The wrestling team crowned three individual champions and took fourth as team this weekend at the Lee’s Summit Christmas Invitational.

With only eight wrestlers in the starting lineup, the team still managed to combine for 170.5 team points  edging out Francis Howell Central for fourth. Lee’s Summit beat  Francis Howell for the team title 207 to 205.5 while Lee’s Summit West rounded out the top three with 181.5 team points.

Four Bruin wrestlers advanced to the championship match. Freshman Brock Davis won in the semi final match 4-2 over Lee’s Summit West’s Ryan Waits before injury defaulting in the finals to claim second place at 106 pounds. Sophomore Josiah Kline defeated DJ Ballard of Bonner Springs, Kansas 4-1 to win the title at 120 pounds. Senior and Mizzou commit, Sam Crane defeated Keegan McCormick 7-5 to win the title at 145 pounds.

Also during the course of the tournament, Crane broke the RBHS wrestling career win mark previously held by his brother Taylor Crane. Junior Graham Ratermann defeated Cody Vaughn of Park Hill South 6-2 to win the title at 152 pounds. Additionally Senior and South Dakota State commit Quinn Smith took third at 132 pounds and senior Jason Kiehne took fifth at 138 pounds.  Kline said team showed a positive attitude throughout the tournament.

“We have a good team and good partners so we can push each other,” Kline said. “The practice room and our coaches are there watching every mover so when we make a mistake, they will talk about our mistakes and what we need to do to make that move work a lot better so we can compete and possibly beat the best kids there are in the state and possibly in the country.”

By Graham Ratermann and Harsh Singh