OVERLAND PARK — Austin Hood was frustrated with himself.
All Hood did was improve his record to 25-0 on the season and capture the Blue Valley Northwest tournament title at 126 pounds Saturday, his third championship of the season.
Leave it to Hood, the perfectionist, to pick out the flaws in his matches. The Louisburg senior defeated Lawrence’s Hunter Haralson by a 5-0 decision and left the mat knowing he could have done more.
Knowing that Haralson was the lone wrestler to hand Hood a loss a season ago, he wanted to make a statement.
“He’s set some high expectations for himself and at this point in the season, he’s getting to be self-critical and I like that attitude,” Louisburg coach Bobby Bovaird said. “He’s not satisfied. Defeating a kid like Haralson isn’t a shabby performance.”
Hood started the two-day tournament with a 17-2 technical fall over Washington’s Travis Mohler and then recorded another technical fall (16-0) over Topeka High’s Marcus Reece.
In the semifinals, Hood squared off with Manhattan’s Drew Unruh and worked for a third period pin which led to his decision over Haralson.
“After the (title) match, Austin and I talked about what to do next,” Bovaird said. “He’s got some tough matches coming down the pike. He knows that he has to do more than simply say, ‘I’m going to work harder,’ if he wants to achieve his goals. He knows that he has to put down a plan of how to work harder, and figuring out the ‘how’ part is so hard for a teenager to do.”
The match of the day came thanks to senior Austin Caskey, who finished fifth in what was a tough Blue Valley Northwest field at 145 pounds.
Caskey was on the verge of elimination in the consolation round before rallying to score five points in the final 25 seconds to send the match to overtime, where he scored the quick take down for the 11-9 decision over Shawnee Mission West’s David Clum.
The Louisburg senior found himself down 9-4 with 25 seconds remaining in the final period when he recorded two points for a takedown and then put Clum on his back for a 3-point nearfall as time expired. Caskey didn’t waste time in the extra period as he recorded a takedown in the first 20 seconds.
He eventually won his fifth-place match over Olathe South’s Derek Pike, who had to forfeit due to an injury.
“Caskey wrestled pretty hard this weekend, and I wish more of the team had been there to witness it,” Bovaird said. “I want the younger kids to see what that’s like. I can preach it over and over in the practice room, but they need to witness it in person to really understand it. A lot of times, the younger, less experienced kids don’t know what it’s like to wrestle with a sense of urgency.
“Caskey showed a great deal of maturity and savvy by keeping calm and focused and knowing exactly what had to happen for him to win the match. He went out there and made it happen instead of waiting for a break or wishing a miracle would happen.”
As a team, the Wildcats took six wrestlers to the tournament and finished 15th overall with 50 points.
Curtis Lemke (152 pounds) and Kyle McLellan (220) each had several ranked wrestlers in their brackets. Both picked up wins on the day, but were eventually eliminated before the consolation finals.
Austen Scott (132) and Ben Powers (138) also made the trip but went 0-2 on the day.
Louisburg returns to action Saturday when it travels to Baldwin for another tournament. Matches are set to begin at 9 a.m.
