A skilled set of seniors made it something special for the state-ranked Fulton Hornets wrestling team with a career Jim Wallace sweep.
Seniors secured five of Fulton's eight individual titles and the Hornets easily locked up a fourth consecutive championship in their own Jim Wallace Classic - named after the longtime Fulton coach - on Saturday at Roger D. Davis Gymnasium.
The five seniors winning individual titles for the Hornets included Josh McClure (145 pounds), Zach Benner (220), Clayton Bristol (285), Andy Baysinger (160) and Kobe Kaminski (195).
"They're a strong group of kids and do an awesome job," Fulton head coach Eric Hudson said of his seniors. "It's another accomplishment for them, something they can always look back on and smile about, and razz other seniors about."
The Hornets - ranked second in Class 2 behind defending state champion Oak Grove by missouriwrestling.com - accumulated 237.5 points in rolling to the Jim Wallace championship. Fellow North Central Missouri Conference member Moberly was a distant second with 176.5 points and School of the Osage came in third with 80.
Fulton's remaining individual titles came from junior Brandon Dews (120 pounds), sophomore Tucker Caswell (113) and junior Luke Berrey (170).
"We wrestled well enough to win the caliber of tournament it's become," Hudson said. "We have things we need to work on and clean up ... and just try to get our heads kind of wrapped around what we're doing and what we need to be doing."
McClure (29-1) - a two-time state champion at 113 and 138 pounds - capped off the round-robin format at 145 on Saturday with a dominating 16-0 technical fall over Christian's Jacob Ottenlips. Benner (30-0), who won a state title last year at 195 pounds, quickly finished off Osage's Chas Kempf by pinning him in just 47 seconds in the championship at 220 on Saturday.
"Both (McClure and Benner) looked sharp, looked good, kind of like they always do," Hudson said.
Bristol (25-1) also triumphed by pin, sticking Osage's Ian Schaumburg in 1:57 in the title match at 285 pounds, while Baysinger (26-3) prevailed in the championship at 160 with a 10-6 decision over Moberly's Kyler Guthrie. Kaminski (10-3) edged Moberly's Chance Richards in a 5-4, double-overtime decision for the title at 195 pounds.
Dews (29-1) claimed the championship at 120 pounds by pinning Winfield's Brandon Davis in 1:03, while Caswell (27-2) overpowered Moberly's Deshaun Smith in an 18-3 technical fall for the title at 113. Berrey (26-4) wrapped up the championship at 170 pounds by downing Priory's Tony Kraus in a 5-0 decision.
Senior Trenton Clines - a state champion last year at 145 pounds - was runner-up at 152 on Saturday in guiding four Fulton wrestlers who earned second-place finishes. Clines (21-2), dealing with a knee issue, suffered a narrow 5-4 loss to Moberly's John Heimann in the title match at 152 pounds.
"Trenton is struggling with injury, we're struggling with technique right now," Hudson said. "He knows what he needs to do, we're just - for whatever reason - not doing it right now.
"It's one of those things where he keeps talking us into sending him out there and we think he needs to rest. I think we'll probably let him wrestle on Tuesday and then we're going to shut him down for a while."
Junior Devan Hudson (22-7) took second place at 126 pounds after bowing to Winfield's Ben Provost in a 4-0 decision in the championship. Sophomore Jacob Kern (21-9) was runner-up at 132 pounds following a 9-2 loss to Winfield's Kai Rogers in the title match.
Sophomore Colton Bristol (20-8) came in second at 182 pounds after falling to Boonville's Joel Concannon in a 2-0 decision in the championship.
Freshman Julian Schoening (4-10) posted a third-place finish for the Hornets at 138 pounds with a 6-2 decision over Osage's Derrick Puckett.
Fulton will try to move closer to wrapping up an NCMC title when it hosts Moberly at 6 tonight. The Hornets are 21-1 on the season and 4-0 in the conference.
"We had some tight matches with them (Spartans) today," Hudson said. "Trenton's hoping to come out and wrestle again - get that match back - and Kobe wrestled a tight match with them, so did Andy."