Fort Scott's Davis to wrestle for State title tonight

Fort Scott High School senior Denzell Davis will be wrestling for the Class 4A State title at 119 pounds tonight as he won three matches by decision Friday at the Kansas Class 4A State Wrestling Tournament in Salina.

Davis is one of five wrestlers from two area schools who are competing in State Wrestling Tournaments this weekend. Senior Justin Sharp and freshman Tyler Sharp are also representing Fort Scott in the Class 4A tournament at Salina while seniors Quincy Hodges and Eli Walrod competed for Jayhawk-Linn in the Class 3-2-1A tournament at Hays.

Davis opened competition at Salina by taking an 8-7 decision over Kenny Gulley of Atchison. Both competitors entered the match with season records of 30 wins and eight losses.

In the quarterfinals, Davis took a 9-3 decision over Francisco Antillion of Scott City, who was 35-7 entering the match. This put Davis into a semifinal match against Southeast Kansas League rival Tim Wrestler of Chanute (34-6), whom he defeated 5-2.

Davis will wrestle tonight against Zac Sparr of Rose Hill (32-2), who finished in third place at this weight last year. To get to the finals, Sparr pinned Kyle Wilson of Wamego, beat Robbie Hines of Ulysses on a 4-1 decision and Konnor Kriss of Colby with a 7-4 decision.

The championship finals are scheduled to begin 45 minutes after the conclusion of the consolation finals, which begin at 2:30 p.m.

Justin Sharp, at 125, opened the day with a pin over Dustin Vielhauer of Lenexa St. James Academy just 46 seconds into the match. In the quarterfinals, Brett LaMar of Silver Lake won an 8-2 decision. LaMar has lost just two of 37 matches this season going into the championship match, a berth he earned with a 7-5 decision over Levi Eck of Andale in the semifinals.

Sharp can still finish as high as third. He has to win his first two matches this morning to reach the consolation semifinals. At that point, he is guaranteed a medal anywhere between third and sixth. He will begin working toward a medal this morning at 9:30 a.m., when he faces Jared Johnson of Easton-Pleasant Ridge in consolation cross-bracketing.

Tyler Sharp, a 103-pounder was 32-15 going into State but lost a 3-2 decision to junior Michael Torrez of Basehor-Linwood in the first round. This dropped Sharp into consolation, where he was able to beat Jake Roberts of Clay Center to remain alive. He will take on Jason Perez of Ulysses in consolation cross bracketing this morning. Like his brother Justin, Tyler can finish anywhere between third and sixth as long as he wins his first two matches this morning.

At Hays, both Jayhawk wrestlers lost both of their matches and were eliminated from the tournament Friday. Hodges was pinned by Spencer Shirk of Norton, who entered the tournament with 30 victories on the season in the first round at 160 pounds. Colten Johnson of Marion eliminated Hodges with a 12-5 decision in consolation.

Walrod was pinned by Dylon Voorhies of Fredonia in his first match at 285 pounds. In consolation, he was pinned by Kyle Besher of Gypsum-Southeast of Saline.