Cape Central wrestling concludes season of progress

The Cape Central wrestling team closed out the season by going 2-1 in the quad meet with wins against Notre Dame and Dexter, and a loss to Kennett on Tuesday in Cape Central High School.

Head coach Clayton Collier has been tasked with building the young program both in numbers and in skill. He has prioritized quality over quantity, which meant not trying to fill the lineup with inexperienced underclassmen and sending only a handful of wrestlers to compete in varsity tournaments with little care for team scores.

“We're a super young team,” Collier said. “I've been hesitant to put a bunch of freshmen into the varsity lineup all year. We've been wrestling, and getting good experience in JV. Our kids have been working really hard and tonight it paid off and they wrestled the best obviously the rest of the year which is the whole goal of the season you know progress till the end.”

The girls’ Class 2 District 1 tournament begins on Friday at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill. Cape Central has only one girl in freshman Niah Hopkins. However, she may have put together one of the Tigers’ most successful seasons.

“She's been wrestling fantastic,” Collier said. “Coming into districts as at the beginning of the season, it started out pretty rough, typical freshman butterflies. But she's worked through that, she's found what works for her and we're expecting some big things from her and districts as a freshman.”

Another freshman that has held his own in the varsity circuit was Christain McNew, who had only one match in the quad but won it to finish with a 13-10 record.

“He stepped up huge for us,” Collier said. “He's wrestled up in some weight classes, he's been given up a lot of weight all season, but he's been battling. He's one of the only freshmen that's been consistently in the varsity lineup, and he's stepped up in some big ways.”

The Tigers’ best chance of sending a wrestler to the state tournament remains junior Davarious Nunley. He’s been a top 4-5 finisher in many of the tournaments he has competed in and went 3-0 in the quad meet to finish with a 19-8 record.

“I think (Nunley) has been wrestling really well,” Collier said. “He's had a pretty good offseason and he's the returning district champ from last year. He's been to the state tournament, so he's got his goal set pretty high, as he should. He's got some good matches to push them into districts and we feel pretty confident about it.”

The boys' Class 3 District 1 Tournament begins on Feb 17 in Farmington.