Pictures courtesy of Rick Peterson Jr./ KSHSAA Covered
His run through the Class 3-1A state wrestling tournament unfolded exactly the way Brody Chambers had anticipated.
Fortunately for Chambers, Southeast of Saline’s senior 285-pounder, that scenario included a favorable final outcome.
“I figured it was going to be a rematch of last year,” said Chambers, who successfully defended his 2025 title with a 3-1 triple-overtime victory over Smith Center senior Kharson Montgomery on Saturday at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays. “He’s a good wrestler and the way the bracket was set up, he had a good road to the final, so getting the second one was definitely a great way to end my career and show off my abilities in the sport.”
Chambers was not the only Southeast wrestler with a successful title defense. Earlier on Saturday, sophomore Roman Tuttle completed a dominating weekend performance to claim his second championship in as many years at 120 pounds.
But for Chambers, who has signed to play college football this fall at Grandview University in Des Moines, Iowa, the title not only marked the end to his wrestling career but also helped ease the pain of a state championship loss in football.
“I’m pretty sure this will be my last time wrestling ever,” Chambers said. “I feel like I wanted it a lot more this year just because of the way football ended and not wanting to lose another state match.”
“That was definitely on my mind.”
Unlike last year, when he needed an escape in the closing seconds of the ultimate tiebreaker, Chambers ended this year’s final with No. 2 seed Montgomery in the third overtime.
After each wrestler scored an escape and were tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, neither of them scored a takedown in the one-minute first overtime. Montgomery started the 30-second second extra period on the bottom and was unable to escape, setting the stage for Chambers’ reversal from the bottom in the third.
“This year, it was a lot more active,” Chambers said of the final. “We had a couple of shots on each other throughout the entire match. There was a couple of times where I was in compromising positions, and then I had him in some where, if we could have finished that, it might have been a different match.
“Just a lot of good defense and offense on both sides.”
While Chambers’ final went down to the wire, Tuttle had no such concerns in his three victories Friday or in Saturday’s final. None of his matches went the distance, including a 20-3 technical fall against Russell’s Xzephren Donner for the championship.
“I felt really good. I handled my diet really well and I worked on many things that I thought people could maybe do to capitalize on mistakes I could make,” said Tuttle, who finished the season undefeated at 31-0 and extended his career record to 73-1. “So, I really focused on those leading up to state and just trusted in my preparation.”
It was a remarkable run for Tuttle, who started the season in the hospital with a knee infection that kept him out until early January. That also was part of the reason he remained at 120 pounds instead of putting on weight.
“I definitely plan on getting bigger and going up, because the lowest weight class for college is 125,” he said. “I definitely plan on getting bigger, and hopefully I’m not hospitalized again, so I can start getting in the weight room.”
“It was definitely a lot harder than last year, (but) I feel like what happened definitely shaped me, and just getting through that helped shape who I am right now.”
Trojans’ Annabelle Soell takes second
In the 3-1A girls tournament, Southeast of Saline got a runner-up finish from junior Annabelle Soell at 140 pounds, an improvement over her fifth place showing the year before.
Soell, the No. 4 seed, advanced to the championship match with an 8-0 major decision over top-seeded Hollie Finneran of Maur Hill in the semifinals. She lost by fall in the final to Norton’s Halle Pfannenstiel, who also beat her for a regional title.
Pfannenstiel was No. 1 and Soell No. 2 in the final Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association before state.
