De Soto has had the Jefferson County Activities Association in a headlock for five years.
Head coach John Brown, entering his seventh season, has a full roster between 106 pounds and heavyweight, but he said some are new faces without varsity experience. The Dragons finished tied for 25th in Class 3 last season and have three returning state qualifiers in Logan Zimmermann, Logan Smith and Landon Porter.
“We’re going to have a lot of new faces and kids who haven’t wrestled in high school,” Brown said.
And De Soto’s grip on the conference title?
“I’m kind of humbled by it,” he said.
Zimmermann last year won 45 matches, a district championship and finished sixth in the state. He lost to Kearney’s Ethan Locke twice in Columbia, in the quarterfinals and the fifth-place match. Zimmermann will start at 170 pounds this season until he can cut down to 160, Brown said.
“If they can’t go down in weight, they’re stuck where they’re at,” Brown said. “He’s wrestled all summer and his hips are moving well. He’s an all-around good wrestler.”
Smith (39-12) qualified for state at 182 and was knocked out in the second round of wrestlebacks. He’s at 195 to start the season. Smith was selected to the second team at defensive end in the Mississippi Area Football Conference Red Division this fall.
“Logan had a good football season and it took him about a week to get used to being in the wrestle room. He’s anxious for a match and should be fun to watch,” Brown said.
Porter took the league by storm at heavyweight as a freshman last season and qualified for state. Porter won a district title and the first match in Columbia and ended up 38-8 after losing in the third round of wrestlebacks. He’s a brawler with some finesse on the mat and has the desire to be the best in the state.
“We’re hoping he can repeat last year and place at state,” Brown said. “He’s got some tough competition at the state level. (In the league) Hillsboro and Windsor will have two good heavyweights and they’re going to be fun to watch.”
Brown said he expects Dominic DeMarco (160) and Cole Watson (182) to have breakout seasons. DeMarco also was named to the all-conference team in football this fall.
The rest of the Dragons’ squad includes Scotty Grebe (106), Grant Hearst (113), Devin Francis (120), Zach Stevens (126), Luke Bradley (132), Hayden DeClue (132), Connor Zimmermann (138), Blake Hearst (145), Colton Gillam (152), Shaun Brooks (182) and Trystan Hendrix (220).
Brown is low-key about his team’s string of conference titles, but he’s also aware of the talent his team will face this winter.
“I really think Hillsboro and Windsor have shots at winning the conference,” he said. “As long as we can compete with them, that’s fine with me.”
Warren back as defending state champion
Windsor’s Jacob Warren locked the “cradle of love” at Mizzou Arena in February.
Trailing Willard’s Nikolas Chavez 4-1 in the third period of the Class 3 championship at 145 pounds, Warren scrambled, took Chavez down and used the classic cradle move for a pin with 52 seconds left. That made Warren the first state wrestling champion in school history.
Warren’s family, as well as head coach Kevin Stoffey, who started the program 23 years ago, were overwhelmed with delight as he made the rounds after the win. Warren’s older brothers, Kyle and Tyler, were both state qualifiers at Windsor. Jacob Warren is moving up to 152 for his senior season.
“He’ll be fine,” Stoffey said. “He bounced around last year between the two (145 and 152). He’s fairly tall for his weight class. He’s pretty lean, a year older and wiser and looking tough. The stress of last year is over, (but) he knows he’s got a bull’s-eye on his back and that he can’t rest on his laurels.”
Ryan Yarnell entered the 182-pound bracket at state as a district champion and a No. 1 seed. But Yarnell fell to Webb City’s Hunter Vanlue 6-3 in the semifinals and Vanlue ended up winning the title and finishing 54-0. Yarnell won his match for third place by injury default and aims to return to Columbia as a senior.
“He’s had a couple of tough breaks the last couple of years,” Stoffey said. “He’s probably the best of the third-place finishers returning. He could have easily been a state champion last year. He’s definitely hungry and hopefully he gets it done.”
Andrew Kinder qualified for state in 2016 but didn’t get out of districts in 2017. Another senior, Kinder is penciled in at 120 this season.
“You move up a class and things are tougher,” Stoffey said. “Our district at 113 last year was tough. He’s looking good. He’s a late bloomer. He didn’t come out until his sophomore year and he qualified that year. He’s a key for us this year. We’ve got to get him some wins.”
Sophomore Grant Pauli qualified for state at 138 and lost in the second-round wrestlebacks to finish 35-11 as a freshman. Pauli is moving up to 145, Warren’s old weight.
“Skills-wise, he’s right there,” Stoffey said. “He’s made improvements from last year. There’s no reason he can’t do extremely well and medal this year.”
Senior Connor Richey has missed state by one match in each of the last two seasons – last year by a point – and he’s at 160 this season. Richey and Warren have been around the same weight the last two seasons, forcing Richey up a class.
Grant Hogan returns after being sidelined by health problems last season. Stoffey said he expects the much-improved senior to have a breakout season at 195.
Junior Dustin Svoboda, who plays football and baseball, will wrestle at 220 this season, a big jump from 170 last year.
Windsor finished 10th in Class 3 in 2017 after going 12-5 in dual meets and winning the Fort Zumwalt North Tournament. Stoffey, who wrestled at Fox and Meramec Community College, said he hopes to contend for the league title.
