AREA WRESTLERS STATE BOUND

Two Cape Girardeau Central wrestlers and five wrestlers from Jackson will be competing in the state wrestling meet in Columbia today.

For Central, Keith Benton (14-10) will compete at 112 pounds and Matt Strickland (24-9) will wrestle at 189.

For Jackson, Brett Stroud (27-8) will also wrestle at 112 pounds and will be joined by teammates Adam Wachter (125, 25-8), Cyle Huck (130, 27-8), Lance Schlick (135, 32-2) and Kyle Watson (140, 25-9).

As his record would indicate, Schlick has been the most dominant wrestler in Southeast Missouri this year. Both of his losses have come in the postseason -- once in district competition and the other in sectionals -- against Oakville's Jake Hopson, who is the top-ranked 135-pounder in Class 4A. Those two could possibly meet again for the state championship.

Schlick, who earned a second seed, will making his fourth appearance in the state tournament.

"All five of them have tough matches right away," said Jackson coach Steve Wachter. "I'm hoping we can come away with some wins. (Schlick) has got a real hard bracket. For him to make it to the state championship, he'll have to beat the third-, fourth- and fifth-ranked kids in the state. Those are just rankings, though. You can throw those rankings and records out here."

Unlike Schlick, Central's Keith Benton carries in a less-than-intimidating 14-10 mark into Columbia, but Tigers coach Drew Lilledahl said that record is deceiving.

"He has wrestled in a number of different weights this year," Lilledahl said. "As a coach, I don't worry about losing matches so much. It's about facing tough competition. Whipping someone 15-0 doesn't do much good. He's wrestled as high as 130 and he's always done what I've asked him."

"I think it's prepared me well," Benton said of wrestling at all the different weights. "Wrestling someone real good won't be anything different for me. I would like to medal in the top six."

Matt Strickland, meanwhile, is Central's only returning state qualifier. He's hoping to bury last year's state performance when he blew out his knee one minute into the first match.

"I'm feeling pretty strong," Strickland said. "It should be pretty exciting. I've recovered from my surgery and I prepared pretty good -- coach made sure of that. Obviously I'd like to finish first, but I'll just wrestle as hard as I can and a medal will take care of itself."