Maroons win Dual State through blood and sweat- now onto State.

For the Blackwell Journal Tribune 2022-2023 winter sports preview, I interviewed Blackwell Head Wrestling Coach, Conner Cline.

I asked Coach Cline what his expectations were for the season, and his answer was “A Dual State and State Tournament Championship!”

I assumed Coach Cline was saying what most coaches would say about their teams, that they are the best.

When I asked Coach Cline if those were realistic expectations, he emphatically replied, “Absolutely!”

The Maroons are halfway to that goal after defeating Marlow, a storied Oklahoma wrestling program on Saturday, and putting a 3A Dual State championship trophy in the Blackwell case for the first time since 1991.

The Maroons cruised through the first two rounds of the bracket, steamrolling Hinton 63-15 and Sperry 62-9 to advance to the Championship match against Marlow.

Marlow defeated two-time defending champions Berryhill and Sulphur to reach the championship.

The Championship matchup was the slugfest it was billed to be with the teams trading leads and then the Maroons battling from behind to claim gold with a final score of 38-32.

Blackwell’s big man J.D. McCleary started the action at 285 lbs. by pinning Kaden Lucan at 1:16. Jaxson Brown then dropped a match At 106 LBS by TB 7-8 to Tommy Miller. Louden Wolfe won his match at 113lbs by SV over Keller Kizarr 5-4.

Beau Murphy followed at 120 lbs with a loss by major decision 12-4 to Gehrig Furr. Kaiden Ailey won his match at 126 lbs by TF 20-5 over Brayden Bowman. Jake Miller lost his match at 132 lbs by decision 5-3 to Brantz Bateman. Kasen O’Dell lost a major decision to Lawson Knox 12-0 at 138 lbs. Laker Ingram was pinned by Cade Gilbert at 5:17 in the 144 lb match.

Grant Rowe then scored six points for Blackwell by pinning David Haliburton at the 3:10 mark at 150 lbs.

The Outlaws returned the favor in the 157 lb. match when Clayton Robinson pinned Lawson Lusk at 4:50 and Zach Dawson pinned ZaineMcDonald at 1:44 in the 165lb match.

Jason Osgood brought Blackwell back into the striking distance by pinning Jase Hunt at 0:56 in the 175 lb. match. Kruz Goff then tied things back up at 190 lbs. by pinning Gage Hixon at 0:56, bringing the score to 32-32.

Senior, Kolby Looper, took the mat at 215 lbs. and pinned Brock Smith at 5:23 to win it all for the Maroons.

The Maroons will continue their quest for a second State Championship this year when they travel down I-35 to Perry for the regional tournament on February 17th & 18th.