One Eureka Wrestler Still Seeking State Spot

With two elite wrestlers representing a team at the Class 4 State Championships, the odds are pretty strong that one of them still will be wrestling on the final day.

Such is the case with the Eureka High School Wildcats. Coach Tim Yancey has one day left in this season to bring out the best from sophomore Matt McClimens as he takes aim at finishing third place at 189 pounds at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, MO. McClimens lost his first match on Thursday, but has won three consecutive matches to be among the final six wrestlers at 189 pounds. He defeated Ozark’s Willy Gray in a fall at 4:34 on Friday to advance.

McClimens enters Saturday with a 37-3 mark and is ranked No. 5 in the state by missouriwrestling.com. If he wins his next two matches, he will take home third place, and, as a sophomore, that is quite impressive.

Teammate sophomore Luke Seiler will be pulling for his buddy, but, unfortunately, had his season end on Friday. Wrestling at 103 pounds, Selier, who won his match on Thursday, dropped two matches on Friday. Park Hill’s John Erneste beat Seiler in a technical fall, 16-0, and then Seiler lost a tight match, 5-3, to Guillermo Diaz. Seiler was ranked No. 3 in the state entering state and finishes his season 19-6.

Yancey’s other wrestler who advanced to Friday’s competition, Tyler Casey, also had his season end on Friday in the quarterfinals. Casey lost to the No. 3-ranked wrestler at 215 pounds, a 10-5 decision to Blue Springs’ Donnie Horner. Casey finishes at 34-12, and went 2-2 in his four state championship matches.

You can watch McClimens compete on Saturday live and for free through MSHSAA’s online webcast of the event at www.mshsaa.tv.

Only 112 of the 896 wrestlers that survived day one still had a shot to win a state title as day three began.

In Class 4, Lafayette High School ranked in 13th place with 38.5 points after day two. 

While they do not have a shot at placing near the top overall standings this year, head coach Scott Sissom is very proud of his team.

“It’s a really tough tournament,” Sissmon said. “I thought my guys came down and wrestled hard, and got after it. Right now we’re down to the last two guys.”

Maybe the most impressive note of Lafayette’s tournament was that every single one of its wrestlers won at least one match.

“I’m proud of all of them,” Sissom said. “They just battled the whole time. I couldn’t be prouder of how hard we went for it every match. Nobody I felt wrestled a bad match. They were going for the win each time and wrestling with confidence.”