Overland Park ? Believe it or not, it was the right shoulder of Shawnee Mission South’s James Barnard — and a lot of willpower, too — that helped give Lawrence High its first Sunflower League wrestling title since 1988.

In Saturday’s 275-pound class finals, Lawrence’s Blake Hegeman pinned Barnard within the first 90 seconds in the third-place match, giving the Lions a 157-155.5 advantage over crosstown rival Free State High.

“It was a relief, because there was a lot of pressure,” Hegeman said. “It feels good, knowing that I really contributed.”

Entering the championship round, the Lions held a four-point advantage over the Firebirds. Seventeen city wrestlers earned berths in the championship rounds, which included first-, third- and fifth-place matches.

Two first-place matches pitted Lawrence against Free State, and aside from bragging rights, the wrestlers all knew in the backs of their minds that the team title was at stake as well.

In the 130-pound finale, Lawrence’s Pharouk Hussein, before defending his 2004 league title, was reminded by LHS coach Mark Dulgarian just how vital a win was. A determined and stone-faced Hussein responded after an early slip-up and slowly but surely broke down Free State’s Mike Goble for a 22-14 victory.

Then in the 160-pound title match, two familiar foes — Lawrence’s Nolan Kellerman and Free State’s K.J. Siebert — were deadlocked, 2-2, after the first two rounds. A late take-down and escape powered Kellerman to a 5-2 victory.

“We’ve wrestled over 20 times in the past five years,” Kellerman said of his history with Siebert. “The pressure was building, and we had wrestled a close match. I like to get ahead early and keep the lead on him, and I usually do a little bit better job than I did today.”

“I know it would have helped out if I had won for the team score, and I was thinking about that, too, but it was more about beating Nolan at the time,” Siebert said. “I don’t think anyone expected me to do as well as I actually did.”

Free State’s Jesse Hardy really made things interesting in the 189-pound first-place match, scoring two points on a reversal with eight seconds left in the match for a 5-3 victory.

Hardy was one of two Firebirds to win individual league titles on Saturday; Marc Somers took first in the 125-pound class, defeating Olathe North’s Josh Ramirez, 6-2.

Hardy not only won his second consecutive 189-pound league crown, but the victory put Free State ahead in the team standings, 155.5-153.

The final outcome, however, was placed in Hegeman’s grip, and he was given the perfect opportunity to make up for his loss to Olathe South’s Jimmy Sweeney in the semifinals.

It’s pretty safe to say that after pinning Barnard, the loss to Sweeney was forgotten.

“Had he been in the finals, it wouldn’t have been close, we would have won by 10,” a relieved Dulgarian said. “If Blake just won a decision, we would have lost by a half (point).

“He made up the difference.”