After breaking through and winning its first-ever Gateway Athletic Conference North championship last season, the Warrenton wrestling team repeated as champs last week at St. Charles. The Warriors …
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After breaking through and winning its first-ever Gateway Athletic Conference North championship last season, the Warrenton wrestling team repeated as champs last week at St. Charles.
The Warriors handled Winfield and St. Charles West by a combined score of 122-36, but found themselves in a tougher battle against the host school.
Ian Wright’s win over Cameron Vetter at 120 pounds was the only points for Warrenton in the first five matches.
The Pirates took a 25-6 lead before Warrenton’s strength — the upper weight classes — showed up on the mat.
Warrenton won five of the final six matches (three by pin, two by forfeit) on its way to a 39-31 win.
“We’ve never been able to accomplish that, and we had a pretty solid team this year, and our main focus was to wrestle hard out there against some tough teams like St. Charles West and St. Charles,” Jerrett Villinger (160) said. “It felt good to be able to say that in my high school career, I’m a part of that. Not many high schoolers can say that these days. There are plenty of one-man teams or teams with six or seven guys, but our team as a whole did really well.”
Villinger pinned St. Charles’ Kolin Murley in 17 seconds, and finished the quad 3-0.
Wright helped out the cause in the lower weight classes, posting a 2-0 record on the evening.
Hayden Love (152), Stone Corder (195), Jacob Null (220), Michael Riggs (182) Cameron Vetter (126) and Brent Wielms (138) also picked up wins during the quad.
“Winning the team conference title was more important to me because there had only been one other title, which was last year,” Drake Meine (170) said. “To be one of the team leaders and be able to get that was more important than getting the individual conference title.”
Meine pinned St. Charles West’s Tristan Hachtel in 47 seconds, and Winfield’s Anthony Heintzelman in 22 seconds to finish 2-0.
“I only wrestled two kids and got byes the rest of the way, so getting the team title was way, way more important to me,” he added. “I’ll be able to say I was a part of the only two-time conference championships we’ve had here.”
.PICKING HIS SPOT — Stone Corder looks to make a move against Jared Holland of Fort Zumwalt East last month. Corder helped the Warriors win their second straight GAC North title last week at St. Charles.
