State tournament tickets punched; young talent emerges for Jackson at Class 4 District 1 wrestling championships

CEDAR HILL — More often than not, the Class 4 District 1 individual boys wrestling tournament showcases some of the top wrestlers in the state who put on some of the finest shows of the sport in Southeast Missouri.

The former proved true again at Northwest High School in Cedar Hill this past weekend, with Jackson junior heavyweight Brysen Wessell winning his first district championship and six other Indians punching their ticket to the state tournament.

Saturday featured the high intensity of the semifinals, the joys and heartbreak of the consolation semifinals and the anticipation of the C4 D1 finals.

When it was all said and done, head coach Steve Wachter and Jackson came away with four finalists — Mitchel Baker (126), Kade King (132), Joah Moore (175) and Wessell (285) — and four wrestlers who clinched their first state qualifying bids — Baker, Gannon Rice (138), Moore (175) and Charlie Eifert (215).

As a team, Jackson came in third place for the fifth year in a row with 174 total points, trailing champion Lafayette (232) and runner-up Christian Brothers College (207).

Here’s a roundup of the tournament’s developments and triumphs for Jackson

Wessell highlights quartet of finalists

Jackson experienced one of those “good news/bad news” championship final rounds.

The good news was the Indians had four finalists. The bad news was that only one of them, Wessell, captured gold.

The standout two-sport athlete, who entered the tournament as the top seed, decked Noah McCollum of Eureka at the 1:55 mark in the 285-pound final.

“I was definitely ready for this tournament leading up to it,” Wessell said. “Felt really good throughout the week. Just a lot of training that went into it and I was ready to dominate.”

Jackson fans may not have felt fantastic about losing three finals, but consider this: In none of those matches (Baker at 126, King at 132 and Moore at 175) was the Indian the higher seed.

Baker, only a freshman, bonused his way to the finals before getting majored by Lafayette hammer Calum Brown 14-0. King pinned his way to the championship match before getting stuck by top-ranked Caleb Frankenberger of Lafayette — a returning state bronze medalist — in the second period. Moore, one of the most improved wrestlers in the area, fell to undefeated Cohenn Stark of Northwest 12-3 and, according to Wachter, “wrestled a pretty good match.”

“That was a really tough round,” Wachter said. “We wrestled some really outstanding wrestlers — two from Lafayette and that undefeated kid from Northwest. He's only the third kid in Northwest history to go undefeated during the regular season, so that was a tough match for Joah. Then Brysen wrestled a really outstanding heavyweight match against the kid from Eureka.”

Rice brothers march to states

Not one, but two Rice wrestlers will represent the Indians at the 2025 state championships.

Junior 120-pounder Graidy Rice, now a two-time state qualifier, earned a third-place finish at 120 pounds, while younger brother and freshman Gannon Rice took fourth at 138.

After suffering a stinging 8-5 overtime loss to Seckman freshman Carson Owens in the semifinals, Graidy responded with a pin and a 15-7 major decision in the consolation rounds to settle for bronze. Similar to his brother, Gannon lost in the semifinal round before earning a pin in the consolation semifinals to clinch a state qualifying bid.

“It's just fun seeing him wrestle,” Graidy said of his brother. “I just kind of do my thing, but you never know what's going to happen in his match. One second, he'll be down by five and then launch the kid to his back and pin him. That’s his style. It’s just fun to watch him.”

Eifert thrives in ‘blood round’

The “blood round”, or the consolation round that separates medalists from the rest of the pack at wrestling tournaments, can be summed up as “a wedding and a funeral”.

If a wrestler wins, he advances to the state tournament. If he loses, his season comes to an end.

Indeed, the late-afternoon blood round at Saturday’s District 1 wrestling championships contained as much drama and fan interaction as the semifinals that preceded them — if not more.

That was certainly the case for the five Indians who competed in the round.

While things came fairly easy for the Rice brothers, who both picked up pins in the consolation semifinals, it took every ounce of “Eifert” to get the job done at 215 pounds.

Facing Fox senior Jackson Schroeder, who teched Eifert at the Tiger Classic tournament earlier this season, the junior earned his first state qualifying bid after a 4-1 overtime decision.

“My coach (Cole) Amelunke and coach (Jerry) Golden told me before, ‘Either open up and wrestle or you're going to go home,’” Eifert said. “That's how I thought of it. So, I'm either going to have to wrestle my match, win positions and win moments, or I'm going to go home. And that's how I did it.”

Eifert had dropped a quarterfinal tech fall to Oakville’s Kaden Updike earlier, but said he was unfazed by the loss. The Jackson upperweight scored the match-winning takedown over Schroeder by hitting a counter-go-behind with 10 seconds to go in overtime.

“I pretty much kind of just pushed the pace on him the whole match,” Eifert said. “He got one stalling call before and eventually he just took a bad shot on me in overtime. Then I hipped away, pushed his head down and his arms were locked around my leg. But then I just kind of pushed it down, went to the side, and got the three.”

Eifert ended up placing fourth after barely falling to Updike 5-3 in the third-place bout.

A pair of Indians were on the receiving end of the blood round drama Saturday after returning state qualifier Kamden Gerhardt (113) and senior Matthew May (165) both dropped tough losses. Gerhardt got teched by Lafayette senior Jackson Tenny, while May got pinned by Jack Mrozowicz of Rolla in the third period.

Gerhardt will return for his senior season next winter, while May ends his high school career with a career record of 108-65.

Looking ahead

The 2025 MSHSAA Class 4 boys wrestling championships will go down Friday, Feb. 28, through Saturday, March 1, at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia.

Wachter said he likes where his seven wrestlers are at right now, but stresses the importance of each of them bringing their A game to the tournament.

“Every draw up there is tough, but our draws could be worse,” he said. “The Class 4 state championships are tough. Good draw or bad draw, you still have to wrestle. And our district was really, really competitive this year and is either the toughest or second-toughest district in the state. So, I was really proud that we got seven. I was hoping we'd get a couple more up, but it's hard in a district that is really tough.”

Class 4 state championship round of 16 matches

120 — Graidy Rice (40-7) vs Chase Gray (Francis Howell, Fr.)

126 — Mitchel Baker (35-7) vs Cade Dunn (Liberty, Sr., 2024 state fifth at 113)

132 — Kade King (38-6) vs Magnus Hoenshell (Park Hill South, So., 2024 state sixth at 132)

138 — Gannon Rice (28-17) vs Caden Harrington (Ozarks, Sr., 2024 state fifth at 132)

175 — Joah Moore (33-7) vs Tyrus Alley (Lebanon, Fr.)

215 — Charlie Eifert (35-13) vs Porter Talbot (Fair Grove, Sr., 2024 state runner-up at 215)

285 — Brysen Wessell (37-6) vs Phillip Fields (Blue Springs, Jr.)