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Sports

Hazelwood West Wrestlers Perform at State

One Wildcat wrestler advances while the other heads back to Hazelwood.

COLUMBIA -- Wrestling fans from across the state speckled the typically gold-filled seats of Mizzou Arena all day on Thursday for the 81st Missouri State Wrestling Championships.

It took eight simultaneous matches at a time, but all four different classes completed their first round matches and also their consolation (wrestleback) rounds.

“There are a lot of logistics that go into it,” said Jason West, Communications Director of the Missouri State High School Activities Association. “We have over 1,600 matches over the next three days. There are four classes. There’s a lot of planning.”

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Midway through the first day of competition, West said he felt like everything was running smoothly.

“The good thing is that this particular championship is at the point where it’s sort of a well-oiled machine now,” West said. “It’s more of planning logistics to just make sure the dominos fall the way they’re supposed to.”

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It also requires a large number of workers to come in and make sure the various operations run efficiently.

“There are approximately 65-70 different workers and volunteers,” West said. “We’ve got mat officials, table officials, people entering computer stats and other things like that. There’s a lot of volunteer work as well.”

wrestler Antoine Wright won at 119 pounds on Thursday, defeating Blake Dixon from Central-St. Joseph in a Fall at 2:30. White is now 26-0, and is ranked No. 1 in the state of Missouri at 119 pounds by missouriwrestling.com.

Daniel Vaughn lost his two opening-day matches at 285 pounds. He has been eliminated from state competition. Vaughn lost to JJ Johnson (Jefferson City) in a Fall at 2:53, and to Recardo Gordon from Marquette in a Fall at 4:47.

White had raised his individual record to 25-0, and won the 119-pound championship at the Class 4 District 2 Championships at McCluer North last Saturday. He pulled out a thrilling 5-4 decision over archnemesis Ben Henson of Francis Howell Central in the district championship match in order to get to state.

White finished fifth in the 103-pound competition in '09 and fifth again in the 112-pound tournament last year.

After a long day of grappling, here’s how St. Louis-area high schools fared on Thursday:

Class 1

Maplewood Richmond Heights – tied for eighth place with eight points.

Sophomore Montel Maggitt lost his opening 125-pound bout to Brookfield’s Jimmy Thomas by technical fail. Later in the day, he defeated St. Mary’s Brian Erstad, 8-3, in the wrestleback round.

At 160 pounds, senior Eduardo Verdia pinned Jimmy Grant of Sherwood High School with 3:59 remaining in his first-round bout.

Sophomore Lavon Clark was pinned by Polo Fall’s Justin Hicks in the opening round at 189 pounds. In his wrestleback, Clark pinned Dakota Wooten from Tarkio High School.

Whitfield – tied for first place with Brookfield with 36 points.

Wyatt Salsbury, Peter Gienke, Michael Kissell, Ethan Sherertz, Rodney Hahn, Chris Wilkes, Austin Smith and Jack Pantanella all won their first-round bouts.

Stephen Scobee, Pat McLaughlin, Lawrence Becker, Ian Murphy, and Eric Engel lost their opening bouts, but Scobee and Engel went on to win their wrestlebacks.

Principia High School -- tied for 12th place with 16 points.

Garrett Moulton, Remington Lutz, Josh Roometua and Jake Roometua all contributed with first-round victories. Ben Stolfa lost his first bout, but won in the wrestleback round. Matt Ross, Gabe Stringer and Lachlan Jones lost both of their bouts on Thursday.

Class Two

Clayton – tied for 37th with three points.

Both Caleb Grady and Edward Davis lost their opening bouts, but Grady did go on to win his wrestleback.

Priory – tied for last place with zero points.

Priory’s only competitor 130-pounder Andrew Callahan lost both of his bouts on Thursday.

Lafayette -- tied for last place with zero points.

Neither of Lafayette’s wrestlers, Spencer Riddle or Preston Gregory, managed to pick up a victory on Thursday.

Class Three

Chaminade – Tied for 30th place with four points.

Zach Bozich pinned Willard’s Caleb Shuck while Max Wilhelm lost his first bout.

Ladue – Tied for 39th place with two points.

