Tigers take home two medals

~ New, Yeargain wrestled up sixth-place finishes.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Central junior wrestlers Garrett New and Tyler Yeargain went a combined 0-4 on Saturday in the state wrestling tournament at Mizzou Arena.

Those losses could not take away from the accomplishments of both wrestlers. Each finished sixth to bring home state medals.

"Those kids wrestled extremely well, and I'm happy for them," Central coach Josh Crowell said.

New made it all the way to the semifinal match at 152 pounds before falling into the wrestleback bracket. In the wrestleback semifinals, New fell to Brad Lumia of Fort Zumwalt North 5-2. New lost another close match in the fifth-place match, falling 6-5 to Cord Barba of Waynesville.

"Garrett making it to the semifinals was big," Crowell said. "Those last two matches he lost were close matches. They could have gone either way."

Yeargain lost his opening match at 130 pounds on Thursday, but won three wrestleback matches on Thursday and Friday to climb into the medal round. In the wrestleback semifinals, Yeargain lost 6-2 to Cody Compton of North County. It was the third loss against Compton this season. Yeargain was pinned in the fifth-place match by Aaron Groom of Carthage.

All three Central wrestlers who competed in Columbia will return for the Tigers. Matt Latham, also a junior, finished 1-2 at the meet.

The two state medalists also marked the highest total for Central in Crowell's seven-year tenure at Central, and was the first time in more than a decade according to Crowell.

"They wrestled better than what I [would have] thought," Crowell said. "I thought we'd be fortunate to get one medal."