COLBY, Kan. – The 2025 Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference wrestling regular season has concluded with Pratt Community College winning the 2025 KJCCC Wrestling regular season title while Fort Hays Tech Northwest has claimed the 2025 NJCAA South Central District Wrestling Title.

Pratt won the KJCCC regular season title as dual champions with a perfect 7-0 dual record, with an average dual score of 42-10 in each of their seven conference duals. The closest dual that the Beavers had against conference foes came against Fort Hays Tech Northwest as the Beavers won 32-22 in a dual that was contested on January 29th in Chanute, Kansas as PCC saw five of their seven conference dual wins come away from home. Capping off their regular season dual schedule on February 6th with home duals against Colby and Cowley, the Beavers left no doubt on their conference crown by defeating the Trojans 44-3 before earning a 35-13 win over the Tigers.

Labette finished as KJCCC dual wrestling runners-up with a 6-1 dual record as the lone loss of the conference season for the Cardinals came against Pratt on January 15th while Fort Hays Tech Northwest finished third in the conference with a 5-2 conference dual record.

As part of the KJCCC conference dual season, postseason awards were voted on by each of the eight head coaches in the league and saw Pratt head coach Ken Kepley earn KJCCC Wrestling Coach of the Year while Otgonbayar Batsuuri collected KJCCC Wrestler of the Year honors after a 23-2 overall record in the regular season with four falls, 10 technical falls, and four major decisions while holding the number one ranking at 174 pounds in the latest NJCAA wrestling rankings released on Friday, February 14th. KJCCC Wrestling Freshman of the Year honors were earned by Labette Community College freshman 141-pound wrestler Jordan Cullors as the top-ranked NJCAA wrestler at 141 pounds went 22-5 in the regular season which included a perfect 5-0 mark in KJCCC duals.

Once the conference dual season wrapped up, KJCCC schools were joined by three Oklahoma schools from NJCAA Region 2 (Northeast Oklahoma A&M, Carl Albert State College, and Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa) for the NJCAA South Central District Tournament which was hosted by Pratt Community College inside the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena on Saturday, February 15th.

All 11 schools in the district entered a wrestler at each of the 10 weight classes for a total of 110 wrestlers competing throughout the 200-match tournament with a chance to earn a spot at the 2025 NJCAA Wrestling National Tournament on the line as 77 total bids to the National Tournament were up for grabs.

What proved to be a three-team race in the team scoring came down to the placement matches as Northeast Oklahoma, Pratt, and Fort Hays Tech were all within 10 points of each other heading into the championship bouts. Northeast Oklahoma had a wrestler in the championship match of each of the first four weights (125 pounds, 133 pounds, 141 pounds, and 149 pounds) which included a match at 125 pounds against Pratt’s Zane Donley as the Golden Norsemen had a chance to pick up points early knowing that only one wrestler from NEO had qualified for the title match in the final five weight classes. A 7-4 decision for Logan Crawford of Northeast Oklahoma pulled the Norse into the top two in the team scores before seeing the next two of their wrestlers get defeated which was followed by a bounce back with a win at 149 pounds by Gavin Montgomery.

Things were nowhere near close to being concluded however as Fort Hays Tech Northwest had a wrestler in each of the final five championship matches which included three head-to-head matches against team-leading Pratt who was looking to secure a district tournament title in their home gymnasium. Top-ranked wrestler at 157 pounds Job Lee for Fort Hays Tech Northwest pulled the Tigers back into the mix with a 4-2 decision over Pratt’s Johnny Thomas which was followed by a technical fall victory for Pratt’s top-ranked wrestler at 165 pounds Melton Powe to give the Beavers some breathing room once again. In NEO’s final chance at scoring points on the day, Fort Hays Tech Northwest’s Batsuuri made sure that the Golden Norse would be unable to earn a top-two finish by working a 9-2 decision over Trey Bennet which was followed by a medical forfeit victory for Lazaro Crespo of Fort Hays Tech Northwest over Ethan Day of Carl Albert State. With two matches remaining, the team score found Pratt in front by less than two points as Labette’s Matthew Marcum picked up a medical forfeit win at 197 pounds to set up a winner-take-all match at 285 pounds between Pratt’s James Bankston and Jeisser Sampson-Sanchez of Fort Hays Tech Northwest.

The match lived up to the hype with an individual district title on the line and team title also at stake as a scoreless first period was followed by an escape for Bankston in the second period to give the Pratt wrestler a 1-0 lead heading into the third period. Sampson-Sanchez earned an escape of his own in the third period to tie the score up before seeing Bankston go for a late takedown that was turned away by time running out in the period which led to a sudden-victory overtime period to determine the outcome. After making another attempt at a takedown that was turned away, Bankston was taken down by Sampson-Sanchez as the three-point takedown secured both the district title at 285 pounds and the team title for Fort Hays Tech Northwest.

In addition to the District Title for Fort Hays Tech Northwest, post-tournament honors were earned by Tiger head coach Chris Guillot as District Coach of the Year and Jeisser Sampson-Sanchez (285 pounds) as Tournament MVP as FHNW scored 165 points to edge out Pratt who scored 157.5 total points. Labette was the next highest KJCCC school with a fourth-place finish and 130.5 points with Cowley (sixth, 116 points), Colby (seventh, 73 points), and Barton (eighth, 40.5 points) rounding out the top eight.

Of the 77 National qualifying bids that were awarded at the tournament, 58 total wrestlers from the KJCCC earned a bid by finishing in the top seven of their respective weight class or by earning one of the seven wild card bids that were available at the tournament. At least five wrestlers in each of the 10 weight classes have qualified for the National Championship Tournament that is scheduled March 7-8 at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, with a breakdown for each of the eight KJCCC schools listed below.

Barton – 5 National Qualifiers
Cloud County – 4 National Qualifiers
Colby – 7 National Qualifiers
Cowley – 8 National Qualifiers
Fort Hays Tech Northwest – 9 National Qualifiers
Labette – 10 National Qualifiers
Neosho County – 5 National Qualifiers
Pratt – 9 National Qualifiers