Owen Blyth was the only Ladue wrestler to win his first round bout. Brock Ridenour, Grant Sachs, Justin Mann and Chris Shirley were all defeated.

Parkway Central – Tied for 46th place with one point.

Jacob Didier lost 5-4 to Platte County’s Taylor Smith.

Fort Zumwalt North – In 16th place with 12 points.

Both Zach Nelson and Cole Reedy won their opening bouts. Joel Lauer, Blake Thomas, Justin Manzella, Darian Jones Ryan Roth and Nathan Helmig all lost in their first efforts.

Fort Zumwalt East – Tied for 22nd place with 22 points.

Conor Vortherms defeated Clayton Roark from Helias Catholic 1-0. John Marshall, Jared Moresi, Dakota Ivanoff, Andrew Moore, Landon Reading and Tyler Femmer all fell in their first bouts.

Parkway West – Tied for 30th place with four points.

Andrew Carter pinned Raytown South’s Tylor Kraus in his match on Thursday.

Rockwood Summit – Tied for sixth place with 24 points.

Aaden Aaden, Dylan Heiney, Boone McIntosh, Mitch Mays, Ian McIntosh, Drew Lance and Abram Reynolds all won their opening bouts. Spenser Mathews, Rudy May, Josh Martin, Nick Strauder and Mitchell Baer lost their first matchups.

Class 4:

Fox – Tied for 42nd with three points.

Alex Vaughn, Chris Repple and Kenny Hanes all lost their first bouts.

Seckman – In third place with 25.5 points.

All of Seckman’s wrestlers won their first-round bouts. They are Brock Winbermue, Matt Kraus, Danny Farrell, Denny Kleinschro, Blake Pepper, Corey Matt and Timothy Niewald.

Oakville – Tied for last with zero points.

Both Jonathon Bromeie and Matthew Jackson lost in the first round.

Pattonville – Tied for 42nd with three points.

All three wrestlers lost in the first round – Wesley Raiche, Matthew Murphy and Jesse Farmer.

Parkway North – Tied for 25th with seven points.

David Smith was the sole member of Parkway North to win his first bout. Chris Carter, David Evans, Austin Adderley and Zach Cusamano all lost.

Timberland – Tied for 12th with 13.5 points.

Devan Richter, Colton Orlando, Jesse Freise and Jacob Hawks all won for Timberland.

Holt – Tied for 27th with six points.

Clayton Ream won his first bout while Brett Beckmann and Gaige Dunnermann both lost.

Francis Howell Central – In second place with 30.5 points.

Ben Henson, John Wood, Terell Wilbourn, Justin Dickey, Andy King, Matt Greene, Wyatt Miller and Brian Paur all won in the first round. Cole Anderson and Luke Knoche fell in the opening bouts.

Francis Howell North – Tied for 27th place with six points.

Harold Ritchie and Jason Shell got the only wins for Howell North in the first round. Brendan Hachtel, Tyler Smith and Sam Stewart lost.

Marquette – In 22nd place with nine points.

Matthew Mosior and Ryan Tulley both won their first bouts while Thomas Makowsky, Zachary Conn, Philip Stanley and Recardo Gordon all lost.

Lafayette – Tied for sixth place with 15 points.

Ryan Jones, Nick Olejnik, Brandon Hundley and William Burgess all won their first bouts. Kyle Black, Ryan Siebert and Daniel Wrocklage fell in the first attempts.

Mehlville – Tied for 42nd place with three points.

James Brockman was pinned in his first bout. 

Lindbergh – Tied for 17th place with 10.5 points.

Tom Korenak and Michael Slyman won their first matches. Matthew Ratterre, Same Stinebrook and Christopher Kew all lost.

Northwest – In 16th place with 11 points.

Justin Nahlik, Robert Martin, Brenden Southard, Zachary King and Nick Tufts all won their first bouts. Cameron Noland lost.

Parkway South – Tied for 34th place with four points.

Donnell Walker got the only win for Parkway South. Andrew Hayes and Tyler Sonnabend both lost their first bouts.

Fort Zumwalt West – Tied for 14th with 12 points.

Ryan Kiethline was the only first-bout winner for Fort Zumalt West. Jesse Czerniewski, Cody Zeik, Jordan Young and Travis Wheatley all lost.

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