Four Capital City Cavaliers and one Lady Cavalier have high goals for today’s boys Class 3 state championship and girls Class 2 state championship at Mizzou Arena.
Leading off for Capital City in the boys championship starting at 8:15 a.m. will be AJ Kempker at 126.
Kempker placed second in Class 3 District 4 at 126 points and enters the tournament with a record of 28-14.
“AJ’s initial goal was to place at state and after placing second at districts, he’s on the way to do that,” Capital City coach Mitch Werdehausen said. “His next goal would be to hit 100 career wins and he’d have to win three matches at state to do that. In order to get 100 wins, he has to place. … He’s gonna wrestle to the best of his ability no matter what.”
The senior will open this year’s tournament against Windsor’s Luke Patterson (40-11), who took third in Class 3 District 1.
The 126-pounder is the Cavaliers’ lone competitor returning to state after claiming a 2-2 record in last year’s Class 3 120-pound bracket.
“He was one match away from placing last year, so he’s fully capabale of placing this year,” Werdehausen said. “He’ll know how it all runs, he’ll know about the tunnel system, he’ll know about the pass system. Just the general requirements, all that stuff you only get by experience. Now that he’s experienced it, he’ll be more comfortable.”
Next up for the Cavaliers, Bishop Boyd (19-10) will take the mat at 138 pounds after placing third in districts with a 4-1 record.
Boyd will open his debut state tournament against DeSoto’s Drake Peeler (26-9).
“Bishop’s initial goal was to be a state qualifier, he set that last year after he was one match away,” Werdehausen said. “So he’s already achieved that. He went from a 20-22 record last year to a 19-10 record this year. He wrestled a lot in the offseason and it showed on the mat all through the year.”
Peeler placed second in District 1.
Levi Casey (24-13) will hit the mat third for Capital City at 144.
Casey went 2-2 at districts to finish fourth.
“Levi has always been a competitor, his goal was to qualify for state, now his new goal is to score some points at state and that’s an achievable goal,” Werdehausen said. “He’s always been a hard-nosed wrestler, he doesn’t give up any points. … He’s a sophomore so we’re looking for good things for him in the future.”
The sophomore will line up against Whitfield’s Rome Tate (35-8), who took the top spot in District 2.
Finally for the Cavaliers, sophomore Reyce Turner (38-9) will hit the mat at 285 after taking second in districts with a 3-1 record.
“He’s wrestled really tough this year, he’s beat some really good kids,” Werdehausen said. “He’s gonna have to beat those kids again to place and he knows that. He’s a competitor and he doesn’t shy away from the competition.”
In his first state appearance, Turner has high hopes.
“Reyce’s goal is to place top-3 at state, so he’s got a high goal to achieve,” Werdehausen said. “Last year he lost a wrestle off barely to go to districts to wrestle. This year, he came in hungry.”
The journey to the top three will start with a match against Willard’s Brady Griffin (39-3), who placed third in District 3.
“He’s a big kid that wrestles hard, it’s hard to stop a big kid who wrestles hard,” Werdehausen said. “… Beginning of the year, he lacked a little confidence, then he beat a couple good kids and that kind of boosted the confidence up. He’s hard to stop. … Anything is possible with him if he wrestles well.”
Werdehausen said the Cavaliers know what they can find about their first-round opponents, but scouting and gameplanning are less important than making sure each wrestler is doing his best to control the match.
“We don’t have any commons with them, even though we went to all parts of the state, we never crossed paths,” Werdehausen said of his wrestler’s first opponents. “They’ll be new to us. … We’ve looked up whatever we could find, but it’s kinda hard to find wrestling stuff unless they went to national tournaments. I just tell the guys to take it one match at a time and wrestle your match. It’s not gonna matter who the other kid is if you just wrestle your match.”
Finally for Capital City, Jacinda Espinosa (37-4) returns to the state tournament, this time in Class 2 in its inagural season. The girls Class 2 competition will begin at 1:15 p.m.
Espinosa placed fifth with a 3-2 record at 130 last season as a freshman and is looking for a second medal at 140 pounds this season.
The road to another medal for the sophomore begins with a matchup against Parkway South junior Taya Stanford (26-12), who placed fourth in District 1.