GEARY – It was just a few days before the Geary Invitational when disaster threw the whole thing in doubt.
With a stellar field of teams lined up, Geary was excited to host its first wrestling tournament since 2020. But the frigid New Year’s weather led to busted pipes that filled the Stegall-Long Fieldhouse with water.
The district was forced to move the first basketball games of the year, which were scheduled for Geary but moved to the road. The district and city worked frantically to ensure that the tournament wouldn’t be canceled for the second year in a row, a potentially devastating blow to a small town known primarily for the nation’s oldest continuous wrestling tournament.
They got it done. The 2022 Geary Invitational went ahead as scheduled, bringing two days of dramatic wrestling and a team race that wasn’t decided until the final matches.
Edmond North walked away victorious, notching a 156.50 team score. North topped powerhouse programs like Stillwater (151.50), Collinsville (135.50), Tuttle (106.50) and Broken Arrow (83.50) to capture the crown.
It is North’s first Geary championship since 2014, and its second overall.
The Geary Bison entered two wrestlers in the tournament, both seniors. Chris Ward wrestled at 285, the heavyweight division, while Major Lewis wrestled at 170.
Both boys faced elite competition. But Ward got off to a strong start Friday, pinning Duncan’s Devin Lolar in the second period to advance.
Ward was pinned later that day in the quarterfinals by KJ Miley of Whitfield (Missouri). Entering the consolation bracket, Ward defeated Derek Honeycutt of Ark City (Kansas) and Jacob Brammer of Broken Arrow.
He was finally stopped by Carson Cottrill of Stillwater, but not before earning his way onto the podium as the fifth-place finisher in the weight class.
Lewis lost by decision in the first round to Dawson Meador of Piedmont, then fell to Altus’ Joel Alejandro.
Saturday night’s excitement was marked not just by outstanding championship matches, but by three inductions into the Bob Stegall Memorial Hall of Fame. George Walker, William E. “Butch” Jacobsen, and Kendall Cross were this year’s Hall of Fame inductees.
Walker was awarded posthumously; the Geary native died in 1988 after a long and distinguished career as a wrestler, coach and official.
Jacobsen was an official and the coach of Geary’s 1979 wrestling state championship team. He may be the only person to ever wrestle in, officiate and coach at the Geary Invitational.
Cross, a Mustang High graduate, is a three-time Geary champion and 1996 Olympic gold medalist who now coaches the New York City Regional Training Center. He is a distinguished member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
As far as individual honors, Edmond Memorial’s Ben Mower left Geary with the George Walker Gorrarian Award. Drake Acklin of Collinsville won the Alan Long Sportsmanship Award, and the tournament’s Bob Stegall Outstanding Wrestler was Cole Brooks, also of Collinsville.
Geary wrestling coach Cedric Powell said he enjoyed being back at the tournament in a new capacity. “This is the same thing I remember from being here wrestling,” Powell said. “The loudness of it, everybody cheering, everybody booing. … I love this atmosphere. This is probably one of the best things, and I’ve been looking forward to this since I found out I was coaching here.”
Powell said the tournament experience will be beneficial to his seniors who competed and all the Bison who observed. And he said the tourney brought back good memories of his own wrestling days.
“Just seeing people that remember me and remember my big matches here, and being able to relive those moments with them – it put a smile on my face.”