Howell North Wrestlers Hoping For Memorable Trip to State

With two district champions, Francis Howell North has high hopes for this week’s state wrestling championships.

The Knights qualified five wrestlers at the Missouri Class 4 District 2 meet at McCluer North last weekend, and are now headed to Columbia, Mo for the state meet. The 81st MSHSAA State Wrestling Championships begin on Thursday, and conclude on Saturday, at Mizzou Arena.

Seniors Jason Shell, at 130 pounds, and teammate Harold Ritchie, at 135 pounds, won district titles. Shell is 32-6 this season and Ritchie is 40-3, and is also ranked No. 2 in the state by missouriwrestling.com.

“With us finishing in the top three and getting five guys to state, I thought we had a pretty good weekend,” Howell North head coach Harold Ritchie (Sr.) said. “A couple of our guys stepped it up and got to state, so I was really happy with that.”

Howell Central won the district meet with 214.5 points. Ft. Zumwalt West was a distant second place with 139.5 points, while Francis Howell North beat out CBC by one point to place third with 96 points.

In the 103-pound tournament, the third-place match was won by Baily Roehr of CBC, who defeated Howell North freshman Brendan Hachtel, 4-2.

At 119 pounds, Fard Harris of McCluer North defeated sophomore Tyler Smith (32-15), 5-1, to win third place.

In the 130-pound tournament, Shell found himself down 5-0 to Darrell Pampkin of McCluer North, but bounced back in the final minutes of the match to win, 8-5, and claim the District 2 championship.

“Jason was seeded first, so we thought he was going to do pretty well,” Ritchie said “But he got down 5-0 in the finals and really showed some guts and battled back. Those are the kind of matches you need to win in order to do well at state.”

Ritchie (the coach's son) defeated David Evans of Parkway North, 5-3, to win his title.

“At 135 was a really strong weight class this year,” Ritchie said. “But we knew it was going to be a tough go, but Harold wrestled a smart match and got up 5-1 on Evans and was pretty much in control for most of the match.”

 At 215 pounds, senior Sam Stewart (26-17) took fourth for the Knights.