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Prep Wrestling: Survive & Advance

To borrow a line from the Disney movie, The Mighty Ducks, Murphysboro High School's wrestling team was just bigger, faster, stronger and had more facial hair.

The Red Devils ran away with the Harrisburg Class 1A Wrestling Regional Saturday, stealing the show with 246 points, while the host Bulldogs took second with 154 points.

Rounding out the top five included Benton (126), West Frankfort (96.5) and Carterxville (75).

"I knew that going in that Murphysboro was going to be tough to beat," HHS head coach Greg Langley said. "They just have a good group of kids and a lot of weapons."

The day was not all lost for Harrisburg however.

After the prelims Saturday morning, the afternoon session of the championship matches consisted of 10 Bulldogs vying for one of three spots to attend next week's IHSA Class 1A Sectional at Carterville.

The lone first place finish went to Harrisburg freshman Kyle Cavender, who is now 30-2 on the season after his second period pinfall of Carterville's Tony Gray.

At 126 pounds, Kody Cavender, along with Jimmy Hicks (138), Cody Rightnowar (145), Lucian Hicks (182) and Chase McDaniel (285) all lost on the championship match, but their second place finish advances them to next Saturday.

Ryan Ragsdale (160) secured himself a spot, beating Benton's Nick Goffinet with an 8-3 decision and on the outside looking in are three other grapplers, Autumn Millis (106), Landon Hicks (113) and Chandler Bowling (132), who lost in the Third-Fourth Place matches. Millis, Hicks and Bowling will still attend Saturday's sectional at Carterville, but will only be able to wrestle if a spot opens up.

The fact that Langley and company are sending seven to sectionals is something that the longtime coach is happy about.

"I thought we got just about everybody we were going to get," Langley said. "That being said, I was really hoping to get Landon Hicks there, but it just didn't work out, but here's still an outside shot. I was really happy to see a guy like Ryan Ragsdale battle back and beat a kid he had lost to earlier, that was really good to see.

"Overall, it was a successful day and our group wrestled hard. They all gave a heck of an effort and guys like Kyle, Kody and Jimmy - all freshmen - really stepped up."

Team Places

Murphysboro 246

Harrisburg 154

Benton 126

West Frankfort 96.5

Carterville 75

First Place

120 - Kyle Cavender (30-2) beat Tony Gray (Carterville, 20-17) at 2:37 in the second period

Second Plcae

126 - Kody Cavender (33-3) lost to Ryan Chambers (Murphysboro, 34-3) with a 3-0 decision

138 - Jimmy Hicks (21-13) lost to Arieh Hart (Murphysboro, 35-7)

145 - Cody Rightnowar (24-6) lost to Peyton Smith (Benton, 36-2) with a 17-5 major decision

182 - Lucian Hicks (26-7) lost to Dalton Craig (Murphysboro, 25-7)) at 1:16 in the first period

285 - Chase McDaniel (25-9) lost to William Monroe (Sparta, 29-0) at 2:27 in the first period

Third Place

160 - Ryan Ragsdale (20-14) beat Nick Goffinet (Benton, 20-19) with an 8-3 decision

Alternate List:

106 - Autmun Millis (9-10) lost to Sam Dietz (Murphysboro, 31-11) at 35 seconds in the first period

113 - Landon Hicks (22-12) lost to Lucas Willmore (West Frankfort, 21-17) at 4:37 in the third period

132 - Chandler Bowling (25-11) lost to Dalton Wright (West Frankfort, 27-6)

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.