BURLINGTON — Iola High’s Devin Culler was disappointed when it was announced that he won by default. “I wanted to wrestle,” he said.
But the Mustang junior earned the third-place medal he was awarded Saturday at the Burlington High Invitational wrestling tournament. Culler took third in the 152-pound class when Josh Figgins of Fredonia had reached the five-match-a-day limit during the tournament.
Culler, Mike Armstrong and Stephen McDonald claimed medals in their respective weight divisions Saturday. The Mustangs finished ninth as a team with 74.5 points.
Prairie View won the 18-team tournament with 210.5 points. Burlington was second with 196 points.
Armstrong, a freshman, defeated Dallas Birk of Burlington 15-4 in the third-place match of the 119-pound class. Armstrong had a first-round bye, then pinned Mission Valley’s Joe Gleason in 2 minutes, 23 seconds in a quarterfinal match.
In the semifinals, Armstrong lost 4-0 to Kansas Class 3-2-1A’s fourth-ranked Steven Howard of Eureka. That bounced Armstrong to the consolation semifinals.
Armstrong posted a technical fall — 15-0 — over Garrett Lambrecht of Holton which put him in the third-place match.
Culler defeated Bobby Louden of Central Heights 9-1, then beat J.T. Weers of Rock Creek 10-2 to reach the semifinals. Burlington’s Billy Dickinson beat Culler 7-4.
In the consolation semifinals, Culler outlasted Jake Masters of Burlingame 11-7.
McDonald, a sophomore who placed fifth last year, earned the fourth-place medal in the 189-pound class. There were three of the top five ranked wrestlers in Class 3-2-1A in the 189-pound class at Burlington.
McDonald opened his day with a pin of Blake Anderson of Central Heights in 3:59. He edged Jorydan Doviak of Burlingame 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
McDonald took on the fifth-ranked Jesse Campbell of Wells-ville in the semifinals and lost 12-0. In the consolation semifinal, McDonald was behind in points but got a takedown and pinned Billy Teters of Prairie View in 3:40.
In the third-place match, McDonald faced fourth-ranked Thomas Durham of Fredonia. Durham beat McDonald 9-4. Second-ranked Tyler Lowe of Eureka beat Campbell in the champ-ionship match.
Iola senior Marcus Sullivan, who had not wrestled all week because of illness, won his first two matches of the day in the 160-pound division. He pinned Nathan Hovestadt of Burlingame in 49 seconds and posted a major decision, 11-1, over Cole Yancey of Central Heights.
Following that match, Sullivan told Mustang head coach Ron Schomaker he was not feeling well enough to continue. So he defaulted his next three matches and finished in sixth place.
Junior Brent Clark was eighth in the 135-pound class. He pinned Trace Snyder of Jayhawk-Linn, who was wrestling unattached scoring no team points, in 2:25 and lost 11-3 to Sam Wilson of Rock Creek.
Clark stayed alive with a 10-0 major decision over Philip Martinez of Wellsville. Clark was pinned by Burlington’s Trevor Breshears in 3:41. In the seventh-place match, Rylie Parker of Fredonia edged Clark 2-1.
Also taking eighth place was junior Zack Vaughn in the 171-pound class. He opened with a 2-0 decision against Greg Rowley of Bur-lingame and closed losing 6-2 to Rowley in the seventh-place match.
In between, Vaughn was pinned by Josh Hoch of Burlington in 1:24, beat C.J. Bolden of Coffeyville 4-3 and lost 2-0 to Daniel Rhodes of Oskaloosa.
Lee Berg, senior, won his first match of the day, a 6-0 decision over Curtis Kunard of Wellsville, at 130. Then he was pinned by Michael Vander Linden of Burlington in 1:09 in the quarterfinals.
Berg was pinned by Roger McClelland of Mission Valley in 3:04 in a consolation bracket match.
The Mustangs will travel to Columbus Tuesday for Southeast Kansas League matches with Columbus and Parsons.
Iola hosts Chanute and Labette County Thursday in an SEK double dual. Iola takes on Labette County at 5:30 p.m., followed by Labette County wrestling Chanute before Iola takes on Chanute.
Mustang wrestlers capture medals
