Eudora ? With under a minute left in the third period of the championship match in the 182-pound division, Lawrence High senior wrestler Santino Gee held a 4-3 lead.

De Soto coach Shannon Sawner hollered to his wrestler, Nate Panagakis, “He’s stalling, the attack is open!”

After appearing exhausted for most of the third period, Gee countered Panagakis’ ensuing attack, and scored a takedown to seal a 7-4 win in the championship match of the Eudora Tournament of Champions, a two-day tournament at Eudora High.

“He’s just Santino.” Lawrence coach Pat Naughton said. “You never know what’s going to happen on the mat. Anything can happen. He’s such a great scrambler, and just fun to watch.”

Gee used his ultra-aggressive style to cruise through the bracket to a perfect 5-0 record. While some might view an attack with a lead and fading stamina in the third round as a risk, Gee said he actually feels safer wrestling that way.

“I just feel better if I’m ahead,” Gee said. “If you wait it out, anything can happen. You can get put on your back easily, and that can flip the match. I wrestle hard until the very end.”

Despite only bringing seven wrestlers due to ACT test conflicts, the Lions still placed fourth as a team with 202.5 points. The Lions had five wrestlers medal: senior Tucker Wilson (second), senior Cade Burghart (fourth), senior Kevin Nichols (fourth) junior Melle Dye (fifth) and junior Relle Dye (fifth).

“I’m just ecstatic to get over 200 points with just seven kids,” Naughton said. “It’s just amazing we could do this. Now they have that in their pocket. Now they know we can go out and compete with anybody.”

However, the Lions had the potential to finish even higher. They entered Day Two in second place, but Naughton said the team wasn’t able to perform as well as Day One.

Naughton said that could partially be attributed to Saturday being the Lions’ first two-day tournament of the year.

Also, the second day of the tournament was formatted differently to accommodate wrestlers taking their ACT tests. In the past, a wrestler could take the test, miss the first round, and still be eligible for the bracket.

This year the tournament started 30 minutes later than usual, and there was a 90-minute lunch break prior to bracket play. Naughton thought the long break disrupted his team’s flow, and said that he thought having to warm up, sit, and then warm up again made things more difficult.

“We warmed up then just fell flat,” Naughton said. “Our shape isn’t really where it’s supposed to be yet, but working through their technique when they’re tired or not feeling right is going to help.”

Lawrence will play host to Gardner-Edgerton for a dual at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Eudora Tournament of Champions

Friday and Saturday at Eudora High School

Team scores: Emporia 257.5, Louisburg 243, Tonganoxie 228, Lawrence 202.5, Buhler 196.5, Spring Hill 191, De Soto 164.5, Holcomb 149.5, KC Schlagle 147.5, Shawnee Mission East 144.5, Effingham-ACCHS 141, St. Thomas Aquinas 140, Ottawa 124.5, Lansing 108, Eudora 96, Wellsville 91.5, Shawnee Mission South 84, Fort Scott 77, St. Mary’s 65.5, KC Piper 35, KC Sumner 27.

LHS placings (tournament record)

132 — 5. Ja`Relle Dye(5-2)

138 — 5. Ja’Melle Dye (6-3)

145 — 7. Stanley Holder (3-3)

152 — 4. Cade Burghart (7-2)

182 — 1. Santino Gee (5-0)

195 — 2. Tucker Wilson (4-1)

220 — 16. Billy Phiailiayvong (1-3)

285 — 4. Kevin Nichols (6-3)