Farmington’s Knights wins conference tourney again
NEW MADRID – High school wrestling in the Mineral Area takes a little twist as far as their conference goes. The four area schools which have wrestling teams are part of the SEMO Conference, whereas far all other sports the conference is the MAAA.
On Saturday the four teams, Farmington, Ste. Genevieve, Central and North County all made the trip to New Madrid to participate in the 10-team conference tournament.
Long before the last match was wrestled it was known which team would be the tournament champions as the Farmington Knights amassed 337 total points, outdistancing the field, placing well ahead of second-place Jackson at 307, and third-place Ste. Genevieve at 293.
It marked the fourth time in the past six years that the Farmington has returned with the first-place trophy. Last year they lost to Jackson by one-half point.
The Knights had five wrestlers capture first place in their respective weight classes. They also won one second, four thirds, three fourths and one seventh place. But placement honors were not the only achievements by the Knights.
Travis Krause, who won first place in the 119 weight class, has won first place in the conference tournament for four years in a row.
“He’s only the third wrestler from Farmington that has accomplished this,” said Mark Krause, head coach for Farmington, “and I believe there is less than 10 wrestlers overall who have ever won four times at the conference tourney.”
Also taking special honors was Marcus Hoehn, who placed first at 140. Hoehn was also selected as “Outstanding Wrestler” of the tournament.
Along with Travis Krause and Hoehn, Joey Newland won first place at 103, Seth Robison took first at 135, and Nathan Spain did the same in the heavyweight class.
Tyler Epstein (171) was Farmington’s lone second-place finisher. Terry Ramirez (112), Doug Seers (125), Mike Zaricor (130), and Kevin King (145) were all winners of their third-place matches.
Will Cook (152), Seth Hennes (160), and George Vinson (215) all placed fourth, and Eric Irvin (189) came in seventh.
Farmington will wrestle next at Ste. Genevieve in a dual meet on Thursday.
