of Tulsa Memorial for a 1:43 fall.
Trotter’s run however ended in the consolation round four, dropping a fall verdict in round one to Claremore’s Hayden Lee.
Durant had one other match winner as Gaige Rocha went 1-2 in heavyweight competition with his lone victory a 2:47 fall triumph facing Jimmy Santana from Tulsa Edison.
