Defending conference champion wrestles with losses

~ Lost wrestlers will hamper Jackson's bid for a third straight SEMO Conference title.

A rebuilding Jackson wrestling team had enough talent to take second place at the annual Tiger Classic in December.

Now the Indians will try to overcome some personnel losses as they try to win their third straight SEMO Conference title. The conference meet begins today and concludes Saturday at Ste. Genevieve.

Jackson will be without junior Justin Miller, who is out for the season due to medical reasons. Miller was a state qualifier as a freshman and had taken third at the Tiger Classic.

"We sure would like to [defend our title]," Jackson coach Steve Wachter said. "It's pretty hard for us. We lost a couple kids for the year, so our backs are against the wall."

Jackson's back-to-back SEMO Conference wrestling championships have been highlighted by undefeated, state-title runs by Cody Rouse and Kamden Rampley. The Indians graduated seven seniors from last year's squad, including all of their state qualifiers.

At the Classic, the Indians placed nine wrestlers in the top six. Junior Jamie Schumacher, also a state qualifier as a freshman, finished second. Will Perry, Blake Peiffer and Ben Wood all had third-place finishes at the Classic.

Even with all of their success thus far, the Indians will have a hard time continuing their conference domination. Jackson had eight wrestlers reach the finals last year. Two years ago, Jackson had 11 wrestlers reach the finals and won seven individual titles.

"We've been improving," Wachter said. "Our goal is to improve all year. Whether we can overcome a couple of people being out and our youth remains to be seen."

Peiffer, a junior 215-pounder, is coming off a second-place finish at St. Charles West. Schumacher and Perry, who is 28-2, have also had strong seasons.

Central finished seventh last year at the conference tournament. State-qualifiers Tyler Yeargain, Garrett New and Matt Latham are the top returning conference finishers. Yeargain and New each finished third last year, while Latham was fourth. New, wrestling at 152 pounds, earned the first individual tournament title of the year for the Tigers this past weekend at the Route 141 Rumble.

Farmington, runner-up the past two seasons, likely will enter as the favorite.

Ste. Genevieve finished third last year and also will be one of the favorites.

"The conference is really kind of wide open," Wachter said. "I'd definitely say Farmington's a favorite, and Ste. Genevieve, I wouldn't count Ste. Genevieve out. The champions will be spread out. There's some awfully good individual wrestlers on different teams this year."