Kapaun wrestler follows legends, makes City League history as a 4-time champion
Over the summer, Brecken Phipps went to Fargo, North Dakota, and came back humbled.
Then a three-time City League champion and two-time Kansas high school wrestling state qualifier, Phipps didn’t perform how he wanted at the junior national championships, going 0-2. He came back to Wichita and got to work. Saturday, he achieved something that hasn’t been done in the City League in 15 years.
Phipps won his fourth City League championship, pinning Wichita North’s Cody Meraz in the final. His title helped Kapaun to its second straight GWAL team title and third of Phipps’ career.
The last time a Kapaun wrestler won a GWAL title every year of high school, Doug Hoover was wrapping up his career with the Crusaders before heading to Nebraska on a full scholarship.
Sean DeShazer of Wichita Heights was the most recent to become a four-time league champion at any City League school. He was a GWAL title-holder from 2012-15 before winning his fourth state championship and heading to the University of Oklahoma.
“Probably one of the coolest accomplishments I’ve ever seen as a coach,” then-Heights coach Mike Church said of Deshazer. “He’s the greatest wrestler to come out of Wichita Heights.”
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Church is now the athletic director at Heights and announced Phipps as a four-time league champion after his victory.
“It’s just heart,” Phipps said. “Everyone has heart and that will to win in their own certain way. Anything is possible if you just put the work in, and that’s what I’ve begun to realize. ... This isn’t talent. This is all hard work.”
Phipps won’t go down as a four-time state champion. He won’t have the resume of Michael Spangler, who won three state championships and three GWAL titles from 2016-18. He is still chasing his first placement at Hartman Arena in Class 5A, but his consistency at Kapaun, no matter the circumstance, has been undeniable.
Phipps’ career started at 106 pounds, and he beat a junior from Heights in the title match. A year later, he bumped up to 113 pounds and beat a senior from South. And last year, at 145 pounds, he beat Bishop Carroll’s Hunter Trail by a 9-2 decision, and when he did, he let his emotions fly.
He did it again Saturday. Same face, this time with two fours on his hands.
After his victory, he ran to his coaches and jumped into one of their arms. He gave out a few more high-fives and sprinted out of the gym. He went up the stairs into the bleachers and found his family.
“I came out firing early and wanted to put in place that this is my match, not yours,” Phipps said. “This is me. This isn’t you. I just made sure he knew it, and once I could tell he was tired, I said, ‘Let’s put an end to this and get up to my mom and dad.’ ”
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Phipps has been a collected wrestler in his time at Kapaun, but the City League tournament has always brought out his best. Every year, the tournament is hosted at Wichita North. Phipps has never lost in that building, not at a league tournament or a dual meet.
“It’s just good memories in here,” Phipps said. “I remember walking into our dual here last year, and I remember seeing everything I had done in here again. I don’t know what it is. As soon as I get in here, I switch gears.”
Phipps is convinced “I have no talent,” but that his hard work has gotten him to Saturday’s achievement. And in fairness to his work ethic, he set aside baseball and a run with the military to focus on wrestling.
“After my freshman year, I realized that I needed to switch everything to wrestling,” Phipps said. “I told myself, ‘If I want to do something with this, I have to put all my eggs in this basket.’
“I’m not talented. I’m obsessed.”
But Phipps has shown enough talent to earn a scholarship to Newman University, and his Kapaun coach, Jake Klein, said Phipps has gotten better every year.
“You couldn’t ask for more than that,” Klein said. “He’s a great teammate, hard worker. To me, that’s more important than a win or a loss.”
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Phipps has gone 101-33 through his four regular seasons and City League tournaments, in which he went 10-0. But there is another wrestler on Kapaun’s roster that already has a chance to become the next four-timer in GWAL history.
Sophomore Bubba Wright hasn’t lost a match this season after finishing 49-7 as a freshman and winning his first City League championship. Wright is the No. 1 wrestler in Class 5A at 106 pounds, according to the Kansas Wrestling Coaches Association and is in line to compete for a state title, which would be the Crusaders’ first at that weight since Spangler.
Klein said Wright shows the same work ethic Phipps has, and Phipps said he gives credit to his teammates like Wright who have pushed him throughout his career.
“I would hope it wouldn’t be 15 more years until someone else won four,” Phipps said. “Bubba’s gonna get four for sure. I know he will. I don’t want my record to stand for 15 years. I want someone else to step up and take it.”
Klein said Phipps’ drive to improve has without question led to his fourth City League championship. That determination will lead him back to Fargo this summer.
Most high school wrestlers don’t return to North Dakota after their graduation. Klein said Phipps sees it as “unfinished business.” But for now the aim is on becoming a state placer Feb. 29, Phipps said.
“Everyone leaves their name somewhere,” Phipps said. “I’m not Nebraska wrestling material, but I know where I’m meant to be.”
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This story was originally published February 15, 2020 at 9:11 PM.