Tigers wrestle their way to state

submitted photo-- Nevada Tigers wrestling team holding their first place plaque after a dominating set of wins at the District 2 tournament in Monett on Feb. 8 and 9. Back row from left; Ryan Herda, Spencer Daniels, Mason Heard, Jerrod Alexander, Josh Palmer, and Cole Bond. Front row from left; Austin Denning, Trey Miller, Austin Payne, and Colby Shepherd.

For the second year in a row the Nevada High School wrestling team outscored teams from 12 other schools to win the Class 2 District 3 state wrestling tournament in Monett this past Friday and Saturday and qualified wrestlers in ten of the 14 weight classes for the Missouri State Wrestling Championships this February 14-16 at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The top four wrestlers in each weigh class qualified for the championships.

Nevada racked up 144.5 team points outpacing Clinton with 139, Monett with 122.5, Seneca with 109 and Bolivar rounding out the top five with 105.5 points.

"Last year we had seven qualify for the state championships," Nevada head wrestling coach Kevin Huck said Monday afternoon.

Nevada had three senior grapplers place first in their weight brackets; Cole Bond at 160 pounds will take a 34 -- 2 record to Columbia, Spencer Daniels, at 189 pounds is undefeated at 31 -- 0 and will go to the state tourney to defend his championship from last year and Ryan Herda, at 215 pounds will enter the state tournament with a near perfect 37 -1 record.

Bringing home third place finishes were seniors Mason Heard, at 119 pounds, Josh Palmer at 152 pounds and Jerrod Alexander at Heavyweight. Heard and Alexander finished behind the number 1 and 2 state class 2 ranked wrestlers in their respective weight classes, according to the Web site http://www.missouriwrestling.com. Josh Palmer beat the number one seeded wrestler in the district to keep his state hopes alive.

Placing fourth were juniors Trey Miller at 125 pounds and Colby Shepherd at 140 pounds, sophomore Austin Payne at 130 pounds and freshman Austin Denning at 145 pounds.

On top of those who qualified for the championships Huck said two others, Dominic Habjan at 112 pounds and Todd Brier at 135 pounds came within one match in the wrestle back of making the district finals.

"They fought their way back and beat a lot of kids we weren't expected to beat going in," he said.

Qualifying this many wrestlers for the state championship puts the Nevada wrestling team in the arena with perennial wrestling power houses Platt County and Oak Grove, which also are sending ten wrestlers to Columbia.

"We'll have to really step up to compete with them," he said.

"This is quite an accomplishment, sending 10 wrestlers to the state tournament and having 2 more just miss it. This speaks highly of this team's commitment and work ethic," Huck said.

He said that going into the finals on Saturday Nevada's team was 20 points behind Clinton and after the team lead changed a couple of times Nevada ended up on top.

"That was one of the kids goals, to repeat as district champion," he said.

"It was nice to beat Monett in Monett and to finish ahead of Clinton," he said.

Huck said that while some people may be surprised at the number of wrestlers who qualified, he is not because as a team they work to be ready to do their best wrestling in the district and state tournaments.

He said that it looks to him like his wrestlers are pretty focused on the state championship tournament.

"I like where we're at," he said.

The team will leave on Wednesday for Columbia and begin the first round of wrestling on Thursday.