Central's New survives first day

The first day of the state wrestling tournament was a rough one for Central.

All four of the Tigers' entries in the Class 3 tournament lost in the first round, including district champion and medal hopeful Cory Huskey. Only sophomore Garrett New survived the first round of wrestlebacks.

Jackson, meanwhile, advanced four wrestlers through the first round and into today's Class 4 quarterfinals at the Hearnes Center on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia. Jackson, which finished eighth as a team last year in the state's three-classification system, was tied for 10th after the first of three days.

While Central didn't expect to make a run to the top of the team standings, the Tigers probably didn't expect to be nearly shut out either.

Huskey, who won one of the state's four districts this past weekend in Class 3, came down with a illness before the state tournamant and defaulted both his first-round match and wrestleback match. He finished the year 39-5 at 160 pounds.

"It was an unfortunate situation being a senior and going out like that," Central coach Josh Crowell said. "All in all, the kids wrestled tough, but it was unfortunate about what happened to Cory."

Central's trio of sophomores also were beaten in the first round. Matt Latham was pinned in 3 minutes, 11 seconds by Matt Groepel of Raymore-Peculiar at 119 pounds. Tyler Yeargain was pinned by Rolla's Dan Ortega in 1:20 at 130 pounds. Garrett New lost a 14-6 major decision to Waynesville's Cord Barba at 145 pounds.

In the wrestlebacks, Latham lost a 15-2 major decision to Justin Kleithermes of Fort Zumwalt North, and Yeargan was edged 7-5 by Wentzville Holt's Kyle Ream. New came from behind to pin Parkway Central's Kelvin Simmons in 3:58.

"That's going to give him some confidence," Crowell said. "The sophomores wrestled pretty well. As a coaching staff, our biggest thing was to get them some experience at state as sophomores and have that leadership in the room next year."

For the Indians, Josh Schumacher, Cody Rouse, Kamden Rampley and Andy Glass all were victorious in the first round. Rouse improved to 49-0 at 152 pounds this season by winning a 16-11 decision against Justin Jenkins of Winnetonka. Rampley won a 7-2 decision against Liberty's Troy Parks at 189 pounds, 215-pounder Andy Glass advanced with a 6-4 decision against Ritenour's Jeremiah Wright, and Schumacher won a 15-6 major decision at 125 pounds against Pat Mills of Hazelwood West.

Freshman Jamie Schumacher was pinned in his first match at 112 pounds, falling in 2:45 to Miles Bolin of Fort Zumwalt West. Freshman Justin Miller lost by technical fall 15-0 at 119 pounds to Rockhurst's Zach Anderson-Boland. Senior heavyweight Dustin Fluegge was pinned in 4:34 by Jacob Highfill of Glendale.

In wrestleback action Jamie Schumacher bounced back with a 5-3 decision over Brad Rose of McCluer North. Miller pinned Eddie Rodgers of Francis Howell Central in 1:40. Jackson's lone competitor to be eliminated was heavyweight Fluegge, who lost a 4-2 decision to Oak Park's Jon Dalman.