“We did well as a team. I could have done better and could have fixed some mistakes,” said freshman Aidan Black, the first of six Hillsboro wrestlers to claim a medal at the Class 3 state championships March 12 at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence. Black placed sixth at 106 pounds.
“I’m thankful for my teammates and coaches,” he said.
Sophomore Gavin Alexander, who won the Hawks’ first state individual title since 2008 last season, captured his second medal in as many years, coming in fourth at 113.
“I’m a little disappointed. Nothing feels like winning a championship, but I’ll come back stronger next year,” said Alexander, who has won 46 matches in each of his first two seasons. “I felt like I faced that pressure well throughout the year. I’ll be lifting, doing summer wrestling and I’m going to play football. I’m coming in bigger next year (126 or 132).”
Facing juggernauts from Whitfield and Neosho, Hillsboro needed all of its school-record 12 state qualifiers to break that glass ceiling and win its first team trophy in boys wrestling. The Hawks finished third with 91 points.
Whitfield, the Class 1 champion the past four years and winners of Class 1 nine times since 2008, was bumped up to Class 3 this season after the Missouri State High School Activities Association added past postseason success as a criteria for classifications among private schools. The move made little difference to the Warriors, who won their 10th state team championship with 182 points, exactly double Hillsboro’s total. Neosho, winners of nine Class 3 state titles since 2010, was second with 148.
“The goal was a state championship as a team,” said Hillsboro head coach Matt Mitchell, who has overseen the Hawks’ meteoric rise from 25th in 2019 to 10th last year and now to third. “It’s a weird feeling because the guys didn’t reach their goals and they’re upset, but they accomplished something that never happened at Hillsboro before and they’re excited about that. We had six more wrestlers (qualifiers who didn’t medal) who got great state experience.”
Whitfield wrestlers won titles at 106, 113, 120, 126 and 220 and captured eight medals overall. Besides Black and Alexander, freshman Sam Richardson (fourth, 126), junior Dalton Litzsinger (fourth, 138), sophomore Griffin Ray (third, 152) and senior Zach McNees (fifth, 195) were Hillsboro’s other medalists. Junior Austin Neff (fourth, 106) and senior Luke Shaver (third, 182) won state medals for Festus. It’s the second time in three years the Jefferson County Activities Association didn’t produce a state champion.
Three Hawks (senior Aidan Haggard, 120; sophomore Evan Morris, 132 and junior Jordan Jarvis, 285) came within a match of wrestling for a medal. Jarvis was excruciatingly close, losing a 1-0 decision to Bolivar senior Jack Roweton in the “bubble match.” Roweton went on to finish fifth.
“They were right there in close losses,” Mitchell said. “Jordan lost on a technical. He didn’t mean to grab the guy’s singlet, but he did and lost. Aidan lost to a senior from Smithville.”
After two previous trips to the state tournament, McNees won the last match of his prep career and finished 39-6, beating Lebanon senior Jake Henson 5-1.
Ray, fifth in the state at 138 last year, had lost twice to Mehlville senior Jack Silies this season, but in their rematch for third-place at 152, Ray prevailed 6-2, giving him 93 wins in two years.
A three-time state qualifier and third in the state at 132 in 2020, Litzsinger (43-5) lost 5-4 to Grandview senior L.J. Davenport in the 138 semifinals and dropped a 4-2 decision to Camdenton senior Grant Garrett for third place. Garrett was 55-2 this season and the 138 champion, Ladue senior Jacob Mann, was 36-0.
“There’s definitely more work to be done,” Litzsinger said. “We all took some lumps today and it shows we can all improve.”
In my case, I can improve anywhere and in every position. I’m an upperclassman now and I just want to make it fun. We’re not a team anymore. We’re a group of brothers.”
After a loss in the first round, Black won twice to reach the fifth-place match. But it ended abruptly there when Carl Junction sophomore Lukas Walker pinned Black at 1:00.
Neff (26-3) advanced to state for the first time and reached the semifinals at 106 before losing to Neosho sophomore Raymond Hembree in a 16-3 major decision. Hembree lost to Alexander for the state title at 106 last season. Lebanon freshman Andrew Bowling (44-4) finished third with a 6-0 decision over Neff.
“I was planning on going to the finals, but I’ll take it because I didn’t even make it to state last year,” Neff said. “I did a lot of offseason wrestling with Thoroughbred Wrestling in Hillsboro. That’s where I grinded all summer.”
Festus head coach Jason Nahlik credited Neff with working hard last offseason. “He rolled around with my son (Andrew Nahlik) in the offseason and really improved,” Nahlik said. “He got a first-round bye (here) and won his first match and that really made a difference.”
Shaver won 51 matches a year ago and finished third in the state at 170. He entered this year’s state tournament 42-0. But Carl Junction senior Jesse Cassatt, the defending state champion at 195, was undefeated as well (46-0) and just a little better than Shaver in a 5-2 semifinal win. Cassatt went on to claim the 182 title while Shaver finished third again with an 8-3 decision over Vianney senior Roman Graiff.
“He had his mind on a state championship,” Nahlik said of Shaver. “He wrestled a good (semifinal) match and it just didn’t come out the way we wanted it to. That loss doesn’t define him as a wrestler or a human and he’s got a bright future in college.
“(Cassatt) was more aggressive throughout the match. Sometimes when you wrestle safe it bites you in the butt. After we got off the mat, (Shaver and I) had a nice conversation. I’ve been coaching him since his freshman year and I like to think of him as my wrestling son. We’ve gone through a lot together.”
