Jackson's Rampley to wrestle for crown

~ The undefeated senior will face Blue Springs' Ott in tonight's final.

Kamden Rampley will take a 53-0 record into tonight's championship match for the Class 4 215-pound weight division of the state high school meet at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.

Rampley -- the senior ranked No. 2 in the state in his division by missouriwrestling.com, a Web site devoted to high school wrestling -- cruised with two decisions on Friday.

He will wrestle in the finals against Blue Springs senior John Ott, a senior who improved to 53-3 by knocking off the top-ranked wrestler, Wes Vilda of St. Louis Christian Brothers, with a 7-6 decision.

Rampley won a 5-3 decision against Liberty senior Mitch Barnett in the semifinal round. Earlier in the day, he had won a 9-5 decision against Ken Stewart of Hazelwood East in the quarterfinals.

Jackson stood 13th in the team standings with 34 points. In Class 3, Central was tied for 25th. Each team has two wrestlers bidding for medals today.

Central junior Garrett New, wrestling at 152 pounds, lost in his semifinal match Friday night but was guaranteed to wrestle for a spot in third- through sixth-places today.

Jackson's other quarterfinalist, 152-pounder Sean Gant, lost a 10-1 decision to Justin Wolfrum of Fort Zumwalt West.

Gant bounced back to pin Scott Brazill of Troy Buchanan in 1 minute, 54 seconds and then beat Fox's Kenny Brengle 6-4 to reach today's medal matches.

Two other Jackson wrestlers were eliminated in the wrestlebacks Friday. Ben McMillian lost his second-round wrestleback match 9-2 to Brian Oechsner of Troy Buchanan. Heavyweight Cole Jansen lost 9-3 to Ronnell Simpson of Hazelwood West.

Tigers have two medalists

New reached the medal matches once he won his quarterfinal bout with Chad Williams of Carthage. New posted a 6-4 victory in that match.

He then was pinned in the semifinal round in 1:18 by St. Charles West's Chris Dopp, who improved to 30-0.

Tyler Yeargain won two more matches Friday to reach the medal rounds. he won a 12-2 major decision against Warrensburg's Chase Carper and then posted a 10-6 decision against Raymore-Peculiar's Alex Tripaldi, who was ranked No. 3 in state.

"This is the first time we've had two all-staters since I've been the head coach at Central," Tigers coach Josh Crowell, in his seventh season. "I'm really proud of the kids."

In other wrestlebacks for Central on Friday, junior Matt Latham lost a 6-4 overtime decision to Brady Gerstner.