Jackson finishes 4th, will send five to state

Jackson senior wrestler Kamden Rampley's quest for a perfect season continued Saturday, as Rampley won the district title at 215 pounds at the Class 4 District 1 meet at Lindbergh High School in St. Louis.

Rampley beat Jack Rodgers of Fox 9-4 in the district championship match to move to 50-0. Last year, Rampley was 50-3 and finished third at the state meet in the 189-pound weight class.

"He wrestled outstanding again," Jackson coach Steve Wachter said. "He had another great tournament. He wrestled tough and consistent through the whole tournament."

The Indians had five wrestlers qualify for the state meet, including four first-time qualifiers. Russell Brown, Ben McMillian, Sean Gant and Cole Jansen, all seniors, finished in the top four of their weight classes to earn state berths.

"I'm real proud of all of them," Wachter said. "It was a really gruelling tournament."

McMillian finished second at 145 pounds, Gant was second at 152 pounds, Jansen was second in the heavyweight class, and Brown finished fourth at 140 pounds.

Three wrestlers failed in their bids to return to the state meet. That group consisted of senior Josh Schumacher, who had medaled at the state meet last year; Jamie Schumacher, who finished 2-2 Saturday and just missed a state berth; and Justin Miller, who dropped two overtime decisions.

"It's really hard to be disappointed, even though we got five out," Wachter said. "I really thought every wrestler on our team wrestled about as good as they could wrestle."

Northwest won the district title with 176 points, followed by Fox (134.5), Lindbergh (128.5) and Jackson (124).

Class 3 District 1

For the second straight year, Central qualified four wrestlers for the state competition while finishing eighth out of 13 teams at Farmington.

Central finished with 66 1/2 points. Farmington won the district title with 202 1/5 points.

Garrett New claimed the 152-pound title for the Tigers. Matt Latham was second in 125, Chris Griffith was third in 112, and Tyler Yeargain placed fourth in 130.

New, Latham and Yeargain will be making their second straight trips to Columbia for the state meet, which is Thursday through Saturday. Griffith, a senior, will compete in his first state meet.