COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Versailles Tigers and the Fatima Comets emerged from the first day of the Missouri State High School Activities Association Class 1 Wrestling Championships with their lineups intact.
The day didn't start off so great for the Tigers, as four of their five wrestlers lost in the opening round. Only Wesley Davidson at 285 pounds won his first match, as he won by fall over Brentwood's Dvaid Rivera.
But things got better in the first round of wrestlebacks, as those four Tigers all stayed alive with victories.
And three of the four wins in wrestlebacks came via pin: Dalton Schmidt (106) won by fall over Derek Griffits of Lutheran: St. Peters, Ely Roberts (132) pinned Bryce Smith of New Madrid County Central and Zach Vogt (170) stuck Duncan Payne of Albany.
Nathan Long (113) won his second match of the day 9-1 over Centralia's Jacob Fricke.
In their first-round matches, Schmidt lost by technical fall to Quintin Lewis of Carrollton, Long lost by fall to Jake Gipson of Plattsburg, Roberts lost by fall to Mathew Jordan-Garr of West Platte and Vogt lost 5-2 to Billy Duncan of Herculaneum.
Those results were enough to put Versailles in 14th place with 15 points. Brookfield leads the team race with a first-day total of 30.5.
The Comets, meanwhile, are in 18th place with 12.5 points.
Fatima had three first-round winners out of its five entries, and two were by technical fall - Cody Huhn (106) over O'Hara's Andres Garcia and Ryan Strope (126) over Garrett Manley of New Madrid County Central. The other first-round win came from Luke DeOrnellis (145), who won 6-3 over Maryville's Derek Steins.
Caleb Schroeder (120) of the Comets started out with a 10-2 loss to Rock Port's Dillan DeRosier, but came back to win by technical fall over Gary Silerio of Brentwood. Matthew Jones (195) bounced back from a first-round loss by fall to Lawson's Austen Eskew to post a 5-4 win over Jacob Wilshusen of Lutheran: St. Peters.
Action resumes at 9:30 a.m. today with the quarterfinals and second-round wrestlebacks. The semifinals and third-round wrestlebacks are set for 6 p.m.