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GRANITE CITY - Brayden Drew of Alton won the 165-pound championship, while Belleville East's Jonathan Rulo took the title at 285 pounds, as Jackson, Mo., won the 64th annual William "Red" Schmitt Holiday Wrestling Tournament in the finals, held on Tuesday evening at Granite City Memorial Gym.
The Indians won the title with 314.5 points, easily outdistancing second-place Joliet West, which had 245 points, with CBC finishing third at 203.5 points. Paducah, Ky., Tilghman was fourth with 199 points, and Rockwood Lafayette of Ballwin, Mo., rounded out the top five with 196 points. Mascoutah finished sixth with 194.5 points, Waterloo came in 11th at 177 points, East placed 13th with 151.5 points, Triad finished 14th with 133 points, the host Warriors were 16th at 116 points, the Redbirds were 19th with 104.5 points, Collinsville placed 21st with 93.5 points, and O'Fallon was 27th with 34.5 points. A total of 28 schools competed in the tournament this year.
The local teams all wrestled very well throughout the two days of the tournament, going up against top competition, and the coaches were pleased with their wrestlers' progress.
"We had a pretty good two days of wrestling," said Alton head coach Eric Roberson.
First-year Warrior head coach Kyle Thompson was also very happy with how things went during the tournament, and he's proud of his wrestlers for their efforts.
"We've been wrestling pretty tough," Thompson said.
The Knights did have one runner-up in Will Kelly at 132 pounds, and had other wrestlers place in the top eight, as Triad continues its run of being one of the area's better teams.
"I feel pretty good with where we're at," said Triad head coach Lucas Bernal.
In the championship matches, at 106 pounds, Rocco Valvano of Wheaton-Warrebvukke South won by technical superiority over Braxton McCall of Mascoutah 17-1 at 2:20, while at 113 pounds, Jameson Young of Wentzville, Mo. North Point won over Matthew Deutsch of Waterloo 5-0. In the 120-pound final, it was Kosta Hatzigeorgiou of CBC taking a Daniel Myint of WIlmette Loyola Academy, while at 126 pounds, Gavin Pardilla of Loyola won over Waylon Burress of CBC by technical superiority 15-0 at 1:56. In the 132-pound final, Riley Sumner of Lafayette defeated Kelly 1-0, while at 138 pounds, Caleb Frankenberger of Lafayette won by fall over Kade King of Jackson at 3:59 in the final at 144 pounds, North Point's Brody Kell won the title over Jayden Eddy of Jackson 15-5.
In the championship match at 150 pounds, Jayden Bellamy of Tilghman took a 4-2 win over Coehn Weber of Joliet West, while at 157 pounds, Brock Ross of Mascoutah took a 17-3 win over Metamora's Grady Neal, and Drew took a 12-1 win over Colin Peyton of Batavia to win the 165-pound championship.
At 175 pounds. Tanner Faulkner of CBC won over Tilghman's Ben Hall 4-3. In the 190-pound final, Trey Craig gave the Cadets their third title of the day with a 10-2 decision over Jackson's Joah Moore. In the 215-pound match, Carter Brown of Lafayette won by technical superiority 15-0 over Rage Henderson of Tilghman at 4:07, and Rulo won the 285-pound title over Bryson Wessell of Jackson 4-1.Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
