Stiles, Brier advance at state wrestling championships

Herald-Tribune

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- As the end of day one came to a close at Mizzou Arena, the field of nearly 900 wrestlers present at the 2010 Missouri State High School Wrestling Championships had been cut nearly in half. The Nevada Tigers, however, remained strong into day two as all four of the wrestlers that Nevada High School brought to the tournament remained alive heading into Friday's competition.

It didn't take long for the Tigers to realize that as the field begins to thin out, the competition gets tougher. All three of Nevada's wrestlers who advanced to the quarterfinals of the championship bracket on day one -- freshman Slade Stiles, sophomore Tanner Charles and senior Scotty Bough -- found themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum on day two as they all suffered losses to open the day.

"We did good but started off a little rough," Tigers head coach Devin White said.

Stiles opened the day for the Tigers against a tough opponent in Oak Grove's Anthony Barker. Stiles simply couldn't seem to get anything going in the match and Barker took full advantage, ultimately earning a 9-3 decision that catapulted him into the semifinals where he beat Ste. Genevieve's Cole Reynolds to reach the finals of the 103-pound bracket.

Stiles seemed undeterred by the loss, however, and rebounded well, beating Kirksville's Thad Farley and Winfield's John Bobeen -- both by major decision -- to reach the medal round where he is set to square off against Platte County's Collin Tolliver.

"Slade came out strong, had a tough kid, but just didn't quite have enough to finish the match," White said. "But he bounced back and now he's in the medal round."

Still confident in his chances of a strong showing, Stiles was still unfazed as the day came to a close about what is to come, but still admitted that the road to the third-place medal wouldn't be easy. "I'll have a pretty tough match for third," he said. "I should be able to get third or fourth pretty easily."

Senior Todd Brier was forced to work his way all the way up through the consolation bracket after losing his first-round match to 160-pound finalist Brock St. Louis, but never let the apparent disadvantage slow him down on his way to the medal round. In his first match of the day, Brier made quick work of Westminster's Alex Cacciarelli with a major decision victory and followed that up with a quick pin of Moberly's Davis Kelleher in just 1 minute, 31 seconds to reach the medal round.

Brier's road won't be easy either as he is set to face Fulton's Ryan Fritz with a trip to the third-place match on the line. He (Fritz) is a tough kid," White said. "He's a very well rounded kid and he doesn't make many mistakes."

Charles and Bough didn't have nearly as much luck on the day as they both suffered nearly the same fate. In his first match of the day, Charles had a tough outing against Cameron's Adam McMain in which he suffered a 15-0 technical fall defeat that he was never really able to come back from.

"Tanner didn't wrestle to his ability, but it happens," White said. "He got down after the first one and never quite recovered from it and it showed in the second one"

In his second match of the day, Charles' tournament came to a close as he suffered a disqualification for unnecessary roughness against Ste. Genevieve's Jesse Martinelli.

Bough had similar struggles in his first match of day two as he took on Kirksville's Jacob VanHoose. Bough couldn't seem to get much of anything going in the contest and ultimately came out on the short end of a 13-1 decision.

In his second match, Bough still seemed to be feeling the effects of his first match as he took on Mexico's Monterio Burton. The match was very close throughout its duration and Burton ultimately needed an extra period to pull out the 6-5 victory.

"He (Bough) wrestled a tough opponent first match today and it didn't go the way he wanted it to and it kind of wore him out," White said.

Despite his struggles, however, Bough still seemed in good spirits at the conclusion of day two action, keeping his attitude as positive as ever. "I can't look back," he said. "I've just got to be happy with what I have."

The third and final day of the 2010 Missouri State High School Wrestling Championships is scheduled to begin today at 9:30 a.m., and hopes are high among Tiger wrestlers and coaches for a strong showing on what could be the toughest day of action the team has seen. "It's going to be a tough day, but it could be a good day," White said.