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McCluer North Wrestling Has 8 State Bound; District Runner Up
BY JIM WIENERS
McCluer North High School leads North St. Louis County in numbers of high school wrestlers to the 77th Missouri State High School Activities Association Wrestling Championships Thursday-Saturday at Mizzou Arena, on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus.
McCluer North leads all Suburban North Conference wrestling teams competing in Class Four with eight, followed by Hazelwood Central with seven, Hazelwood West with six, Pattonville and Hazelwood East with four each while Ritenour and Riverview Gardens with one each. Sessions are 5 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
McCluer South Berkeley will be the only North County high school outside the Suburban North to compete in state, sending six to compete in Class Two. The opening session is 10 a.m. Thursday.
McCluer North was second in Class Four, District Two to Francis Howell Central last Saturday. Francis Howell Central, with 11 wrestlers heading to state including five district champions, scored 237.5 points while McCluer North, with three district champions, was a distant second with 179.5. Hazelwood Central was third (124.5), followed by Francis Howell North (114.5), Hazelwood West (108), Pattonville (92), Hazelwood East (87), DeSmet (61.5), St. Louis University High (51), CBC (44.5), Riverview Gardens (42), Ritenour (35), Chaminade (33.5) and McCluer (13).
Five of the eight McCluer North wrestlers — Rob Taylor (135), Dominique Shelton (145), Donald Woods (160), Jordan Parks (171) and Kevin Knopf (189) — are returning to state. Woods (43-0) is making his third state tournament appearance, taking fourth in 2005 and has won two straight district titles including last Saturday. Jeremy Minter (119), Reggie Dilworth (215) and Ryan Hatten (285) are each making their first state appearance.
Six of the 8 McCluer North wrestlers are seniors while Knopf and Dilworth, who each won district titles last Saturday, are juniors.
Coach Abe Raziq said the state-bound seniors are “going to be motivated because it is the last chance for them.” None of the Suburban North teams made the top 10 in state team standings last year (McCluer North was 22nd) and finishing in the top was the goal for the Stars, “hopefully better,” said Raziq.
HAZELWOOD CENTRAL has six of the seven wrestlers — Joey Jetton (103), Terrell Smart (140), Brandon Pringle (145), Charlie Morris (152), Joe Gary (171) and Jason Lloyd (215) — returning to state, with Chauncey Smith (189) making his first appearance. Pringle and Morris are each making their third state appearance and Smart was the only district champion last Saturday.
HAZELWOOD WEST has three returning wrestlers, all juniors [John Snow (119), Chris Wehmer (112) and Nick Blaske (130)] returning to state, joined by seniors Nathan Sykes (103) and Derrance Thomas (215) and junior Jorcel Davis (285).
HAZELWOOD EAST returns seniors Jay Warren (140) and Anthony Brock (189) and junior Dominique Thornton (145) to state while sophomore Charles Johnson (112) makes his first state appearance. Warren, a 2006 District champion at 135 and Brock are going to state for the third time while Thornton took first in districts last Saturday.
RIVERVIEW GARDENS sends senior JaMarquis Harris (130), DeSMET sends senior Steve Layton (160), CBC sends freshman Sean Melson (103) and Ryan Benning (112 District Champion), CHAMINADE sends senior Chris Hardin (125), ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY HIGH sends seniors Andrew Mueth (135) and (135) and Andrew Austermann (171) and juniors James Barton (160) and Ken Homan (189).
McCLUER SOUTH-BERKELEY sends seniors Maurice Baker (130), Anthony Smith (135) and Mortez Jackson (171), juniors Jeremy Harris (152) and Lawrence Coleman (189) and sophomore Willie Williams (145).
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