Reece is a terrific young man and he wrestles pretty good too. Lawrence High wrestled very well the last couple of days. More importantly in my opinion, they are a team participating in an individual sport. The upper classmen have taken in the freshmen and made them feel like they are equals on the mat. They are mentors for these young men, and I am sure that the freshmen appreciate the support.

I know that Garrett looks up to these guys as do the other freshman. They go out to do battle not just for themselves, they go out to do it for their team because they are part of the team. Ben, Levi, Cameron, Reece, Brad, Macon, Hunter and Andrew, thank you guys for helping these young men out.

AWESOME match to end the night on! I also was very impressed with their sportsmanship. Very physical, hard fought match. Yet, neither ever acted disrespectful toward an offical or toward each other. Even gave each other a hug after the match! ;-) It would be refreshing to see more of this mature and respectful conduct - both before, during and after the match. Congrads to both young men. I enjoyed your battle very much.

Sweet! In Lawrence's history, they have never had a wrestling team state championship. This crew seems to be working towards one. Good job coaches.

Reece has always been a quiet professional. The Lawrence community is proud of him and the rest of the Lawrence High wrestlers! Good job boys!

dwelsh:
you must have missed the award stand photo, Crutchmer tossed his medal in the stands and walked off the award stand before the pictures were finished.
This surprised me, because he did show good sportsmanship during the end of match procedure.

I hear ya on the "suprised" part. Disappointing about him tossing his medal into the stands. GHEZ! Not only uncool, DANGEROUS.

I guess things are not always as they appear (of course I knew this before the tossing of the medal). Thanks for the info Mr. Johnson.

On a related note, it was amazing how much distance Crutchmer could create on his stand ups. I get so tired of seeing kids not creating any distance and merely just prying their hips up in an almost tripod position. Its like the pry kid is just begging to be put into a craddle . . . Just a pet peave of mine. Get up and OUT boys! Don't just sit and pry your hips up. Or, am I just too old school and this prying stuff is good tech now? I imagine occasionally a pry is needed (trying for a grandby or something) it just seems like I see kids do this prying stuff 95% of time. Any thoughts?

STARTS WITH THE COACHING: Coaches remark was he should have just thrown it in the trash.

Interesting. I see your point.

However, just because your coach says something dumb - doesn't mean you have to do it. And, DROPPING it in the trash as opposed to THROWING into the stands, are two totally different things.

But, anyway - nobody is perfect and I know I have done my share of dumb, hot-headed things in my 47 years of life. The kid was probably only 17 or 18 years old. Hopefully he learned to never do something that foolish again. However, if he didn't learn his lesson - then like I tell my 'frequent flier repeat offenders' at school -- "somebody has to give the warden a job. I just hope it is not you . . ."

Thankfully we got many coaches that don't teach that kind of cr--. Coaches that love and respect ALL wrestlers brave enough to step into the center and wrestle to the best of their ability. Thank you much for those kind of coaches.

I maybe wrong but I believe the coach is also his dad?

His coach is his Dad but the coach in question was not.

Perhaps next year Newton can go with trackwrestling.com and matside scoring so that fans around the world can get real time updates.

is there a link anywhere to see the 125 finals match i cant fine it anywhere.

Ask and you shall receive:

Newton Tournament

thank you sir!
stokes was not ranked all class before that correct?

Stokes was #8 in the All Class before this match.
I've never seen him wrestle before so I don't know if he is usually such a defensive wrestler or if that was just his game plan for Beasley.
Either way it was very well played out.
I hope Beasley watches that match 100 times and is ready to see him again someday soon.

I have watched TJ for years. I wouldnt consider him defensive. He did get a couple takedowns and pressed the action at the edge of the mat in this match.

I didn't mean that in a bad way!
I only saw the video. It looked like the take downs were counters to a weak shot or a Beasley throw by.
And when Beasley would run back to center Stokes would come back a little ways and set up and wait for Beasley to come back to him.
It was a very smart and well wrestled match by Stokes.
I'm a Beasley fan and think he is capable of a much stronger showing.
Take NOTHING from Stokes!!!
A well earned W for him!

No offense taken.

I heard today that the OW was voted on before finals? Surely this is not true, I thought. Then again I believed it since Wright-Conklin was NOT voted OW. Nothing against Prescott but Crutchmer is a beast who has been a Fargo All American six times I believe. Josh Walker is a very good wrestler but come on coaches and/or officials, Reece was deserving of this award. I honestly think it just gets to be a popularity contest or an afterthought. The JoCo OW this year was a complete joke in my opinion. Personally, if they aren't going to give the coaches the data on each of the champions so that they can make an educated selection they just need to do away with these awards.

There were two, of twenty six ballots turned in prior to the conclusion of all finals matches.

I imagine Reece knows he wrestled a terrific tournament at Newton. As with a lot of the best in the State, and in his case in the Nation, he has been wrestling a long time and if he was happy with his performance on the mat, that was probably more important than being voted OW.