Poplar Bluff freshman Gatlin Taylor leads Mules with second-place finish at Bob Georger Classic

DESOTO, Mo. — Freshman Gatlin Taylor had Poplar Bluff’s best finish at the 41st DeSoto Bob Georger Classic over the weekend while the Mules finished third out of 21 teams.

Host DeSoto won the tournament with 20 points while Hillsboro was second with 155.5 and Poplar Bluff had 149 points.

Taylor, wrestling in the 106-pound bracket, finished second after falling to Sullivan’s Witt Dillon at 2:29 in the first period of the finals.

“He had a good tournament,” Poplar Bluff coach Kelton Thompson said. “Pretty tough wrestling all day. We still need to clean some things up here and there, but we’re going in the right direction.”

Taylor (21-11) earned pinned Parkway North’s Justin Behrle and Fort Zumwalt’s Joseph Beck to reach the semifinals and then earned a 10-4 decision against Union’s Sam Inman.

Quentin Bell (22-8, 126 pounds) was pinned in the quarterfinals to Hillsboro’s James Short but wrestled all the back to finished third.

“In pretty dominant fashion too. It was good to see him bounce back and wrestle well after an early loss,” Thompson said.

Garrett McClure (24-14, 138) lost in the quarterfinals to the top seed in Liberty’s Wyatt Haynes after McClure was disqualified for an illegal slam and Haynes wasn’t able to continue in the match.

McClure pinned his next two opponents in under a minute before falling in the third-place match to North County’s Jordan Borseth in 1:52.

Kade Richardson (18-14, 145) fell in the quarterfinals to top-seeded Pauli Grant of Windsor before eventually earning a 12-1 major decision over DeSoto’s Luke Bradley to finish fifth.

Colton Jackson (18-19, 152) reached the semifinals and then lost his final three matches to finish sixth.

Justin Mitchell (22-14, 160) took fourth after he too reached the semifinals before losing to the top seed in the bracket. Mitchell pinned DeSoto’s Kameron Brooks in 2:18 before falling in 4:38 to Parkway West’s’ Brayden Eddy in the third-place match.

Wyatt Lazalier (28-11, 182) took sixth after losing in the consolation semifinals to DeSoto’s Lucas Watson in 1:29 and to Potosi’s Kalub Evans in the fifth-place match in a 6-2 decision.

Desmond Howell (17-8, 195) finished fifth after losing in the opening round of the bracket. Howell pinned his next two opponents before falling to DeSoto’s Chase Greenlee in the consolation semifinals. Howell then pinned Parkway West’s Liam Elli in 2:49 for fifth place.

Kendrick Gordon (22-11, 285) earned a pair of pins to reach the semifinals, then lost to undefeated Landon Porter of DeSoto in 3:20.

Gordon got a third pin to reach the third-place match, where he was pinned by Sumner’s Lorenzo Jenkins in 0:42.