An individual championship by Zach Dickens helped Republic’s wrestling squad turn in its best showing yet at the Fort Zumwalt East Tournament in St. Louis this weekend — finishing second out of 24 teams, and missing out on first place by 4 1/2 points behind champion Waynesville. Republic had finished 3rd at the tournament in the past two seasons.
In fact, Waynesville and Republic were the class of the field by far — the only two teams to finish with over 400 points. The nearest competitor was third-place Rockwood Summit, which finished with 316.
Coach Jerry Morton attributes much of his team’s early-season success to its ability to wrestle well on top.
“We’ve made that a focus this year,” he says. “When we get on top, we want to be able to turn and pin our opponent. So far, it’s worked out to our advantage.”
In addition to the second-place finish at Ft. Zumwalt East, the Tigers also picked up a big win over powerful COC rival Willard earlier in the week. The dual included a victory by Austin Noblitt over Willard’s Christian Smart, who had knocked Noblitt out of the district tournament last year and blocked Noblitt’s potential trip to State. Morton says his team’s confidence is growing.
“We’ve definitely got some confidence built up in some of our younger wrestlers–even some of our seniors coming back,” he says.
Here are the Republic wrestlers who finished in the top 8 at St. Louis this weekend:
106: Michael Taylor 2nd
126: Hunter Powell 2nd
132: Johnathon Beckett 4th
138: Christian Richardson 7th
152: Brandon O’Connell 3rd
160: Ian Malone 7th
170: Hunter Pyle 2nd
182: Austin Noblitt 2nd
195: Zach Dickens 1st
220: Julian Richardson 6th
285: Shayne Piles 2nd