Wadlow, Orine, Foeller win state wrestling titles
An exceptionally busy weekend at the 2019 MSHSAA Wrestling State Championships at Mizzou Arena in Columbia ended with a number of area wrestlers taking home top finishes, but it was the 3 grapplers who won it all that were the big story of the tournament. Farmington’s Austin Wadlow and Seckman‘s Kai Orine brought home individual state championships Saturday, as did Jaycee Foeller of DeSoto in the first girls’ wrestling state tournament.
Wadlow triumphed in the Class 3 113-pound weight division by winning all 4 matches he wrestled this weekend, the latest a 4-3 decision over Michael Finley of Willard in the title bout. Orine was tops at 126 lbs in Class 4 with an 8-0 major decision over Ethen Miller of Park Hill.
Central‘s Kade Willis reached the 126-lbs state title bout in Class 2 but was on the wrong end of a 4-3 decision to come up second to Matthew Bahl of Monett. Northwest‘s Chase Stegall got to the championship match at 195 lbs in Class 4 but also just came up on the wrong end of a close 3-1 decision to Park Hill’s Devin Winston.
Ste Genevieve‘s Dalton McNeal, Fox‘s Joseph Johnson and DeSoto’s Logan Zimmerman and Landon Porter all finished fourth in their respective weight classes. Ste. Gen’s Clayton Vaughn, DeSoto’s Lucas Watson, and Seckman’s Devin Haag and Jeremy Ashlock all won their fifth-place matches, while Hillsboro‘s James Short and Joe Becker and the Dragons’ Jacob Dickens and Grant Staffen ended up sixth.
The highlight of the weekend in the first-ever girls’ state tournament was Foeller winning the individual state championship at 167 lbs. Foeller won all 3 matches she wrestled this weekend with a pin. Ste. Genevieve’s Kaylee Gross came up second at 152 lbs, but Maggie Myracle’s third-place finish at 187 and Genevieve Nickelson’s fourth-place finish at 131 combined to help the Dragons finish third in the team standings behind state champ Lebanon and Lafayette (Wildwood).
Claire Wampler of Farmington finished fourth at 143, and Corrine McClure of Seckman had a top-six finish at 121.