The
Jackson wrestling team won its first tournament of the 2016-17 season by
placing first in the 2016 Flyer Classic with a total of 465 points, which was
held on Dec. 27 and 28 in St. Louis.
The
Indians won the tournament by just four and a half points over second-place
Washington with 10 of Jackson’s 12 wrestlers in the meet placing in the top
four out of the 14 weight classes.
Only
two wrestlers reached the first-place match, and those two were undefeated
seniors Gus and Payne Guilliams.
In
last year’s tournament, Gus was able to place first in the 120-pound weight
class, and is he actually the only returning wrestler for Jackson to have
placed in the top four of the meet in 2015.
Both
Guilliams lost in the championship match with each contest going the entire
three periods. This was the first time in the tournament each match went all
three periods for both wrestlers.
Each
of the Guilliams’ opponents were also state qualifiers in last year’s State
Championship meet just like they were.
Gus
was the only wrestler out of the four to earn All-State honors, but he fell to
Parkway South’s Garrett Kloeppel in the 126-pound championship match by a 6-1
decision.
Kloeppel,
who did not place at last year’s state meet, wrestled in the 113-pound weight
class whereas Gus was wrestling at 120 pounds.
To
advance to the championship match of the Flyer Classic, Gus won four of his
five matches via pinfall, all but one coming in the first period, and the other
by technical fall at 15-0 with only allowing one minute to pass in the second
period.
Payne
faced Hickman’s Landon Wiswall in the 152-pound championship match where he
lost by a 6-3 decision. Both Payne and Wiswall were state qualifiers in last
year’s Class 4 State Championship meet with each failing to place to earn
All-State honors.
Payne
won his first three matches via fall in the first period to advance to the
semifinal round where he faced Kirkwood’s Jacob Hibbard. This match lasted
until the third period when Payne won by technical fall at 16-0 with 46 seconds
left in the match.
With
Gus and Payne being the only members of Jackson to reach the first-place match
and garner second place, eight other Indians made it to the third-place match
with three coming out on top.
Those
three wrestlers who won third place were freshman Alec Bailey at 106 pounds,
senior Zack Flath at 138 pounds and senior Bryce Dickerson at 220 pounds.
Heading
into the tournament, Bailey was one of the three wrestlers for Jackson to be
undefeated, but that changed in his last match in the first day of the
tournament.
Bailey
faced Ft. Zumwalt North’s Teddy Hickey, who was a state qualifier in last
year’s Class 3 State Championship meet at 106 pounds, and lost in overtime by a
2-1 decision.
On day
two, Bailey advanced to the semifinal round after defeating Vianney’s Richard
Bartholome III by technical fall at 16-1 with 12 seconds left in the match,
where he fell to Hazelwood East’s Fedrick Johnson, who was also a Class 3 state
qualifier, via a 3-1 decision.
Bailey’s
final and third-place match of the Flyer Classic went all three periods with
Bailey coming out on top over Mehlville’s Carly Valleroy by a 4-0 decision.
Flath
won his first three matches of the tournament in the first period via pin, two
coming in the first minute, before losing to Washington’s Johnathan Kelpe in
the semifinal round where Flath was pinned with 50 seconds remaining in the
third and final period.
In his
third-place match, Flath won via fall with 19 seconds to go in the second
period against Lindbergh’s Dawson Javier.
Dickerson’s
semifinal match on day two came against Parkway South’s Jack Marack where he
lost by a 6-3 decision. This was similar to his loss on day one against the
220-pound Flyer Classic Champion, Lindbergh’s Logan Wells
All of
Dickerson’s three victories in the tournament were falls, with two of them
coming against Hickman’s Jericho Kent since Dickerson faced Kent in both his
first match and his final match, which was for third place.
The
other five wrestlers who advanced to the third-place match but did not win was
sophomore Jeston Dewrock at 113, sophomore Braden Vaugier at 132, junior Cole
Welker at 145, junior Jacob Dudley at 160 and freshman Cole Amelunke at 195.
Dewrock
lost his first four matches on day one, but managed to defeat Parkway South’s
Drew Cantrell by fall with just 45 seconds having passed in the second period.
Dewrock
then defeated Hazelwood East’s Lamarco Anderson, who beat Dewrock in the first
round via pinfall in the first 38 seconds, by fall with 28 seconds remaining in
the match.
Dewrock’s
next match ended in 19 seconds when he lost to the 113-pound Flyer Classic
Champion, Francis Howell North’s Eric Mayfield, who pinned him in 28 seconds of
their third-round match on day one.
Dewrock
lost his third-place match via technical fall at 15-0 with 31 seconds having
gone by in round two to Kirkwood’s Mark Mackenzie.
Vaugier
went 5-0 on day one with three of his matches ending in decisions and two by
pinfall. He advanced to the semifinal match after winning in the quarterfinals
with a pin, and lost to Lindbergh’s Andrew Javier by a 3-2 decision. Javier was
a state qualifier in last year’s Class 4 meet.
Vaugier
was pinned by Ft. Zumwalt North’s Derick Buda-Smith 30 seconds into the third
period of the 132-pound third-place match.
In the
145-pound bracket, Welker lost a total of three matches with two coming against
Hazelwood East’s Pierre Snodgrass and both by decision.
Welker
advanced to the semifinal round where he was pinned with one minute, 54 seconds
left in the second period by tournament champion and 2016 Class 4 state
qualifier David Marlow.
Welker
faced Snodgrass in the third-place match, which ended in a 3-2 decision in
favor of Snodgrass.
Heading
into 152, Dudley faced the tournament champion and sixth-place All-State
wrestler Hickman’s Jeremiah Kent twice.
The
first time was in the final round of day one when Dudley lost via technical
fall to Kent at 24-7 in the first 19 seconds of the third period. The final
loss came in the semifinal round when the match went all three periods for Kent
to come out on top via a 20-8 major decision.
Dudley
then lost in his third-place match by a 3-1 decision to Washington’s Matt
McGilvray.
Amelunke
at 195 pounds was the final wrestler for Jackson to place in the top four,
which included two Class 4 state qualifiers.
Those
two were Hickman’s Jude Barrett and Lindbergh’s Dustin Jones, who were each in
the 182-pound weight class last season.
Amelunke
faced each of them and both of the matches went all three periods to end by
decision. He failed to score a point against Barrett, whom he faced in the
semifinal round and lost 4-0, and Jones, which Amelunke wrestled in his final
match on day one ending in a 2-0 decision.
Amelunke’s
third-place match was against Charlie McCracken of Westminster Christian
Academy that went all three periods, ending in a 3-1 decision.
