The Newkirk Takedown Club team traveled Feb. 15-16 to attend the 41st Oklahoma Kids Wrestling Association State Tournament in Tulsa. Attending for the tigers were seven wrestlers who had to qualify the week before at the regional tournament. The qualifiers were Easton Brown, Brodie Banister, Preston and Daxton Hasselbring, Thatcher Billingsly, Brady Oldfield and Kyson Hasselbring.
Two of the students came up a match short of the podium in the ‘blood round,’ Kyson Hasselbring and Brady Oldfield. Kyson came up short in his match, but not without a hard-fought battle that can possibly give him a drive to want to be on that podium someday. And for Brady Oldfield, he was also one match away from medaling. He had one costly mistake that determined the match. Ending the first period down 5-0 didn’t stop Oldfield from attempting a comeback. With eight seconds left in the match, Oldfield threw his opponent to his back looking for the fall, but sadly ran out of time and losing the match by a mere two points.
Coach Brandon Weant said that both Hasselbring and Oldfield fought hard in some of their best matches and is proud of how his team performed. The only medal winner came from Easton Brown where after a tough loss to the eventual state champion in the quarter finals, Brown would dominate his next match and consolation semifinals match, setting him up for consolation finals where he did fall short in a loss, but never gave up.
Preston Hasselbring got his first win at the state tournament, along with Brodie Banister winning his first and second state tournament matches.
Coach Weant said that the kids that he coaches have made a big improvement and have made it far this year and that he is excited for the future.
The weekend prior on Feb. 8-9, Hayden Eller competed in the OKUSA Novice State Tournament in Tulsa where he won two matches and advanced to the semi-finals where he faced a tough opponent. Eller came up with a short loss in the semi-finals, but he made it to the consolation finals where he placed third at State.
