Jackson captures SEMO title

The Jackson wrestling program picked up its 15th SEMO Conference Tournament title with a dominating performance Saturday at North County.

The Indians had wrestlers in the finals of 11 of 14 possible weight classes, with seven individual champions. Josh Schumacher (125), Ben McMillian (130), Sean Gant (135), Cody Rouse (152), Kamden Rampley (189), Andy Glass (215) and Dustin Fluegge (heavyweight)all picked up conference titles.

"It was an absolutely great conference tournament for us. It's as well as we've wrestled all year," Jackson coach Steve Wachter said.

The Indians finished with 410 points, a comfortable margin over No. 2 Farmington (355). Ste. Genevieve finished third (289), followed by Central (218) and conference newcomer Herculaneum (214).

Rouse received the outstanding wrestler of the tournament award, and is still undefeated this season at 40-0.

Fluegge won a 7-1 decision over two-time all-state heavyweight Joe Johnson out of Sikeston. Johnson had pinned Fluegge in a dual meet on Thursday.

Luke Rayburn (103), Jamie Schumacher (112), Justin Miller (119) and Blake Ulrich each finished second for Jackson. Garrett Huck (160) was third, Jordan Barnhart (145) was fifth and Russell Brown (140) finished fifth.

Central had its first conference champion in two years, as Cory Huskey finished first at 160 pounds. Tyler Yeargain (130) finished second.

Josh Smoot (140) finished third for the Tigers, and Chris Griffith (112), Matt Latham (119) and Ryan Davis (189) all finished fourth.

"The kids wrestled very well. Our goal was to finish in the top four and we accomplished that goal," Central coach Josh Crowell said.