Notre Dame wrestling sends fab five to state

Before the Class 1 District 1 Tournament this past weekend in New Madrid, Notre Dame senior wrestler Ethan Jackson said there was “a good shot of sending the entire team to state this year.”

Notre Dame brought only five wrestlers to that district tournament and placed sixth while sending four combatants to the state tournament.

“It was very exciting,” Jackson said, “made me very happy because it felt like a lot of the work that all the younger kids put into paid off. It didn't even start with me going to state, it started with our freshman going to state so that was a really cool thing to see and how happy they were. I think that really pushed everyone to say like, okay, we're sending in one, now let’s send the rest.”

Freshman Parker Lemmons (18-17) finished in second place in the 132-pound bracket. He won his first match on a 12-11 decision over Brentwood’s Miller Chantharasy in the quarterfinal and defeated Nicholas Evans of New Madrid County Central on a 2-0 decision in the semifinal round to qualify for states.

“After I won, I knew as soon as it was over, I got up and I just looked at my dad and my family was sitting over in the stands with the other end,” Lemmons said.

“I just had to beat the odds,” he said. My dad kept telling me there's no expectations and so it just took that and ran with it.”

Sophomore Sam Criddle (15-27) placed 4th by defeating Lyam Krownapple of Gateway Science Academy Charter) on a 10-2 major decision.

“I thought it was a little bit of a dream when I got done,” Criddle said. I had to figure out if was that real or not a little bit.”

Criddle is entering the state tournament despite a losing record. The Notre Dame weight room has a message that reads “Don’t strive for perfection, strive for progress.” An entire season spent taking on competition from higher classes has prepared him for this moment.

“The harder matches taught me how to go the full six minutes and not just give up,” Criddle said. “I think it was more of a mental thing to me saying like, I won't give up to you because I know I've wrestled Class 4 schools.”

Jackson qualified for his second consecutive state tournament by winning his first two matches by fall. He came within a point against New Madrid’s Connor Henderson in the championship bout. He’s entering Columbia with the same number of wrestlers as last year but this time it’s a group led by him.

"It's definitely just a surreal thing,” Jackson said, “especially whenever it’s Sam coming off an injury, Parker being a first-year high schooler, Charlie even being a first-year wrestler ever and being a junior, it's just awesome. That simply just can't be put into words how cool it is just seeing those kids bust their butts all year and finally get what they've earned.”

Charlie West won the district championship in the 215 class by pinning his first two opponents and won by a 14-8 decision over Owen Willers of Bishop DuBourg.

“My coaches kind of they told me the game plan was to basically get takedowns and let them up,“ West said. “That's basically what I tried to do and it worked, great coaching job by them. It was a little bit surreal, winning that match, it was just pretty incredible.”

West won the district championship in his first-ever year wrestling. He was also a state qualifier in soccer and tennis, making wrestling his third sport.

Senior Emma Steimle will be representing the Bulldogs in the girls' state championship. It will be her first and only state appearance and the girls' division has grown immensely since her freshman year.

"It's huge now," Steimle said. "It's giant, because freshman year, I remember I only had to wrestle three boys, and our district was like 23 schools. Then in sophomore year, they separated for boys to be by themselves and girls to be by themselves, and now we have so many that we can have separate districts. So if we have a small district, or a million people there, it's like, okay, we finally have enough girls to have like a full system."

Given the small numbers, Steimle practiced with Jackson regularly, since they are the closest to each other in weight.

"It's actually really fun," Steimle said. "I think it is more effective because girls and boys wrestle a lot differently, but I had to wrestle with the bigger boys because I'm a heavier weight, so wrestling them just makes me stronger and faster."

The state tournament starts on Wednesday and runs through Saturday.