February 14, 2019

By Fred Liggett

The 2019 Missouri State Wrestling championships are set to take place this weekend at Missouri University. The three day event begins Thursday afternoon and continues until 10:00 p.m. Saturday night.

Lee’s Summit will be well represented as teams and individuals compete to bring back state championships back home.

The Lee’s Summit High Tigers will be represented by Ayden Sheets who will compete in the 132 weight class. Lee’s Summit West has seven qualifiers after finishing 4th in last week’s District meet. The Titans competing this weekend are Orion Bowers at 106, Drew Stanfield (113), Owen Smith (126), Morgan Potts (138), Roman Bushek (160), Jake Callahan (170) & Thomas Brown at 195. 

The Lee’s Summit North Broncos are also taking seven qualifiers to the state meet, six boys and the first girls wrestler in LSR7 schools history to be a state qualifier.

Rebekah Neitzey, who has wrestled all four years at LS North, will be competing in the 121 weight class. Neitzey will be the first one to hit the mat as the Girls first round begins at 2:15 p.m. this afternoon. The rest of the Broncos are led by the Class 4 District 4 champions Adrian Castaneda at 160. Others are at 113- Caden Schweitzwer, Tristan Jones (152), Zane Ragland (182), Logan Thornton (220) & Mark McGhee at 285. The first round for the Boys Class 3 & 4 begins at 5:15 p.m. this evening. 

Broncos wrestling head coach Mick Cronk says his “Kids have worked really hard”. Regarding Adrian Castaneda “Our leader in wins & pins”. “Sets the tone for us”. Cronk continues “Schweitzer very tough, no surprise to see him bring home some hardware”. Looking ahead at the weekend slate Cronk feels the 152 class is the “Toughest class in Missouri” where Broncos Tristan Jones is competing. 

The state wrestling meet begins today, continues on Friday from 1:30 to about 10p, then Saturday’s final session is from 4 to 10p. For those unable to make it to Columbia to catch the action in person you are welcome to watch every round live online at http://www.mshsaa.tv. .