The Warrenton wrestling team walked away from Saturday’s GAC Tournament with a pair of conference champions. The Warriors finished fifth overall as a team, scoring 98 points. Up and down the board, the Warriors didn’t perform quite to coach Kevin Fowler’s expectations. He was hopeful they would land somewhere among the top three teams. “Overall we were disappointed with the team finish, because we don’t go in looking to finish in the bottom half,” said Fowler. “It’s a good chance to evaluate ourselves at about mid season.” Dealing with injuries and vacancies at several weights, Warrenton took just eight competitors to tournament at Zumwalt East. “The guys that we did take wrestled pretty well,” said Fowler. “On paper we wrestled up to our seed at almost every weight. We had a couple of losses that I felt were kind of bad losses.” A pair of state qualifiers handled business soundly in their title bouts, finishing off a sweep through the brackets. Senior Sean Daven claimed top honors at 130 pounds, defeating Joey Herrold of St. Charles West by a 3-2 decision. “I was real satisfied with Daven's effort,” said Fowler. “He's been working hard and got second last year. That's just the result of a lot of hard work.” Daven, who was ranked ninth prior to Saturday's event, says he has worked on avoiding falling behind early in matches. “I worked hard all day to not let anyone score on me,” said Daven. “I've been working on scoring more in the first period instead of letting it go 0-0.” Senior Will Filipek promptly dispatched his championship opponent, taking the crown in the 215-pound class. After finishing third in the state in his weight class last winter, the watermark has been set high for Filipek. He needed just 1:44 to pin Zumwalt South's Ben Bentley in a dominating performance. Warrenton qualified four other competitors for the trophy round, with three of them being successful in their final bouts. Sophomore Ryan Sherry worked his way back through after an early defeat to take third place at 103 pounds. He outlasted Reid Hanmore of St. Charles in a 10-5 decision. Prior to Saturday's setback, Sherry had been unscathed and ranked third in Class 3. Sophomore J.J. Filipek hung around in his battle against Zach Forstmann long enough to work for a pin. Filipek had lost to the same competitor just four days earlier in dual action. He has been one of the Warriors most improved performers this season. “J.J. wrestled a pretty tough tournament,” said Fowler. “He's put in a lot of work this offseason and really has picked up on the sports and understands he can be very good at it.” Junior Travis Doyle was successful in his third-place match, winning by fall against Ryan Gillies of St. Charles West. The third of Warrenton's returning state qualifiers didn't fare as well during his championship match. Senior Reece Berry couldn't make up the deficit in the closing moments of 12-11 defeat to Zumwalt North's Nate Helmig in the heavyweight bout. “He threw the kid, had him on his back and should have finished it,” said Fowler. “We didn't and let the kid stay in the match. It's definitely disappointing, because we thought he could get a conference championship.” A few Warriors were unable to advance to the final rounds, while several open weights also hindered Warrenton in the team standings. Junior Chris Schall was sidelined by an elbow injury, leaving the 112-pound spot open. Zach Reece wrestled for the Warriors at 135 pounds, while Joel Eversmeyer represented in the 140-pound class. Warrenton was open at 112, 119, 125, 145 and 152 pounds. There was a power shift among conference teams, as St. Charles West ended Zumwalt North's five-year streak as league champion with 168 points. Washington finished in second place with 141 points.