Oakville Sending Two Wrestlers to State Meet

The Oakville Tigers will be represented at the state wrestling championships despite not making much of an impact as a team at last weekend’s district qualifying tourney.

Oakville finished 12^th out of 14 teams at the Class 4 District 1 Tournament at Northwest High School (Cedar Hill) on Feb. 11-12. However, Coach Brett Lieberoff will be traveling with his two state qualifiers to Columbia, Mo for the 81st MSHSAA State Wrestling Championships Feb. 17-19 at Mizzou Arena.

Competing at 125 pounds will be Oakville sophomore Jonathon Bromeier, who placed fourth at districts. Bromeier has a 12-10 mark this season. He’ll be joined by senior teammate Matthew Jackson (22-19), who also took fourth at districts, and will be wrestling at 135 pounds.

The Class 4, District 1 tourney included these squads: Eureka, Fox, Jackson, Kirkwood, Lafayette, Lindbergh, Marquette, Mehlville, Northwest, Oakville, Parkway South, Seckman, SLUH, and Vianney. It produced some gritty performances as wrestlers competed to find out if a season of training, preparation, and meets had readied them for state qualification.

Mehlville had Jimmy Brockman (135) qualify for the state finals. Brockman won a minor decision over Oakville’s Jackson to take third place. Lafayette finished third at the tournament, and seven Lancers qualified for the state finals. Nick Olejnick (135 pounds) captured the only individual championship for Lafayette in a district competition coach Scott Sissom referred to as a rollercoaster ride.

“We’ve had some ups and downs; we would have liked to get more kids into the medal round, but we are strong in the same weight classes where other programs are strong,” said Sissom.

The Lafayette coach singled out Ryan Siebert (130) and Kyle Black (140) as qualifiers that the team considers dangerous as they head to Columbia.

Marquette saw six of its wrestlers qualify for state, and took fifth overall. Coach George Hovis commented on his team’s progress being a result of a good process.

“There’s always good and bad and I take it all with a grain of salt. But our guys worked very hard, and we have some wrestlers like Zach Conn (152), who drew probably the best guy in the bracket and battled his way back.”

Seckman came out on top at Northwest in team points, winning the district on the heels of four individual championship performances. Brock Wingbermuehle (103), Matt Kraus (112), Denny Kleinschrodt (125) and Blake Pepper (140) led the Jaguars with first-place finishes.

Sophomore Matt McClimens (189) posted a first-place finish for Eureka. Coach Tim Yancey said, “We knew Matt would be strong, and we expect him to be a top-six medalist at Columbia.”

Lindbergh had a strong district tournament with one first-place wrestler (Michael Slyman, 152), and four additional wrestlers advancing to state. Parkway South will take three wrestlers to state, including first-place champion junior Donnell Walker (heavyweight, 285).

While area representation is substantial heading into next weekend’s tournament, much work remains for individual wrestlers hoping to climb onto the champions stand at Mizzou Arena.

Still, though not all coaches say it, probably most have similar feelings of pride this time of year, to those of Marquette’s Hovis: “Every kid on my team, I’d like to have as either a son-in-law, or a brother…they’re all great,” said Hovis following the tournament.