TIGERS WIN SEASON FINALE

Cape Girardeau Central High wrestling coach Drew Lilledahl knows what it feels like to be shut out. Early last month Central lost 79-0 to Farmington, and against Ste. Genevieve in December the Tigers even finished with a negative score after the referee assessed a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after the match.

So when he saw feeble New Madrid County Central at the bottom of his team's schedule, he desperately wanted his Tigers to experience the feeling of being on the other end of a blanking.

But Lilledahl's hopes were foiled by his Tigers' lackluster effort in their 53-30 win Tuesday night.

"It's nice to get a home win, but that's about it," Lilledahl said.

"They had a chance to take this team and blank them tonight. Instead they just went out flat and let them score 30 points. I'm just a little displeased, to be honest with you."

Central received four forfeits worth 24 points, which was the difference.

"I expect more from our guys," Lilledahl said. "We wrestled down tonight. We gave up more points than we should have. The guys that lost should have never lost and the guys that won should have won. The only one that we should have lost is heavyweight."

Central finished the regular season 5-5 in dual meets.

"I think they're all feeling that the season is close to the end, and they want to get it over with," Lilledahl said. "The season's actually getting ready to start."

The Class 4A, District 1 meet begins Saturday in Jackson and features a host of strong teams such as Oakville, Fox and Jackson.

"I wouldn't say that the season's been disappointing as a whole," Lilledahl said. "We improved barely from last year.

"I've got probably seven or eight guys that could qualify (for the state meet), or I could also qualify zero. Everything would have to go perfect for me to qualify eight, so I would say one would be realistic. I have one person that's worked hard enough to go. Nobody else deserves it. We're in the toughest district in the state."

Central won the first six matches Tuesday and led 35-0. At 103 pounds, Paul Miller received a forfeit, at 112 Darren Harris pinned Camden Bock in 3:55 and at 119 Ben Allen pinned Germaine Smith in 1:24.

At 125 Jon Lowrance received a forfeit, at 130 Keith Benton beat Jytton Fountain 19-2 and at 135 Travis Kaufman pinned Leon Graham in 3:55.

Central's Brandon Benanati (140) was pinned by Jason Warfield in 2:49 and Bobby Wunderlich (145) was pinned by Nick Hogan.

At 152 Central's Troy Sikes pinned Adam Hayes in 1:09, at 160 the Tigers' Jamell Austin received a forfeit, at 171 New Madrid's John Hunter pinned Otis Turner in 2:36 and at 189 Central's Matt Strickland received a forfeit.

At 215 New Madrid's Marcus Keene pinned Alex Elfrink in 3:11 and the Eagles' heavyweight, Jessie Wilson, pinned Craig Knoth in 1:15.