Wrestling: Dixon three-peats as Carson DeJarnatt Tournament champion

STERLING – For the third straight year, the Dixon Dukes are Carson DeJarnatt Tournament champions.

At the 45th annual wrestling tournament at Musgrove Fieldhouse on Saturday, Sterling, Dixon, Newman, Fulton and Rock Falls faced off in a nine-team field.

After a little over two hours of finals competition, the 2023 champions were crowned. Dixon led the final team standings with 224.5 points, Sterling placed second with 179.5, Newman slotted fifth with 132.5, Fulton took seventh with 78 and Rock Falls came in ninth with 71.

The Dukes won individual titles at 106, 113, 150, 175 and 215 pounds.

Jack Ragan won the first of five titles for Dixon at 106, pinning Newman’s Blair Grennan in 2:41.

“I just wanted to be aggressive, and I just wanted to come out there and get the win. It felt pretty good, keeping my record alive,” Ragan said. “I think it’s pretty good competition, and it’ll prepare me pretty good for what’s to come.”

Dixon’s Ayden Rowley pinned Oak Lawn’s Ryan Bisoyana in 2:00 to claim the 113-pound title, and teammate Cade Hey pinned Clinton’s Brady Jennings in 2:57 to take the 150-pound title.

Also for the Dukes, Steven Kitzman won the 175-pound title with a 13-6 decision against Sterling’s Gage Tate, and Will Howell earned the 215-pound title with a 7-6 decision against Clinton’s Hayden Chandler.

Gavin Kramer (132) and Jayden Weidman (144) each finished second, Jayce Kastner (165) took third, and Riley Paredes (120), Jacob Renkes (126) and James Simpson (138) each placed fourth for team champion Dixon.

The Golden Warriors placed second as a team, led by two individual champions.

Zyan Westbrook claimed the 120-pound title, pinning Newman’s Zhyler Hansen in 1:35. Isaiah Mendoza followed that with a 157-pound title, taking a 7-6 decision against Galesburg’s Josiah Carter.

“I just wanted to go out there, do my stuff, just my bread and butter,” Westbrook said. “It feels good. I’m proud. It feels great [to win the championship.] Tough competition, I think it’ll help me getting tough matches at the beginning of the season to prep me for the postseason.”

Also for Sterling, Gage Tate (175) and Oswaldo Navarro (285) took second, and Christian Ramirez (106) and Landon Kenney (144) placed third. Evan Jones (113), Ayden Shaw (132) and Tatum Allen (165) added fourth-place finishes for the Golden Warriors.

Newman took home two individual championships and three third-place medals. At 144, the Comets’ Carter Rude won the championship, pinning Dixon’s Jayden Weidman in 1:00.

“I just knew I had to go out there and attack in the first period, so, going out, shooting my shots, getting on offense first, so I don’t get slowed down and I get the job done,” said Rude, who also won a DeJarnett championship as a sophomore in 2021. “It’s nice to repeat, make sure that you’re going in the right direction. There’s definitely a lot of good teams here. It’s definitely a nice way to start the year. We don’t get a lot of matches before this. Coming here, getting some solid competition is always nice.”

At 165, Daniel Kelly took a 5-2 decision against Galesburg’s Anthony Makwala for the title.

Blair Grennan (106), Zhyler Hansen (120) and Brady Grennan (138) each took second in their respective weight classes. Caleb Donna added a fourth-place Comets’ finish at 175.

Adan Oquendo was the lone Rock Falls champion at 132, taking a 7-2 decision against Dixon’s Gavin Kramer.

“I just tried to stay as active as I possibly can, just to make sure that I’m scoring as much as possible throughout the match,” Oquendo said. “I’m really happy about [the championship]. I think the competition here is pretty good overall. The Dixon kid that I wrestled was on par with really good kids, in my opinion, so I think this is preparing me to keep going on and wrestling at the next level.”

Logan Thome (126) and Jacob Hosler (285) each placed third for the Rockets.

Mason Kuebel led Fulton with a second-place finish at 190, followed by Broden VenHuizen with a third-place finish at 150 and Jonah Lutz with a fourth-place finish at 157.