Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Best Matches All Time

Some of us old timers out here can remember some of the great matches in Kansas History. Give a little history lesson to the youngens here what were some of your best match memories. Personally, I remember Lowry of Norton and Lampe from Colby matching in regionals and state their senior years. Lowry upset him in regionals 10-2 and Lampe came back and got him in the state by about the same score. One of my wrestlers, Landunn Richardson beat Eric Akin his senior year 10-4 in the finals of the Schlagle tourney. Just a couple I am sure their are many I am forgetting about here.

Aaron Miester vs Joe Corcron (sp?) back in the finals for 160 at regionals in holton back in 2000 was one of the best matches I have ever seen with Aaron beating Joe in the last few seconds. Also this year at Bashor Linwood Dukes vs. Ingenthron was a good match.

Chad Flores in the 3a finals his junior year against the kid from Caney--Brandon??? in the final 20 seconds Chad had to turn him, snapped on a cradle and won, lots of chills over that match.

The best match i have witnessed was between Autin Devoe of Columbus and Dustin Tovar of Abiliene in the state finals in 98 or 99. Tovar was down 4 points with about 6-7 seconds left. I believe he was in the down position. He reversed Devoe to his back and won!

Actually tovar was trying to do a standup on devoe and when devoe started comeing up Tovars body to lift him, Tovar did a neck wrench and took Devoe to his back, and its a good thing the match didn't go 2 more seconds becuase Devoe actually ended back up on top which would have given him a reverse and he would have won the match. I was very happy for Dustin.

It may not be considered one of the best of all time but what about the match @ the Newton Tourn. Finals between Bo Maynes, when he was a senior, and Dusty Spaulding, when he was a sophomore.Spaulding almost took him down several times but Bo fought it off. In my mind that was one of the best matches I have seen

Dusty was involoved in some of the more memorable matches of recent years. If memory serves me, he wrestled Long from Santa Fe Trail and Roberson and lost close matches to both of them as well as Maynes. Hard luck there. I think all of them were very close and could have gone the other way easily. Four really good ones there for sure.

The match between Todd Plummer of Oakley and Butch Kerns of Plainville in the state finals in 1989 was one of the most entertaining matches I have witnessed. Kerns ended up with the win, but there were several lead changes late in the match. Both wrestlers showed incredible offensive attacks and an ability to counter their opponent's offensive attacks throughout the entire match. No stalling in this one.

A very similar match - although I did not personally witness it - would have been Matt Murray of Colby and Brian Harris of Eudora in the semi-finals of the 2001 4A state tournament. I understand this too was an exciting match with non-stop action between two very talented wrestlers.

How about Drennan and Pyle in the State semifinals from this year. Who would have thought that Drennan would win after getting caught in a 5 point move in the 1st period only to seal it with a 5 point move of his own in the 3rd? Terrific match between possibly the two best wrestlers in 3A

2 years ago at regionals when Earl Jones wrestled Joey Herschee from Mulvane it went into double overtime earl ended up getting away but you should have heard the place about half was for herschee the other half for jones i thought the roof was gonna blow off

My choice for best match ever would have to be Chris Hernandez-Ark City v Matt Biles-Bonner Springs in the state finals of 171 in 1990. If I remember right they both dropped to 160 the following year and met in the finals again, with Hernandez winning both times.

the best matches I have ever seen are:

dusty spaulding vs. bo maynes
spaulding vs. roberson
josh lattimer vs. philip walker

If hoover and metzler wrestled at the East/West dual that would be another one of the best matches ever, they wrestled before with hoover coming out on top.

My choice would be Abilene's Terry Thorson in the 135 pound 4A finals in 1989 against a kid from Columbus. Thorson gets his front teeth ripped from his mouth in the first period, every time he took a breath it was going in on bare nerves. Thorson winds up getting a reversal with 10 seconds left to tie the match, then hears the buzzer on the 5A mat go off, lets the kid go thinking they were going to overtime, but it was actually an escape and the kid from Columbus won the match. Super match.

Wow Terry used to be4 my coach in Kids club and high school, I always heard about that story but never in so much detail. Terry was an inspiration to me and always encouraged me and made me better, im glad you told this story results god. Just a few clarifiers. The Drennen - Pyle match was indeed great, especially considering that these two meet up for the 3a state championship a year ago and pyle pretty much owned Drennen. But Im glad Drennen won beucase I have watched him wrestle many times and he derserved to win state. Also that match between spaulding and long was hardly "close" like many would think the actual score was 10 - 5 with long winning, Long pretty much handled Spaulding.

Where is Long nowadays? Loved to watch him wrestle!

Nigel,
I was there and watched the match with Long and Spaulding, and Long did not pretty much handle him. It was a good match and Long, who was very adept at hitting headlocks hit Spaulding with one. The match was alot closer than that score.

Eric Akin could hardly walk on a recently sprained ankle when he got beat as a Senior. Best match in the last 20 years had to be the 2-1 Zach Roberson over Dusty Spaulding at Derby 1999 when Zach had his undefeated streak on the line. Zach could have cared less about the streak, unlike most everybody else. He wanted to just go wrestle the best. When the big match was on the line Dusty was there at his best. Unlike some of the times he got beat when he was sick or unfocused. Dusty didn't know that Zach was coming up a weight to wrestle him until the brackets were hung. In fact, Zach's mom and stepdad didn't know until they got there. No TDs in the first. Dusty unbelieveably rode Zach thru scramble after scramble in the 2nd. Zach rode Dusty for 10 seconds, let him loose and took him down with a head shrug single he had set up in the first. Zach rode him out thru scramble after scramble. Zach's mom, Skeeter almost had to have CPR a couple of times. Two 4 year state champs, national titlists, wrestling in the Big XII. Lots of upsets where the favored wrestler didn't wrestle very well, but this was two of the best at their best. Who is the only wrestler from the state of KS to pin Zach?

Best Matches All Time: For you old timers, even better than Roberson & Spaulding/Akin etc. 1987 State Wrestling championships. The 4A Semi Finals. Dave Canfield of Concordia, Junior Two-Time State Champ impecable record vs. Todd Drake Andover, Two-Time State Champ with only one loss too. The match came down to one point as they met in the semi-finals instead of the finals. The entire arena circled around that match to see who would not become a four-time state champ.Drake became the next four-time state champ. Canfield became a three time state champ. Canfield wrestled the same weight the next year, Drake went up a weight. One match deciding who was going to be the next four timer. Drake went on to become a national champion and placing third twice in nationals. What about Cory Jones vs. Jason Brown 1987 south vs kapaun dual. One point match.

Am I wrong, or didn't a similar situation arise back in 1998 with Jeremy Long and Beau Tillman? I believe that Tillman was going for his third title, and Long his second; Tillman was leading maybe 7-1 or something like that, and Long, an excellent thrower who never gives up, caught him in a headlock and pinned him. Long, as we all know, was a 4 timer, and Tillman became a 3 timer.

I also remember a similar match to decide who would be a 3 timer and who would be a 2 timer - that was Brandon Pfizenmaier of Clay Center and Jason Banding of Paola in 1997. Pfizenmaier caught a late takedown to secure the win. Great matches!

Did Kelly Brewster wrestle Erick Akin in the finals his senior year 1987, and loose the match right at the end? Would that have been Brewsters third title?
Good match, Akin loosing his freshman year to junior Corey Jones. Jones dominated that completely. Have any best of all timers?????