With three medalists, Hounds finish seventh at Quad State

All three of Maryville's returning state qualifiers from last year finished either first, second or third in their respective weight classes at Saturday's Quad State Wrestling Tournament.

Beyond that trio, the Hounds were unable to find the medal stand anywhere else, causing them to finish seventh out of nine teams with 57.50 points. It was Maryville's second straight seventh place finish at their home tournament.

Only Omaha South (44.50) and Bishop Miege (24.0) finished beneath the Hounds.

Millard South won the team title with 232.5 points. Cameron was second with 160.

"At times, I thought we wrestled well," said Maryville head wrestling coach Joe Drake. "We had some boys that I thought wrestled exceptional. Then we had some that just didn't perform to their ability. It hurt us as a team and it hurt some individuals. We just were making some really simple, foolish mistakes and we just got to stop those if we're going to advance on from our district tournament. We got to clean up our act a little bit. We're making some minor mistakes out there that are costing us matches."

Maryville sophomore Nate Alexander kept his mistakes to a minimum en route to winning the title at 126 pounds. He was Maryville's lone first place finisher on the day.

Alexander, who was held out of last week's MEC Tournament, beat Mt. Ayr's Grant Staats in the finals by technical fall 17-2. In the semifinals, he pinned Lathrop's Dawson Beane in 55 seconds.

The two wins improved his record to 20-1 on the season.

"Nate had a very good day," said Drake. "If you were here and saw the competition to win this tournament and get in the finals of this tournament, it's tough, so he did a very good job today."

Derek Stiens, one of three Hound seniors honored during the tournament, won a 4-3 decision over Millard South's Ty Calder to get to the finals at 145 pounds.

There, he lost by major decision to Cameron's top-seeded Trevor Burkhart 10-1 to finish second. Despite the loss, Stiens (23-11) battled Burkhart (36-6) much tougher than he had in their previous encounter at last week's MEC Tournament.

"They have a history and this outcome was a lot better than the last time they wrestled," said Drake. "Even though we didn't win, we definitely saw a big improvement in the way we wrestled the match."

Sophomore Brendan Weybrew came within seconds of reaching the finals at 285 pounds, but a last-second reverse by semifinal opponent Joe Ricker cost him in a 2-1 loss, just his third of the year.

Weybrew (31-3) bounced back to get third with a second period pin of Cameron's Brady Gunn.

"That's one of those matches that we shouldn't have lost," said Drake. "There was a mistake made there and it shouldn't have happened. Those are things we got to discuss and correct. We shouldn't lose that match. We should've been in the finals. That's just the way it is."

The Hounds' seven other competing wrestlers were ousted prior to the third place matches.

Sophomore Dane Hull, senior Ben Wilmes and freshman Dustyn Wilmes each got within a match of wrestling for third.

Hull lost a 13-6 decision to Trenton Scobee of Lathrop in the consolation semifinals at 152 pounds. He finished 1-2, with his only win coming against Zach Lemon of Mt. Ayr.

Ben Wilmes was pinned by Dalton Ellis in the same round at 132 pounds and finished 1-2. He won his opening round match over Bedford's Zach Johnson before losing by fall to Millard South's Alex Mendez in the semifinals.

Dustyn Wilmes lost his consolation semifinal match to Jeremy Eaves of Omaha South by fall in 43 seconds. He opened the tournament with a loss by fall to Josh Mitchell and won his next match by fall over Mt. Ayr's Trevor Anderson.

Freshman Jacob Partridge (106 pounds), junior Kale Heflin (138 pounds), freshman Trevor Zimmerman (160 pounds) and freshman Brady Heitman (170 pounds) each went 0-2.

"At times, some of the younger kids would have a good match and then they'd come back and not have a good match," said Drake. "They got to eliminate that inconsistency. We got to stay with our best all the time. If we lost and wrestled our best, that's all I can ask for, but we're not doing that right now. That's what we got to change."

Maryville has one more competition date remaining before districts Saturday at the Albany Invitational.

The tournament is dual-style and consists largely of teams in Maryville's district.