Junction City boys 7th, girls 13th at state wrestling

Feb. 27—The Junction City boys finished seventh and the girls 13th at the state wrestling meet last week in Park City.

The Blue Jay girls walked away with two podium finishes and a individual state championship.

Bre Villanueva walked away with her first state title at 115 pounds, getting a win by fall in 3:56 in the championship match versus Tionna Napue of Hays. Villanueva beat Goddard-Eisenhower's Lainie Burkhart by 7-0 decision in the semifinals.

Jaidyn Alvarado finished third at 100 pounds, falling to Kansas City-Turner's Arianna Ortiz in the semifinal before a win in the consolation semifinal over Washburn Rural's Molly Spader. In the third-place match, Alvarado beat Liberal's Mana Chanthasone 5-3.

For the Junction City boys, four wrestlers earned medals, including two runner-up finishes.

Ezekiel Witt advanced to the championship match at 113 pounds and fell by 12-4 major decision to Washburn Rural's Easton Broxterman. Witt beat Olathe North's Blake Samuelson 9-2 in the semifinal.

At 138 pounds, Patrick Foxworth came up just shy of a state title, falling to Olathe North's Cael Alderman by fall in 57 seconds. Foxworth beat Mill Valley's Maddox Cassella by 3-1 decision in the semifinal.

Griffin Bohanan finished third at 165-pounds, falling to Garden City's Colin Kleysteuber in the semifinal before getting wins over Shawnee Mission South's Jackson Matchell (fall, 22 seconds) in the consolation semifinal, and Dodge City's Alan Flores (fall, 3:58) in the third-place match.

Last but not least, Jaime Villanueva finished fifth at 132 pounds. Villanueva lost by tech fall in the quarterfinals to Washburn Rural's Cooper Stivers before battling his way back to the consolation semifinal. He was pinned in 2:55 by Garden City's Ryan Heiman before closing out the day with a revenge win in the fifth-place match with a 53-second pin over Stivers.