Twenty wrestlers from the Jefferson County Activities Association will compete at the 88th Missouri State High School Activities Association Wrestling Championships, Thursday through Saturday at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
Seven of the nine JCAA grapplers who vied for championships Saturday at the Class 3 District 1 tournament in Farmington came home in first place.
Pacific had seven wrestlers in the finals, including the first five weight classes (106-132), and won the team title with 191 points. Windsor sent the most wrestlers (six) to state among county teams and was second with 139 points. Hillsboro (fourth, 117.5 points), Festus (sixth, 93) and De Soto (seventh, 89.5) rounded out the team scores from the JCAA.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to the state meet. The JCAA will send two unbeaten wrestlers to Columbia.
Windsor senior Jacob Warren improved to 44-0 after beating Pacific junior Ben Courtney (45-4) in the 152-pound championship. Warren won Windsor’s first state title in wrestling last season with a pin of Willard’s Nikolas Chavez in the third period.
The Owls’ other undefeated wrestler, senior Ryan Yarnell (52-0), won all four district matches by fall in the first period. He pinned Union sophomore David Clark in the 182 final in 57 seconds. After finishing third in Class 3 at 182 last season, Yarnell seems determined to climb to the top of the medal stand this week.
“We’ve got the bull’s eye on our back,” Windsor head coach Kevin Stoffey said. “Everybody knows (Warren and Yarnell) so they have to be at the top of their games. They love it. They’re like, ‘So what?’ I nudge them a few minutes before they go out and they take care of business. They’ve been on the mat so much, they’re just machines out there.
“They see the best of the best in the offseason and are wrestling kids ranked in the top five in the nation.”
Festus sophomore Dillon French (38-8) started the JCAA’s exceptional day with a championship at 106 pounds. French pinned his first two opponents in 43 seconds before taking out Pacific sophomore Vincent Boyen (38-10) in 27 seconds in the title match. French lost in the match to go to state last year.
“I know state will be really hard and I won’t pin everybody. It’s about who gets the points,” French said. “(Boyen) shot on me and I stuffed him down and got him into a cradle. I can’t process this right now. I can’t believe it’s happening to me.”
After watching the hard work French has put in this season, Festus head coach Thomas McFarland said he deserves his reward.
“Dillon wrestles all of his matches tough,” McFarland said. “He got caught a couple of times this year. He battled every time he went out there. He had some trouble with guys here and had some close matches, but we knew how good he could be.”
Zack Naucke (113 pounds), Luke Shaver (145) and Cole Bennett (152) are the other three Festus wrestlers to qualify for state. Naucke (36-6) and Shaver (35-21) are the first two freshmen to reach Columbia in the short history of the Tigers’ program. Bennett (39-14) has been with the Tigers for four years and is the senior leader.
Naucke won his first two matches in a combined 58 seconds, lost in the semifinals and pinned Rockwood Summit junior Dezmond McSellers at 4:11 to finish third. Shaver lost to 145-pound district champion and two-time state qualifier Grant Pauli of Windsor in the first round, but won his next three matches to reach the third-place match against Webster Groves junior Eric Pettibone. Pettibone beat Shaver in a 10-1 major decision.
“Naucke was our first freshman qualifier by a hair, because Shaver qualified right after him,” McFarland said. “It’s always nice to get freshmen to state because you know you’re going to have them back.
“(Shaver) had to wrestle Pauli right off the bat and for a freshman to battle back after a loss all the way through wrestlebacks is tough. But he’s mentally tough and he doesn’t quit.”
Bennett reached the semifinals before losing to another Windsor district champion, Jacob Warren, the defending state champion at 145. Bennett finished fourth after losing 4-2 to Sikeston junior Quincy Nelson.
“Cole is our senior leader with four years of experience,” McFarland said. “If there’s anybody you want to see succeed, it’s somebody like Cole who came out as a green freshman and we coached him up and he did everything we asked of him and the payoff is he’s going to state.”
Windsor senior Andrew Kinder met Hillsboro sophomore James Short in the third-place match at 120. Kinder (41-13) qualified for state as a sophomore, but fell short last season. He returns to Columbia for his last season after finishing third with a 11-1 major decision over Short (38-12), who is making his second state appearance. Kinder lost to Pacific freshman Callum Sitek in the semifinals. Sitek won the 120-pound district title over Union sophomore Carter Sickmeier.
“I saw (Short) wrestle (Sickmeier) and I was 2-1 against Sickmeier, so I tried matching up against (Short) and be relentless on offense,” Kinder said.
“Callum Sitek is a different kind of animal. He’s got a bright future. It’s better to finish third, because if you finish fourth, you’ve got to face a top seed, and that isn’t fun.”
