Marceline finished first and Gallatin second at the Class 1, District 3 wrestling championships at Marceline High School, wrapping up late Saturday afternoon. Trenton finished ninth. Marceline and Gallatin each advanced eight wrestlers to this weekend’s state tournament in Columbia.
Lexington and Lafayette County (Higginsville) each had six wrestlers advance to state, with Brookfield and Hallsville each sending five, Trenton, Centralia, Richmond, and Hamilton each three, Polo and Macon two each, and Carrollton and St. Paul Lutheran one each.
Trenton’s state qualifiers are 195 pound district champion Jadan Whitney, 220 pound district runner-up Mason Owen, and Mark Trump, who finished in fourth place at district at the 182 pound weight class.
Owen lost to Graydee Rains of Gallatin in overtime in the 220 pound championship match. Rains tied the score at 5-5 in the final seconds of regulation time to send the match into overtime. Rains then got a takedown to capture a 7-5 sudden death victory.
The other champions from this immediate area from the district tournament at Marceline are Cooper Fisher of Marceline (106 pounds), Ross Critten of Gallatin (113), Donavan Parn of Brookfield (120), Wyatt Segar of Polo (132), Clayton Stallo of Marceline (138), and Brooks Baker of Brookfield (heavyweight).
Marceline scored a total of 157 points to win the team championship by 12 points over second place Gallatin, which had 145. Third place Lexington had 117 points, just ahead of Brookfield with 114 1/2. In order, the rest of the schools were Higginsville, Centralia, Hallsville, Richmond, Trenton (9th place – 75 points), Hamilton, Polo, Macon, Carrollton, and St. Paul Lutheran.
Trenton Head Coach Charlie Bacon was very proud of the work done on the mat by his three state-bound grapplers:
The state wrestling tournaments in Classes 1 through 4 are Thursday through Saturday at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
Coach Bacon also spoke about the THS wrestlers that, despite coming close, came up short of the top four finish necessary to get to state:
Chillicothe qualified eight wrestlers for the Class 2 state tournament in Columbia, including 182 pound district champion Kayde Burton. Both Connor Keithley and Lavery Jones made the championship match at districts for Chillicothe, but were defeated. Third-place finishes were won by Colton Sewell, Dawson Wheeler and Keegan Valdez. Finishing in 4th place were Zackary Boyles and Isaac Washburn. The Class 2, District 4 tournament was held this past weekend at Excelsior Springs High School.
