The Central Cup Tournament is a special one.
It’s a dual freestyle tournament that features eight teams of some of the best girls wrestlers from the Midwest. Most of the squads features an all-star lineup full of state qualifiers and champions.
There were two such teams from the state of Oklahoma that made the trek to Belton, Mo. To do battle with teams from Kansas and Missouri.
Team Oklahoma Blue went 3-0 in its pool matches to set up a championship bout with Team Red Venom of Kansas. It was a barnburner and was close throughout. The dual came down to the last match as Red Venom’s Katie Biscoglia pinned Jaylyn Lazzerini of Oklahoma Blue to edge the opposition 35-34.
Oklahoma Blue took second place, and Oklahoma Red finished eighth after going 0-4.
In the Poiol A bracket, Oklahoma Blue defeated Best Trained 49-15, MO West Fire Dragons 40-26 and Sudden Victory 59-9.
Those to finish 4-0 for Team Blue were El Reno’s Remy Whitney (87 pounds), Edmond’s Alexandria Skidmore (92), Skiatook’s Destiny Jones (103), Edmond’s Bella Williams (130) and Edmon’s Alex Ray (160). Those to end with a 3-1 record were Harrah’s Addison Morse (108), El Reno’s Kaylee Davis (148) and Abagail Lacy (195).
Against Red Venom in the championship match, Destiny Jones got her team going in the first match of the dual as she pinned Lainie Galvan in 2 minutes, 29 seconds.
“I really surprised myself this weekend,” Jones said. “I wrestled against some pretty tough girls. There were some of them that I wrestled before. I was throwing and scoring and I didn’t give up.”
Morse then followed up by putting her team ahead 10-0 following a pin in 1:18 against Reese Anderson.
“I feel like I wrestled pretty good,” Morse said. “I lost my second match but I ended the tournament really good. My best moves were probably my snap downs and go behinds.”
Red Venom tied the team score at 10-all with pins in the 115- and 123-pouind matches but Oklahoma Blue went up 15-0 after Williams made quick work of Alexis Pehrson by getting a pin in 28 seconds.
“This is my first tournament since Fargo,” Williams said. “I am just shaking the rust off. I am wrestling a little bit heavier than I normally would and feel like the weight made a huge difference.”
Team Venom came back with a pin to tie it at 15-15. But Oklahoma Blue countered with a 9-0 run. Davis pinned justice Thomas in 2:28 to get five points for her team.
“In my first match, I didn’t wrestle that good,” Davis said. “I just got back into freestyle when I have been practicing Folkstyle. But I fixed everything as I went.
“What was working for me was getting the low single legs (takedowns). I also have a really good sprawl and I will use that to get to my other moves.”
Ray capped the run with a 10-0 tech fall against Veronica Madrid.
“I hit two chicken wings and a snake,” Ray said. “Those worked really well. I also hit that one really good leg lace and it got really tight.”
Red Venom won four out of the last six matches to take the win. Of those, Oklahoma Blue won two. Whitney pinned Presley Beard in 2:55 and Skidmore pinned Kenzie Nondorf in 30 seconds. In Whitney’s match, she was down 11-2 before getting a surprise pin to erase the deficit.
“I was trying to find ways to score without getting in bad positions,” Whitney said. “I was lucky enough to find a way to pull through that.”
For Oklahoma Red, Clover Williams of Kerney Mesa, Calif., was the only wrestler to have a winning record on the team as she finished 4-0.