Hillsboro senior Nick Short returns to Columbia for the fourth year after winning the 126-pound championship in dramatic fashion. Nick Short (44-9) pinned his first three opponents before he met Pacific junior Noah Patton (44-5) in the final. Trailing by two points late in the third period, Short got Patton on his back and pinned him with nine seconds left.
“I was going to hit the stand up, but I knew there wasn’t going to be enough time to get away, get the takedown and win the match, so as a last-ditch effort, I went for the switch and he followed with it and I ended up stacking him,” Nick Short said. “I put all of my leverage onto his shoulder, trying to make him flip over and I was surprised it worked.
“I’ve had a lot of hard competition this year and that really helped me for districts.”
Senior Dylan Owens (33-3) made it back-to-back titles for the Hawks at 132 when he beat Pacific senior Gage Kassing in a 2-1 decision. Owens, who finished second in Class 3 at 120 last season, lost 2-0 to Kassing at the 141 Rumble in January.
“For the last month, nothing has been on my mind other than winning my first district title and redeeming myself for that match,” said Owens whose nose was bloody and swollen after taking a right from Kassing during the match.
“My plan was to get an early takedown, which I did. In the second period, I knew he would be on bottom because I was deferring. When he went bottom, my goal was to ride him out and maybe give up one point, then start down in the third period and get an escape. I didn’t get the escape so all I was thinking was don’t get turned. He decided to ride me out in the third and I didn’t stress out at all.”
The match was stopped briefly after Owens injured his left arm. It was stopped again for his bloody nose, which was full of cotton afterward.
“My left arm hurt so bad,” he said. “I struggled to build a base after that and it still hurts awfully. He hit me with a cross-face, and I don’t want to think it’s intentional because we’re cool. But it was a punch right to the nose and it immediately started bleeding.”
De Soto sophomore Connor Zimmermann (31-19) will make his first state appearance after finishing third at 132. Zimmermann lost a 16-8 major decision to Owens in the semifinals before beating North County freshman Jordan Borseth in a technical fall in 3:42.
“Connor’s worked his tail off to get (to state),” said De Soto head coach John Brown, who led the Dragons to their sixth consecutive JCAA title this season. “He’s tall but he’s undersized for 132. He’s done a really good job for us this year.”
In the first of two all-JCAA finals, Windsor sophomore Grant Pauli (47-6) beat Hillsboro senior Jordan Sanders (28-11) in a 5-1 decision at 145. It was the third meeting of the season between Pauli and Sanders, with Pauli winning the last two. Pauli returns to state after qualifying at 138 last season.
“I tried to figure out his weaknesses and took the (teammate) Ryan Yarnell approach of attack, attack, attack, 24-7,” Pauli said of his strategy against Sanders.
Two JCAA wrestlers qualified for state at 160. De Soto junior Logan Zimmermann (41-4) pinned his first two opponents before losing a 14-5 major decision to Farmington senior Dylan Allen (50-5) in the championship. Windsor freshman Chris Butts lost to Allen in the quarterfinals, then beat Hillsboro senior Joe Garner in the bubble match. Butts (36-20) finished third with a 12-10 decision against North County senior Cole Cresswell.
“I figured (Butts) would make it to the bubble match and be done, but he stepped up,” Stoffey said.
Windsor senior Connor Richey (36-12) met Pacific junior James Anding in the final at 170. Richey won his first two matches by fall, and beat De Soto junior Lucas Watson (22-11) in the semifinals. Anding (36-1) beat Richey by technical fall at 4:04. Watson finished fourth.
Nobody at the district tournament was surprised when De Soto sophomore Landon Porter and Hillsboro junior Joe Becker met in the heavyweight championship for the second straight year. Porter led Becker 2-1 late in the match before winning by fall with 10 seconds left in the match.
JCAA wrestlers were 9-5 in bubble matches, or matches to go to state. Those losses are sometimes the ones that hurt the most.
“Any time you come to this tournament, a lot of things can happen,” Hillsboro head coach Matt Mitchell said. “We had a couple of seniors who lost in the match to go to state and I’m proud of them. It’s an emotional day and I’m proud of everything they’ve done for us.”
County wrestlers from Class 3 District 1 to reach state (by team) are: De Soto -- Devin Francis (126), Connor Zimmermann (132), Logan Zimmermann (160), Lucas Watson (170) and Landon Porter (heavyweight); Festus -- Dillon French (106), Zack Naucke (113), Luke Shaver (145) and Cole Bennett (152); Hillsboro -- James Short (120), Nick Short (126), Dylan Owens (132), Jordan Sanders (145) and Joe Becker (heavyweight); Windsor -- Andrew Kinder (120), Grant Pauli (145), Jacob Warren (152), Chris Butts (160), Connor Richey (170) and Ryan Yarnell (182).