De Soto head coach John Brown and Windsor head coach Kevin Stoffey joked about which of their wrestling teams was going to win as they awaited the final outcome of the 40th annual Bob Georger Classic on Saturday.
The Dragons and Owls tied with 159 points, so the outcome came down to which team had the most individual champions. Windsor’s Grant Pauli (145 pounds), Jacob Warren (152) and Ryan Yarnell (182) won their weight classes, while Logan Zimmermann (160) and Landon Porter (heavyweight) captured titles for the Dragons. The 3-2 edge for Windsor proved the difference.
While the Owls won the tournament by the slimmest of margins, they’ll have to beat the Dragons tonight (Thursday) in a dual meet if they are to unseat De Soto, the five-time and defending Jefferson County Activities Association champions.
Stoffey said he’s just trying to get his team to the Class 3 District 1 tournament in Farmington next week healthy.
“We had some tough tournaments earlier and it doesn’t bother me we have some easier ones right now,” Stoffey said. “Let’s get healthy and ready to go.”
Brown said the Dragons had the opportunity win their own tournament, but didn’t win enough matches for third or fifth place.
“It was our destiny to win but when you lose in the medal round, you don’t get points,” Brown said. “If we’d won a couple of more matches, we would have won the tournament.”
For the Dragons to tie the Owls, sophomore heavyweight Landon Porter had to win his match against Lexington junior Payton Wallace. Porter slipped past Wallace in a 5-4 decision and Windsor didn’t score any points at 285 leading to the tie.
Wallace earlier had pinned Hillsboro senior Joe Becker in the first period of the semifinal match to set up the championship matchup.
Becker came back and pinned North County senior Ryan Propst to finish third at 285. The Hawks finished fourth with 147.5 points.
“I knew that (Wallace) would be good after he pinned Joe. He’s real strong,” said Porter, who improved to 34-1 this season. “I worked more on my feet this weekend and this is good for district seeding. It’s good to get the confidence up going into these last few weeks.”
Zimmermann improved to 36-2 after he pinned all three of his opponents in the first period. He pinned Lexington junior Sean Emerson in just 36 seconds to win the title at 160. The only uncertainty to Zimmermann’s day was whether he was going to Taco Bell to try their new French fries.
“It’s always fun wrestling at home and it’s good to get some matches in before districts,” said Zimmermann, who finished sixth in Class 3 at 152 last season. “My pace is pretty high but (Emerson) looked pretty strong. I’m a lot more high-paced on my feet and I don’t let up in the third period this season.”
The undefeated Warren (34-0) and Yarnell (42-0) also barely broke a sweat during the tournament, winning all of their matches by fall.
Warren, last year’s Class 3 state champion at 145, scored a couple of obligatory takedowns against Fort Zumwalt East senior Eric Linck before pinning him at 2:50. Warren said he hasn’t really been challenged on the mat this season but has his eye on Belton’s Robert Weber, last year’s state champion in Class 3 at 152.
“I haven’t been cutting weight and I’m a little smaller than the (other wrestlers at 152),” Warren said. “I prepare for every match the same, no matter how good the opponent is.”
Yarnell recently broke the school record for career wins and now has 155. He pinned Parkway West junior Jackson Barnhart in the second period in the final Saturday. Yarnell said Barnhart was one of his toughest matches of the year. He said when Warren wins to stay unbeaten, it puts a little pressure on him to do the same.
“The main thing is all the hard work we’ve put in is paying off,” Yarnell said. “We’ve both had struggles throughout the years, but this year it’s coming together and we want to finish it like that.”
Everything was new to Pauli (38-5) last year when he qualified for state at 138 pounds as a freshman. More seasoned this year, Pauli said he’s improved because of the work on the mat he put in last summer at places like Fargo, N.D., and Atlanta. Pauli beat Sumner senior Daryus Webb in an 8-2 decision in the final.
“I wrestled smart. Every time he got me in a hold, I took advantage of the situation,” said Pauli, as he surveyed the contents of a box of doughnuts he was about to tear into. “I took (Webb) down and got my points.
“My freshman year, this was new to me and I was nervous all the time wrestling seniors and juniors. Now the butterflies are gone.”
Senior Dylan Owens won Hillsboro’s lone title at 132 with a 6-2 decision against Liberty senior Ben Leach. Owens (24-3) was tied 2-2 with Leach after the first period but scored takedowns in the second and third period for the measure of victory. He beat De Soto sophomore Connor Zimmermann 9-1 in the semifinals. Logan’s younger brother, Connor, finished third after scoring a 10-3 decision against Windsor freshman Michael Wolcott.
Owens said he battled illness and a fever most of the week and wasn’t sure he was even going to compete.
“I wasn’t going to wrestle but I thought about how I’ve won this tournament twice and it’s my senior year and I don’t have much more wrestling so I decided to (wrestle),” Owens said. “During the tournament, in the first period, I’m fine, but in the second period I started feeling short of breath and in the third period I couldn’t even breathe. The goal was to get a big enough lead, I didn’t have to worry in the third period.”
Hillsboro sophomore James Short (34-9) wrestled Union sophomore Carter Sickmeier for the title at 120. Short scored the match’s first takedown in the first period and led 2-0, but Sickmeier answered with a takedown and three near-fall points in the period before winning 10-4.
Short’s older brother, senior Nick Short (35-10), finished fifth at 126 after pinning De Soto junior Devin Francis.
“James and Nick are both under the weather,” Mitchell said in a familiar refrain. “James had a tough match against (Sickmeier). That’s a potential district opponent and we’ll make some adjustments and see what happens in a couple of weeks.”
Other county wrestlers to medal Saturday were Hillsboro freshman Aidan Haggard (fourth, 106), Windsor senior Andrew Kinder (third, 120), De Soto senior Michael Whitt (fifth, 120), De Soto sophomore Blake Hearst (sixth, 138), De Soto junior Dominic DeMarco (fourth, 152), Windsor freshman Chris Butts (fourth, 160), De Soto junior Lucas Watson (third, 170), Hillsboro senior Zach Bodway (fifth, 182), Windsor sophomore Seifeldin Elkhashabf (third, 195), Hillsboro freshman Vincent Hill (fifth, 195), De Soto sophomore Kaden Nichols (fourth, 220) and Windsor junior Dustin Svoboda (sixth, 220).