After first day, four Kewpies may still claim crowns, but three Bruins can only finish third.
Both Hickman and Rock Bridge each ended Thursday’s session of the state wrestling meet having had only one wrestler eliminated. That was where the similarities stopped.
The four remaining Kewpie wrestlers are still in the hunt for a state title while the three Bruins left in the field can do no better than third, after the Bruins were swept in all four first-round matches.
Vince Pescaglia, Jacob Thornton, K.C. Pescaglia and Drae Cox advanced for Hickman. Both Pescaglia brothers scored falls in their first matches, and Cox was in control for almost all of his first match, winning 12-6. Thornton had to sweat it out a little more than his teammates, scoring an escape in the second overtime period to earn a 4-3 win over Tim Irving from Lindbergh at 119 pounds.
Hickman coach J.D. Coffman said he was pleased with the outcome of Thursday’s action.
“It was a really good night,” Coffman said. “We benefited from wrestling in a tough district. We had been in tough matches already. I told the guys that this is like our district, just with adding two more wrestlers, and told them not to do anything differently.”
Vince and K.C. Pescaglia listened to their coach, extending their recent string of successes with dominating performances on Thursday. Vince Pescaglia, a 112-pounder, pinned Jeff Martinez of Winnetonka at 1:52 of the second period. Not to be outdone, K.C. Pescaglia, a 125-pounder, got his fall at 1:14 of the first period, defeating Chris Hardin of Chaminade.
Cox said that he kept control of his match by not letting his opponent, Will Perry of Jackson, dictate the tempo of the match. He will face Brian Patrick of Pattonville, the No. 5 ranked wrestler at 152 pounds by missouriwrestling.com, in the quarterfinals. That Patrick carries a higher ranking into the match (Cox is No. 8) doesn’t faze Cox.
“Just because he’s ranked higher than me doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “I just have to go wrestle, wrestle my match, and go out there and win it.”
The only downside on the night for Hickman was the elimination of senior Jordan Lanham, who fell to Terrell Smart of Hazelwood Central by fall in his first match. Matt Chandler of Northwest delivered the final blow, eliminating Lanham with a 6-2 victory in the 140-pound wrestleback.
With four wrestlers remaining, Coffman said he is cautiously optimistic about how many Kewpies will place when the tournament ends on Saturday.
“I’m hopeful,” Coffman said. “It comes down to wrestling. There were several experienced wrestlers who were expected to win tonight but didn’t. These are the top 16 wrestlers in each weight class. Nothing is easily conceded.”
One of the experienced wrestlers Coffman alluded to was Rock Bridge’s Taylor Crane, who came in to the state meet ranked No. 1 in the state at 135 pounds. Crane dropped his first round match to No. 6 Pat McKenna of Lindbergh 6-1. The rest of the first round wasn’t any better for the Bruins. Will Evans (103 pounds), Kyle Lewis (140) and Charlie Lay (160) all lost decisions to state ranked wrestlers.
Coach Brook Harlan said that the first round was an eye-opening experience for the Bruins.
“No, it couldn’t have gone any worse,” Harlan said. “The guys just needed to be ready for this. We won all three of our opening round matches last year. This was just a big eye-opener for them.”
Eye-opening may have been the best way to put it, as the three Bruins that competed in wrestlebacks won handily in their elimination matches. Crane defeated Andrew Mueth of St. Louis University High School by technical fall 21-6. Evans knocked off A.J. Harvathin of Mehlville 12-5 while Lewis eliminated Matt Rigdon of Seckman with a 10-4 win. Harlan said he was much more pleased with the effort in the second matches of the evening.
“They were a lot more alert and got after it in the second round,” Harlan said. “I think we have great potential to place. They all could get third place. They just need to get their heads on straight. They’ve worked hard all year (for the state meet).”
Charlie Lay, the fourth Bruin in the field, was unable to wrestle his elimination match. According to Harlan, doctors on site told Lay not to wrestle after suffering a knee to the head in his first round match against Donald Woods of McCluer North, which Woods won 11-5.