For a moment, all seemed lost.
Windsor’s Jacob Warren was trailing Nikolas Chavez of Willard 4-1 in the third period of their 145-pound championship match Saturday at the Class 3 state tournament in Columbia. Each passing second was draining away the prospect of an Owl grappler claiming a state title for the first time in the 22 years of the program.
Then in the blink of an eye, Warren snapped Chavez into a cradle and pinned the Tiger senior with 52 seconds left. Suddenly Warren had reached the promised land. And he did it by defeating an opponent who came in 50-0.
“I don’t know how (Chavez) got (on his back) because the whole match was a blur,” said Warren, who also made family history after his two older brothers – Kyle, 26, and Tyler, 23 – both had fallen just short of state titles themselves. “I locked up the cradle and knew I’d score, but I didn’t think I’d pin him.
“I was kind of getting my butt kicked up until I pinned him.”
Warren’s mother, Paula, who teaches in the fourth grade at Windsor Intermediate Center, qualified for a media credential and was sitting next to the mat, snapping photos the whole time. She admitted that late in the match, she was resigned to yet another disappointment in Columbia.
“I was screaming,” she said. “I was calm until the pin. And when he pinned him, there was a little shriek. I thought he was going to lose, but then I saw the turn, and I knew it was coming.”
Warren’s family was on hand at the Mizzou Arena to witness him make history.
“(The Warren brothers) are competitive, but they are very close and his brothers wanted him to win,” Paula said. “They go to his practices and work out with him and make him stronger.”
The tears of joy weren’t confined to the family. Head coach Kevin Stoffey, who started the Owl wrestling program from scratch in 1995, got a little misty-eyed himself.
“It’s unbelievable,” Stoffey said. “He hung in there and kept it close. We got it down to the end and Jake’s great at scrambling. He got into a scramble situation and locked up that cradle and stepped through it and had the kid flat. Beautiful.”
Warren, recently named the Jefferson County Activities Association wrestler of the year, lay on the floor for several minutes in an arena hallway trying to comprehend what he’d just done. After months of sweating and pushing for the state title, he had another reward to anticipate – eating all he wanted at the celebratory dinner.
“I get to stuff my face and I can’t wait,” said Warren, who finished 42-2. “I’m going to eat everything that gets in my way.”
The outcome was a little less salutary for another Owl standout, junior Ryan Yarnell, who entered the 182-pound bracket at state as a district champion and a No. 1 seed. Yarnell won his first two matches before facing Webb City senior Hunter Vanlue in the semifinals. Vanlue won 6-3 and completed an undefeated season (54-0) with a 10-4 decision over Warrensburg’s Dayton Brown in the championship.
“It’s a little disappointing,” Yarnell said. “I’m feeling a little down but I finished third and that’s the best I’ve ever done.”
Yarnell faced an old adversary in the third-place match, squaring off against Sikeston senior Joshua Stinnett for the fourth time this season. The match had barely begun when Stinnett came down hard on his head and lay motionless on the mat. After Stinnett’s injury time ran out, Yarnell won the match by injury default.
Stinnett stayed on the mat for several minutes before he was carted out on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital.
“I spiked his head down and as I did he took a wild shot and all of our weight landed on his head,” Yarnell said.
“What can I say about Ryan?” Stoffey said. “He’s as good as anybody in the state at 182. He just didn’t get it done in the semifinals, but it was anybody’s match that came down to a couple of close calls on the boundary.”
Windsor senior Andrew Marler (220) and freshman Grant Pauli (138) also qualified for state. It was Marler’s first state appearance and he lost both matches he wrestled. Pauli had a marvelous freshman year and won one match at state.
“Grant got to within a match of the ‘bubble’ match (for a medal),” Stoffey said. “He made a freshman error at the end of the (elimination) match. What a great start for a freshman.
“Andrew had a great season and nice district. Things didn’t turn out well for him here but he did a great job.”
Windsor finished highest among all Jefferson County Activities Association teams in Class 3. The Owls scored 48 points, good for 10th place, while Hillsboro was 18th with 31 points, De Soto was 25th with 23 and Festus wound up 40th with eight points. Neosho won its seventh state crown with 150 points.
Hawks and Dragons each claim one medal
Junior Dylan Owens had a tough draw in the Class 3 120-pound championship when he faced Kearney junior Clayton Singh, who had already won state titles at 106 and 113.
Singh (40-4) controlled Owens through all three periods and won a 13-0 major decision. Owens finished an outstanding season with a record of 45-2.
“I wasn’t nervous going into the match because I knew I was the underdog,” Owens said. “He had an arsenal of moves I wasn’t used to seeing. In the first period, the throw he hit me with, I wasn’t expecting it. I wasn’t ready for moves like that.”
Hillsboro head coach Lee Freeman said not seeing Singh wrestle this season made it hard for Owens to develop a game plan.
“Dylan wrestled well all weekend,” Freeman said. “I’m extremely proud of him. He has a great mindset. The thing I appreciate about him is, win or lose, he approaches things the same way.”
James Short (106), Nick Short (113), Isaiah Beck (126), Paul Stewart (220) and Joe Becker (285) also competed at state for Hillsboro but were eliminated; James Short went the farthest with two wins in four matches. Beck is the only senior in that group.
“Anytime you can get a kid to the tournament before his senior year is key,” Freeman said. “In this arena and (with) the amount of people (here), it’s something different the kids aren’t used to.”
De Soto sophomore Logan Zimmermann (45-8) was the only one of six Dragon qualifiers to capture a medal, finishing sixth at 152. He won his first-round match but lost in the quarterfinals, then wrestled his way back into medal contention with back-to-back wins. He was beaten twice by Kearney junior Ethan Locke.
“Logan had a hard day today, but 152 was stacked with a lot of good people,” De Soto head coach John Brown said.
Ethan Ladyman qualified for state for the Dragons but didn’t compete in Columbia because of a skin ailment, Brown said.
Freshman phenom Landon Porter’s Cinderella season came to an end one victory shy of securing a medal. Porter, a district champion, won his first-round match but lost to Carl Junction junior Zeke Wall in the quarterfinals and then was eliminated by Bronnie Kinser of McDonald County in a 10-3 decision. Porter finished 38-8.
Zach Nash (126), Michael Manning (170), Logan Smith (182) and Johnny Williamson (195) were the other De Soto state qualifiers.
“It was a great season,” Brown said. “We wrestled well. We just didn’t finish as well as I’d like.”
Festus had two seniors qualify for state – Justin Harris (152) and Tyler Sexton (195). Harris won two matches but lost to Zimmermann 14-11 in the wrestleback semifinals. After losing in the opening round, Sexton won a 9-4 decision over Hannibal’s Dalton Huffman in the first round of wrestlebacks but was eliminated in his next match by Marshaun Swift of Grandview, 6-1.
Herculaneum’s lone state qualifier, junior James Todaro, lost a 7-1 opening bout with Kolby Estes of Warsaw at 145 pounds (Class 1) but beat Dalton Cook of Lawson in an 11-0 major decision in round one of the wrestlebacks. Todaro bowed out in his next match, getting pinned in the third period by Centralia’s Carter Kinkead.