Cougar Wrestlers Compete At The State Meet!

Oklahoma City — Sophomore Jamie Copeland capped an outstanding season with a third-place finish at 103 pounds at the Class 5A state wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday at State Fair Arena.

Copeland, who had finished first or second in each of the Cougars’ tournaments leading up to the state tournament, easily handled Kurrey Harmon of Skiatook, 8-2, in the third-place match Saturday, after edging Trey Smillie of El Reno, 3-2, in the consolation semifinals.

“Jamie had a great tournament,” Ada coach Kyle Bohannon said. “You can’t be too upset about third place at the state tournament. All that hard work this season really paid off for him.”

The other two Ada wrestlers who reached the state tournament — seniors Eddie Brown and Justin Todd — wound up fifth in their respective weight classes after losses in the consolation semifinals.

Todd, making his third consecutive state tournament appearance, was pinned by Corey Delk of Skiatook at 152 pounds, and Brown, who also qualified for the state tournament in 2009, lost a 4-2 decision to Bryan Dutton of Guthrie.

All three Ada wrestlers won their first-round matches Friday.

“We had a really good first round,” Bohannon said. “In the matches we lost, we didn’t wrestle bad — we just faced some tough kids and came up a little bit short.

“I would have liked to have seen the other guys place in the tournament, but we’re a young team (Brown, Todd and heavyweight Josh Nail were the Cougars’ only three seniors) and we had a little success this year,” he said. 

“We can build on that into next year.”