Lopez, Carter and Kadel win at WACO Invite

WAYLAND - The WACO wrestling team hosted their home invitational on Saturday and all three area small schools were in attendance. Eleven area players jumped into the top three, and three wrestlers picked up individual titles.

New London had two wins on the day. Marcel Lopez won the 106 lbs. bracket and Gabe Carter won at 170 lbs.

Lopez pinned Mediapolis' Nathan Krieger in 1:16 during the quarterfinals and pinned WACO's Larz Smith in 1:20 to advance to the championship. Lopez ran through the first place match with a technical fall over Chase Witte, taking it 16-1 in 3:53.

Carter took down Stone Peck of Mid-Prairie with a pin in two minutes in his quarterfinal match. Carter reached the finals with a 10-4 decision over Caden Hil in the semifinals. Carter beat Caleb Peach of English Valleys-Tri County on a 13-6 decision in the 170 lbs. championship.

Gavin Holmes picked up a second place for New London at 182 lbs. Holmes beat Mid-Prarie's Colton Allen 8-6 in the quarterfinals and Wayne's Dakota Zinnel 15-8 in the semis. Mediapolis' Hunter Aney pinned Holmes in the 182 lbs. championship, beating him in 1:12.

Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union had a win, a second place and a third place. Jarod Kadel took first place in the 138 lbs. bracket. Chance Malone took second at 220 lbs., and Chance Colby was third at 182 lbs.

Kadel had a quick pin in the quarterfinals, taking down English Valleys-Tri County's Nevaeh Briggs in 18 seconds. Kadel beat WACO's Jaden Williams via technical fall in the semifinals, beating Williams 20-5 in 5:55, and met up with Pekin's Zach Hammes in the championship match.

In the 138 lbs. championship, Kadel beat Hammes on a 9-5 decision to win the bracket.

Malone pinned WACO's Landon Provino in 3:24 during the quarterfinals and then took down New London's Jaxon Allen 8-3 in the semis. Malone was beaten by Hartwick-Ladora-Victor's Kody Timm in the 220 lbs. championship, falling 5-2.

Colby began the day with a 6-1 win over Cael Hester of English Valleys-Tri County. Colby was pinned by eventual 182 lbs. champion Aney of Mediapolis in semifinals, but bounced back with a one-second fall over Zinnel from Wayne in the third place match.

WACO had three wrestlers finish second. Jalen Collins (126 lbs.), Robert Frazer (145 lbs.) and Kade Mckinney (285 lbs.) each took the silver. Smith (106 lbs.) and Jonah Clark (120 lbs.) each finished third.

Collins beat Devin Duggan of East Buchanan in the quarterfinals, beating him 9-5. Collins took down Wayne's Trent Terrell on an 8-0 major decision in the semifinals. Wapello's Daniel Meeker ended Collins' run with a 56-second pin in the championship match.

Frazer began the day with a 15-0 technical fall in the 145 lbs. first round. He took down Davis County's Austin Payne in 3:25. Frazer followed that up with a five-minute pin against East Buchanan's Tate Fults in the quarterfinals and a 4-1 decision over Columbus/W-MU's Felix Solis in the semifinals.

Frazer met up with Cael Baker of Pekin in the championship match. Baker narrowly outlasted Frazer, beating him 6-4 in the first sudden victory period.

Mckinney defeated New London's Brody Butterbaugh in the 285 lbs. quarterfinals. He beat another New London heavyweight, Owen Reed, in four minutes to advance to the championship, but fell 4-2 in the 285 lbs. title match against East Buchanan's Taylor Fox.

Smith began the day with a pin over Columbus/W-MU's Lane Scorpil in 3:58. Smith was pinned by Lopez of New London in 1:20 during the semifinals, but bounced back with a 6-2 decision over Dawson Townsend in the third place match.

Clark defeated Bryar Murray of Wapello via a 41 second pin in the first round and advanced on injury in the quarterfinals when Marcus Elam of Davis County couldn't go. Clark lost to Mitchell Moore of Wapello 6-0 in the semifinals, and pinned Pekin's Bailey Frescoln in 1:37 for third place.