Midway Report

Two of the area’s teams travelled to Riverview Gardens last weekend to participate in that school’s 39th annual Wrestling Invitational. The Rams and the Bombers both saw first place finishes at the event.

For Ladue, the championship trophy went to Owen Blyth in the 145 weight class. Blyth defeated Ritenour’s Demetrius Carr on a pin to take the top spot in the tournament.

In addition to Blyth, Ladue had five wrestlers place at the tournament with Grant Sachs (135) and Justin Mann (140) finishing second.  Rounding out the Rams top finishers were Chris Shirley (189) and Chris Ridenhour (130) with third place results, and Jeremy Mormol (152) claiming a fourth place finish.

Coach Kevin Clawson felt his squad had a strong performance on the weekend.

“We had several guys get into the finals, they all had tough matches…our kids realize its time now to get to where they need to be in terms of preparing for the state finals and exactly which weight class they’re going to compete in and we will have those things ironed out in the next week or so,” said Clawson.

Last week’s snow storm forced the cancellation of the tri-meet Ladue was to participate in along with Clayton and Brentwood.

Next up for Ladue will be a short trip to for that school’s tournament this weekend. Following that event Clayton will host Ladue for a dual meet on Monday, January 24th.

Reigning state champion Cory Lester led the way for Burroughs at the Riverview tournament with a first place finish in the 119 weight class. The Bombers saw two other championship performances in Winston Boldt (189) and Adam Datema (heavyweight).

Lester commented on the progress he is making this season in his effort to repeat as a state champion.

“I’m trying to make every match about sticking to my game plan…I feel pretty good, I’m working out heavily and I think my conditioning, and the conditioning of our team in general is very strong,” said Lester.

Boldt gained his first place result on a pin while Lester and Datema won their final matches by decision.

The Bombers had a pair of second place finishes in Ryan Torno (215) and Christian Bledsoe (160). Kyle Feldman took third place in the 152 category while Percy Vacant (103) and Alec Hasselman (145) saw fourth place results in what was an overall successful event for Burroughs.

“The boys make fun of me because I’m never satisfied,” explained Burroughs coach Dean Tiffany, “and the team is working very hard and we’ve had some very good matches from guys like Cory (Lester) and Kyle (Feldman) but we will have to see how the rest of our competitions play out because we still have a lot of work to do,”

Burroughs will next compete in a quad meet at Whitfield Wednesday along with Principia and St. Clair.

MICDS had an uneventful week with a dual meet against cancelled due to snow and a trip to the St. Charles Invitation tournament producing a 21st place finish amongst 22 teams.

The Rams will host the Eric Lewis Invitational this weekend as the young program continues its effort to rebuild.