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Stiles, Brier earn state tournament medals
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- At the beginning of the 2010 Missouri State Wrestling Championships at Mizzou Arena, the Nevada Tigers wrestling team had four wrestlers out of an active roster of just nine still in action. All four of those wrestlers showed just how they had made it into the top-16 competitors in their respective weight classes statewide through day one as three of the four won their opening round bouts.
Two of those four wrestlers -- freshman Slade Stiles and senior Todd Brier -- took that accomplishment one step further, moving on to the final day of the tournament and into the medal rounds. With only one loss in the first two days to the tournament's eventual second-place finishers in each of their respective brackets, Stiles and Brier both went into the final day with a substantial amount of momentum and very high hopes for a strong showing. Both wrestlers delivered exactly that as Stiles finished the day with a third-place finish while Brier ultimately took sixth.
"Saturday went very well," White said. "The boys wrestled very well. ...I'm very pleased with the boys and how they performed."
Leading up to the tournament's final day, Stiles had a very strong tournament showing that sported just one blemish in a 9-3 loss on Friday to Oak Grove's Anthony Barker. Barker eventually went on to the championship match where he lost to Savannah's Cody Hummer to take second in the tournament.
Stiles went on to win his next three matches by major decision before a tough third-place bout against Ste. Genevieve's Cole Reynolds. In that match, both wrestlers fought hard throughout the duration of the bout before Stiles ultimately came out on top of a 5-2 decision to take third place.
"Slade had an exceptional day," White said. "After his loss on Friday, he regained focus and took care of business. (He) had a great tournament, only losing to the second-place finisher."
Brier had a tough challenge ahead of him right from the start of the tournament. Brier was forced to attempt to make it to the medal round the hard way for the second consecutive year as he lost in the first round to eventual second-place finisher Brock St. Louis of Platte County. St. Louis went on to lose the championship match to Chaz Lyman of Excelsior Springs.
After that loss, however, Brier rebounded well and didn't lose again in the first two days of action, sending him to the medal round. Despite showing a solid performance on the mats in both of his matches, Brier's luck seemed to run out as the tournament's final day began.
In his first match of the day, Brier took on Fulton's Ryan Fritz, a competitor whom White called, "a tough kid, a well-rounded kid," and struggled as he couldn't seem to find any answers to what Fritz brought to the table. Fritz ultimately went on to take the match by an 11-0 major decision, sending Brier to the fifth-place match.
The fifth-place bout wasn't any easier as Brier was forced to take on a district opponent in Bolivar's Joshua Moffett. Moffett was the top seed at the Class 2 District 3 tournament and had already beaten Brier before the state tournament began. Moffett was ultimately able to come out on top once again on Saturday as he defeated Brier in a 7-3 decision to take fifth place.
"Todd wrestled very tough," White said. "The 160-pound class was one of the toughest in the state, several very good wrestlers. Coming out of that weight class with a medal is saying something."
Despite bringing just four wrestlers to the tournament, the Tigers finished in a tie with Center High School for 22nd with a team total of 31 points. Platte County won the Class 2 team title with 149.5 points, 26.5 points ahead of second place Oak Grove. Excelsior Springs took third at 122, while Kirksville (121.5) and Pleasant Hill (84) rounded out the top five.