JACKSON, MEHLVILLE CAPTURE DIVISIONS IN WRESTLING MEET

JACKSON -- Jackson and Mehlville came away as division winners from Saturday's seven-team wrestling tournament hosted by Jackson High School.

Mehlville captured North Division honors while Jackson finished first in the South Division.

The North Division proved to be the strongest of the group as both Mehlville and Millington, Tenn., won all their dual matches. Mehlville finished with 131 points to 117 for Millington. Then came Webster Groves with 80 and Clayton with 78.

In the South Division, Jackson had 149 points to 122 for Poplar Bluff and 119 for Cape Central.

The format for the tournament was the South going against the North in dual matches, with total points being accumulated.

In dual action, Jackson beat Webster Groves 45-24 and Clayton 48-23. The Indians lost to Mehlville 35-27 and Millington 36-29.

Central defeated Clayton 43-32 and Webster Groves 41-23. The Tigers lost to Mehlville 52-12 and Millington 46-22.

Individuals finishing first in their division for Central were Josh Crowell at 125 pounds, Shane Hohler at 130, Jason Price (tie) at 145, Clint Tracy at 160 and Brandon Nielson (tie) at 171.

Jason Metheny was second at 103, John Kight was second at 135 and heavyweight Greg Emmons tied for second. Finishing third were Brent Felker at 119 and Steve Lichtenegger at 140.

"I'm pleased with our performance," said Central coach Larry Clemens. "We went over there forfeiting three matches so we gave up 18 points each round.

"We wrestled well the first and second matches but the third one showed me we need to be in better shape. We got a little bit tired. Wrestling four matches straight, you have to be in very good shape."

For Jackson, placing first were Jeff Edmunds at 103, Randy Koehler at 112, Chris Jaco (tie) at 145, Clint Thomas at 152 at Len Waldron (tie) at 171.

Second were Josh Gast at 119, Chris Hinze at 125, Todd Reiminger at 140, Larry Woods at 189 and heavyweight James Hamlin (tie).

Andy Hancock was third at 135 while Tony Giambalvo and Don Volkerding tied for third at 130.

"We started off with the top two teams right off the bat and at the time I didn't think we wrestled well," said Jackson coach Bruce Thomas. "It didn't seem like we had a solid effort at the time.

"But you sit back and look at the scores and you see we did all right. We need to be more consistent, though."

Added Thomas, "This was real good wrestling against solid competition."

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Last Thursday in dual action, Jackson took one on the chin when the Indian wrestlers were defeated by formidable Parkway South 46-11 in St. Louis.

The only triumphs for Jackson in the dual came at 103, where Edmunds won by a first-period fall, and at 135, where Hancock captured a technical fall by the score of 17-2.

"We were beaten by a superior team," said Thomas after the match. "There's no doubt about it. But wrestling against a team like that will help us down the road.

Jackson is now 4-2 in duals.