“We should fill out every weight class with decent talent,” Stoffey said. “Hillsboro’s pretty darn good. And I’d say they’re the team to beat. I’ve known (new Hillsboro head coach) Matt Mitchell for quite a while. I knew him when he was a pee-wee at the Fox Wrestling Club. I’ve worked with his dad. It’s neat to see him come up through there.”
Experienced Hawks led by Owens
Matt Mitchell, an assistant for the last three years, is moving up to succeed Lee Freeman as head coach at Hillsboro. Freeman is the school’s football head coach who just guided the Hawks to the Class 4 quarterfinals. Freeman will assist Mitchell.
Mitchell graduated from Oakville and wrestled at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville for three years. He’s just the fourth head coach for the program that began in 1994, following Don Fuhrmann, Dave Peirce and Freeman.
Mitchell takes over a team that has enough returning talent to unseat De Soto as the conference champions. Four Class 3 state qualifiers – James Short, Nick Short, Dylan Owens and Joe Becker – are back.
“Over the past three years we have focused on increasing numbers and depth,” Mitchell said. “This has allowed us to create good competition for both our JV and varsity. Like most teams, our middle weights are jammed up with a lot of experience between 126 and 160. We expect some freshmen to push for varsity spots.”
Two of those frosh are Aiden Haggard and Vincent Hill contending at the upper weights.
Of the five Hawks who reached Columbia last season, Owens went the furthest, finishing second at 120. He lost a 13-0 major decision to Clayton Singh of Kearney and finished the year with a 45-2 record.
“He spent a good portion of the summer traveling the country, getting ready for this year,” Mitchell said of Owens. “His goals are set and reaching that point of winning state is one of them.”
James Short qualified for state at 106 after winning a district title as a freshman and finished 2-2 in Columbia. His older brother, Nick, a three-time state qualifier, was third at districts at 113 and lost his first match in Columbia. He came back with a pin in the consolation wrestlebacks before he was eliminated by Bradley Harman of Farmington in a 4-2 sudden victory.
“James lost a 1-0 match to medal at state to the (Ben Bohr of St. Charles) who finished (fourth). His goal is to be a state medalist,” Mitchell said. “It’s podium or bust for Nick this year. He lost in the bubble match (at state) a couple years in a row. He’s got tunnel vision to get to the medal stand.”
Becker is back at heavyweight, but Mitchell said Paul Stewart, a state qualifier at 220, hasn’t joined the team after football season yet and might not wrestle this season. Becker finished second in the district after a tough battle with De Soto’s Porter, lost a 4-3 decision in the first round at state, and won by fall in the first round of wrestlebacks before being pinned in the second round.
The rest of the returners from last season include junior Benny Allen (126), senior Jordon Sanders (138), senior Joe Garner (152), senior Joe Gregory (170) and senior Zach Bodway (182).
“We have a lot of seniors,” Mitchell said. “As a group, they want to accomplish a lot of things both individually and as a team. They have been motivated this offseason since taking third at last year’s district tournament.”
Mitchell said the Hawks have a competitive schedule this season, which includes visits to Neosho and Excelsior Springs for tournaments, and duals against Farmington, Washington and Lafayette.
“We sat down as a team and made our team goals and being conference champion is the first one we made,” Mitchell said. “It’s been right there for us the last couple of years and we haven’t had enough to get by De Soto. They’re the standard right now.”
Tigers solid in middle weights
Festus lost its two state qualifiers (Justin Harris and Tyler Sexton) to graduation, but head coach Thomas McFarland said he likes the competition that’s been brewing the first two weeks of practice in the weight classes between 138 and 160 pounds.
Harris won 41 matches and lost in the third round of wrestlebacks at 152 to De Soto’s Logan Zimmermann. Sexton won 41 matches and lost in the second round of wrestlebacks at 195.
“We have a young team this year,” McFarland said. “I hope to get a few of our younger guys some experience and maybe get a few of them to state. I plan on our seniors having a really good year.”
The Tigers finished 14-6 in dual meets last season. Cole Bennett (160), Tyler Gastreich (152), Jalin Rodgers (170), Jacob Cortez (170) and Reese Montgomery (285) are the top Festus grapplers so far this season. All five will have a chance to win their first league and district titles, and qualify for state for the first time.
McFarland wrestled at Oakville and is in his third season as the Tigers’ head coach.
Blackcats still in rebuilding mode
Andrew Wenger begins his second season as Herculaneum’s head coach pretty much in the same spot he was last year – rebuilding the program. Wenger wrestled at CBC in the 1990s and was an assistant coach at The Priory in St. Louis.
Senior Jim Todaro qualified for the Class 1 state tournament last season at 145 pounds and finished 1-2 in Columbia and 33-4 overall. Todaro isn’t currently on the team and Wenger hopes to have him after the winter break.
Seniors Trenton Tensley (160) and Drake Byers (152) and juniors Max Winkeler (138), Drew Gibson (145) and Justin Montgomery (170) are the core of the Blackcats and Wenger said he hopes each one places at districts this season.
“They have worked hard to wrestle at or lower then last year’s weight,” Wenger said. “The small core of guys we have are working hard to help build the program.
“Both last year and this year will be building years and we try and build our middle school program to bring wrestlers into the high school.”