Over 250 young wrestlers, ages 4-18, are invading Iola Saturday. Allen County Kids Wrestling Club is hosting its annual Mat Warrior Open.
Wrestling matches begin at 9 a.m. at Iola High School’s gym.
The tournament has weight classes for six divisions — 6-and-under, 8-and-under, 10-and-under, 12-and-under, 14-and-under and a high school division.
Plus there is a girls’ tournament. Girls can wrestle in the open divisions and the girls’ tournament or one or the other.
This is a sanctioned tournament with USA Wrestling and USA Wrestling-Kansas.
Concessions will be served.
The Mat Warrior Open also serves as a tune-up tournament for next week’s Kansas Kids Wrestling sub-district tournaments. The top four finishes in each weight class in the divisions advance to a district tournament. From district tournament, top four wrestlers move to the Kansas Kids Wrestling State Tournament.
IN THE PAST two weeks, the Mat Warrior wrestlers competed in three tournaments.
On Feb. 11 at Independence, T.J. Taylor took first place in the 8-and-under 46-pound weight class while Seth Sanford was first in the 12-and-under 190-pound class and Brice Aiello placed first in the 14-and-under 140-pound class.
In the 6-and-under division, Payton Houk was fourth at 52 pounds, Mattix Cole was third at 61 and Alejandro Vargas placed third at 95 pounds.
In the 8-and-under division, C.J. Shields was fourth at 67 pounds and Trenton Jones finished second at 95 pounds. Cheyenne Harris took third in the 10-and-under 76-pound class.
Andrew Garber was second at 155 pounds in 14-and-under division. Trevor Tomlinson was third in the 14-and-under 115-pound class.
On Feb. 18 at the Ottawa Open, Cole was third at 61 pounds in the 6-and-under division while Taylor placed first in the 8-and-under 46-pound class, Cooper Woods was fifth at 52 pounds, Shields placed fist at 67 pounds and Jones was fourth at 95 pounds.
Harris took fourth in the 10-and-under 76-pound class. Sanford was third in the 190-pound class at 12-and-under. Aiello took fifth in the 145-pound 14-and-under class and Garber was fourth at 155 pounds.
