​Grain Valley takes second at home tournament

by Michael Smith


Despite losing four seniors who were state qualifiers a season ago, Grain Valley is still one of the top Class 4 high school wrestling teams in the Kansas City area.

MissouriWrestling.com ranks Grain Valley at No. 11 in the Class 4 poll in the state and the Eagles are fifth among teams in the metro area.

They showed why they could be a team to look out for this season as the Eagles took second place with 134.5 points at the annual Grain Valley Invitational Saturday.

Fort Osage took first at the tournament with 183.5 points and Lee’s Summit West was third with 129.5 points.

“I think right now we are being overlooked,” Grain Valley senior Gavin Parks said. “We lost some of the good talent that we had from last year. Some people aren’t ready for the new talent that we got.”

The Eagles had three winners and five others who placed in the top four of their weight division.

Junior Colston Parks (113) is looking to make an impact this season as he aims for his first state tournament appearance. He got a pin in the semifinals to earn a spot in the championship, where he got a big 8-4 decision against Lee’s Summit West’s Zach Pruitt.

“I think that I got a lot better over the summer,” Parks said. “Going to Fargo and all of the tournaments over the summer really helped me improve.”

Gavin Parks, a returning state medalist, is ranked third in the 126-pound division in Class 4 according to MissouriWrestling.com. Parks pinned his first two opponents to set up a finals match with Excelsior Springs’ Micah Danner. He dominated that one, too, taking a 16-0 tech fall victory to claim his bracket.

“The computers were shutting down, so there was a long break between the semifinals and finals,” Gavin Parks said of the TrackWrestling.com website crashing, which keeps track of the match and team scores of the tournament. “I knew I had to keep moving and keep thinking about what I was going to be doing. I felt like I executed pretty well and teched a pretty good wrestler.”

Sophomore Zac Bleess, who took sixth at state last season, was another Eagle to take his bracket. He faced a familiar opponent in Fort Osage sophomore Antonio Martinez in the finals. Bleess had a late takedown in the third period and hung on to a nail biting 3-2 victory.

“We’re great friends,” Bleess said of himself and Martinez. “You really need those type of guys to push you to be the best version of yourself. We might be wrestling five times during the regular season, but in the summer, we are training together.”

Senior Justin Deweese had a strong showing as he earned pins in his first two matches to set up a match with Van Horn senior Darrius Paige in the finals. He was pinned in that match during the second period as he finished as the runner up.

Other Eagles to finish in the top four included Gavin Barker (third, 215), Ethan Jones (third, 138), Trenton Rock (fourth, 132) and Isaac Kusick (fourth, 106).

Grain Valley senior Gavin Parks (126) gets his hand raised after winning by tech fall in the championship match of his bracket against Excelsior Springs senior Micah Danner. Photo credit: Michael Smith