Senior Luke Bradley (170) and sophomore Isaac Foeller (220) qualified for state for De Soto. Bradley (30-9) won his first match by sudden victory before falling in the quarterfinals to eventual 170 champion Trevor Wilson, a junior from Hannibal. Bradley lost 8-5 in the match before the medal round. Foeller (33-7) got a first-round bye, lost 2-1 to McDonald freshman Sam Murphy in the semifinals and came up short 11-4 in the “bubble match.”
Girls State Wrestling Championships
Foeller, Klein are county’s only medalists
Seven wrestlers represented Jefferson County at the third girls state wrestling tournament March 9 and two came home with medals.
The headliner was De Soto senior Jaycee Foeller, who became only the second undefeated three-time state champion among the girls when she pinned her way through the field at 174 pounds. Her 30 team points were enough to put the Dragons in a tie for 17th place with Kearney. Foeller remains the only Jefferson County girl to win a state title in the sport, which Missouri launched in the 2018-2019 school year.
The other local medalist, Festus junior Kirsten Klein, beat Holt junior Reese Compton in a 13-8 sudden victory for fifth place at 112 pounds. She’s the first state medalist ever for Festus on the girls side and finished with a 29-5 record.
Lebanon had the most qualifiers with eight and took the team championship for the second time in three years, totaling 101 points in the single-day competition at Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence. Lafayette scored 81.5 points to finish second for the third year in a row.
Compton (25-6) sent Klein to wrestlebacks with an 11-2 major decision in the first round, but trailed Klein by two points with seconds left in the fifth-place match. Compton scored a takedown to tie in regulation. Klein, wrestling her fourth match of the day and battling dehydration, pulled out the victory in overtime.
Klein reached the medal round after pinning Eureka junior Cora Skaggs in 2:02. Skaggs (25-12) was a sectional champion and beat Klein 9-2 in the sectional semifinals.
“She’s been cutting weight. So when you get into a tournament like this, it happens,” Festus head coach Jason Nahlik said of Klein’s condition. “She had a lot of long matches today. I aged quite a bit in that 30 seconds (of overtime).”
The other qualifier for Festus, sophomore Lauren Mills (30-9), was in a 122-pound weight class loaded with talent. Nixa freshman Brenya Crahan (46-3) emerged as the champion, while sectional winner Mikayla Whatley (47-3), a senior from North County, placed third.
Whatley pinned Mills in 28 seconds at sectionals but had to squeeze out a 4-0 decision against her in the state wrestlebacks.
“Whatley’s had her number all year and it was one of (Mills’) best matches of the year,” Nahlik said. “Like Kirsten, she’s one of our hardest workers. The future’s bright for girls wrestling at Festus. We get all of our girls back next year. Hopefully this state success will add much more.”
Three times Seckman junior Madison Conrad has qualified for the state tournament, but she’s still working toward her first medal.
After pinning Cassville freshman Hailey York at 1:04 in the first round at 132, Conrad (23-4) ran into undefeated Sabrina King, a senior from St. Charles and who was fourth in the state at 120 in 2020. King pinned her way to the state championship at 132 and finished 32-0.
Pushed to the wrestlebacks, Conrad stayed in medal contention by pinning Timberland senior Ryan Ehling at 2:48. But the medal slipped from Conrad’s grasp when she got stuck herself in the bubble match by Lebanon junior Quincey Glendenning (42-5).
“Three of her four losses were, one at sectionals and two at state. All four losses were to state placers,” Seckman head coach Ryan Moyer said.
“She’s right there and she knows that. This is the second year in a row she’s been on the edge to get a state medal and she’ll do what she needs to do to get that medal next year. I think she’s one of the top girls in the state. King is a great athlete and competitor.
“(Conrad’s) the leader of our program and our entire team comes back next year. We’ve got 12 girls and a great start for building the future.”
In the first two years of girls wrestling, Northwest climbed from 46th place at state in 2019 to eighth place last season. A top-10 finish this year was not to be, however, as senior Madison Bellinger (107) and junior Taylor Accardi (151) were the only Lions to advance out of sectionals. And because of an injury to Accardi, only Bellinger made the trip.
Bellinger (30-6) won a 7-2 decision in the first round before losing 7-0 in the quarterfinals. A win by forfeit pushed her to the consolation semifinals, but there she fell 6-1 to Francis Howell Central sophomore Sophia Miller, who finished third at 107. Lafayette junior Faith Cole took the title at that weight and improved to 89-0 for her career in winning her third state championship.
“(Bellinger) lost to two great girls,” Northwest head coach Ron Wilhelm said. “She wrestled her heart out and it’s the best she did all year. To get within one match of a medal was heartbreaking, but doesn’t diminish the great career she’s had for us.”
Wilhelm said it also was heartbreaking when Accardi broke her leg in practice the week before the state tournament and had surgery on March 12 to repair it. Fort Osage sophomore Haley Ward (33-1) won the 151-pound title.
“(Accardi) had a 50-50 chance of getting a medal,” the veteran coach said.
Entering the state tournament, Fox sophomore Faith Spicer (235) had the fewest wins (6) and the only losing record of all the entries. But Marshfield senior Leanna Merrell (31-8) barely got past Spicer in the first round with a 5-3 decision. Spicer’s day ended in the next round when she was pinned by Camdenton freshman Clara Rathmann (29 wins).