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The numbers produce their own difficulty rating for this weekend’s Class 1, District 4 Wrestling Tournament to be held at South Harrison High School in Bethany.
Thirty-eight state-ranked wrestlers. Five ranked at the top of their respective classes. Five defending state champions. Four top ten ranked teams.
Getting out of the district tournament and into the state tournament promises to be a difficult task, even for those ranked wrestlers. The top four finishers in each weight class on Saturday advance to the state tournament, held Feb. 18-20 in Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
Gallatin grapplers, including ranked individuals Chad Ness and Levi Michener, will vie for state qualifying spots on Saturday along with wrestlers from Albany, Brookfield, Marceline, Maryville, Maysville, Mid-Buchanan, Hamilton, Rock Port, South Holt, Stanberry, Tarkio and Trenton.
Brookfield (2), Marceline (5), Hamilton (6) and Maryville (10) are all ranked among the top ten teams in Class 1.
"I feel that we are in the hardest district in Class 1 when you look at the number of ranked wrestlers," said Bulldog head wrestling coach Barron Gann. "We will have five to six kids with a good chance of making it to state," he added. "Those being Sterling and Peter Steele, Terrill Wood, Chad Ness, Matt Atkinson and Levi Michener. I’m not saying the others on the team don’t have a chance, but they will need to pull some upsets."
Coach Gann went on to say that the luck of the draw will play a big role in how his grapplers do, overall. "Like I tell our kids day in and day out, anyone can be beaten on any given day."
District wrestling begins at 6 p.m. on Friday and will resume at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The Bulldogs finished third in last Saturday’s dual tournament held at Albany High School. Gallatin defeated Stanberry (48-35), North Platte (54-27) and Maysville (54-20) but lost to Cameron (62-15) and Maryville (58-18).
Gallatin won one of three duals last Thursday at Stanberry, defeating South Holt, 48-18, but falling to Stanberry, 59-20, and to Marceline, 47-24.
Blake Cornett won one match by pin and another by forfeit. Sterling Steele won twice by pin. Terrill Wood won by a 5-2 decision, by pin and by forfeit. Levi Michener won two forfeited matches and a 21-6 technical fall. Matt Atkinson and Hayden Bott each pinned one opponent.
Bo Malo, Mitchel Lewis, Dylan Leeper and Jimmy Dale each won a match by forfeit.
Following are GHS wrestlers who will be competing at district on Saturday, along with their updated records: Blake Cornett (23-19), Zack Lollar (9-32), Sterling Steele (25-18), Peter Steele (28-13), Terrill Wood (33-10), Chad Ness (33-7), Mitchel Lewis (20-19), Matt Atkinson (27-18), Levi Michener (39-2), Bo Malo (13-6), Hayden Bott (4-8), Dylan Leeper (19-24) and Myrick McLey (20-17).