THE LATEST LINE: REIMINGER'S FEAT WILL GO DOWN IN AREA SPORTS ANNALS

High school athletic teams in Southeast Missouri generally rank with the finest in the state for most sports.

There have been countless state champions in basketball and baseball over the years, along with high state finishers in many other sports and generally competitive squads in virtually all sports.

But a recent accomplishment by one local high school athlete might just go down as one of the more remarkable individual feats in the history of area prep athletics.

Last weekend, during the Missouri State Wrestling Championships in Columbia, Jackson's Travis Reiminger completed an undefeated season by winning the Class 4A title in the 215-pound division.

Reiminger took to the mat for 38 matches during his senior campaign. And all 38 times, the referee raised his hand in victory.

Most of Reiminger's triumphs were of the lopsided variety and to win the state title he had to beat another undefeated grappler from Jefferson City via a hard-fought 9-6 decision.

Reiminger is a talented all-around athlete; he also was a key player on Jackson's district champion football team and is one of the top performers on the golf squad.

But he has proven to be most proficient at arguably the most grueling high school sport of all. Anyone who has ever wrestled competitively knows that those few minutes on the mat for each match requires conditioning unlike that of any other sport. And that's not even taking into account the discipline needed to make weight all season.

And making Reiminger's feat all the more impressive is that, because of increased enrollment, this year Jackson competed in the state's largest classification -- 4A -- for the first time. In theory, that meant Reiminger faced the best Missouri had to offer yet still met every challenge.

The result was a 38-0, state championship season.

Quite an amazing feat, indeed.

* While Reiminger is deserving of considerable accolades, so is his teammate, Joe Wiseman, who narrowly missed out on winning the 135-pound state title.

Wiseman saw a late lead evaporate and lost by a point in the championship match.

Talk about your proverbial joy of victory and agony of defeat. Reiminger and Wiseman were at opposite ends of the spectrum and your heart definitely has to go out to Wiseman, who nonetheless had a spectacular season.

The same goes for yet another Jackson grappler, Lance Schlick, who was third at 103.

Jackson's impressive trio led to the Indians to a sixth-place team finish in their first season in 4A.

* While local Class 1A and 2A prep basketball teams will be involved with district play this week, the area's 3A and 4A squads who were fortunate enough to advance out of districts will be aiming for bigger game.

Sectional contests for 3A and 4A teams will take place Wednesday night.

Cape Central's boys and Jackson's girls will be involved in the 4A sectional at Farmington while Perryville's boys will take on Charleston and Fredericktown's girls will face Kennett in the 3A sectional at Poplar Bluff.

~Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian