Six Wrestlers Qualify For Class 2 State Meet

Six Sullivan wrestlers are moving on to state following their performances Friday and Saturday at the Class 2 District 1 in Ste. Genevieve.

Alec McCormick (160) and Evan Shetley (170) won their respective weight classes. Kobie Blankenship (138), Ian Kilburn (152) and Tristan Brown (285) took second and Dillon Witt (106) finished third.

As a team, the Eagles finished third with 126 points. It was the highest finish in team history. Ste. Genevieve took first with 225 points, followed by St. James at 129. St. Clair was fourth and Dexter rounded out the top five.

Blankenship, Shetley and Kilburn will be making their second trips to state, while Brown, McCormick and Witt are heading as first-timers.

“We wrestled really well at districts, with everyone wrestling at or above expectations,” said head coach Matt Peregoy, who believes it was the most difficult district tournament the Eagles have recently competed in. “The weekend is always packed with emotional ups and downs. We work all season long for this tournament. You always want to see your team get through to state, but wrestling is a ruthless sport and it just doesn’t happen very often.”

Peregoy said he was proud of how each wrestler competed.

“Because of their efforts, we finished the highest we ever have,” Peregoy said, adding that without the contributions of the others, they wouldn’t have taken third.

Shetley (44-3) won a thrilling 7-5 overtime victory against St. James’ Cole Petty in the championship match. The sophomore pinned Cape Notre Dame’s Daniel Schmidt in 3 minutes, 54 seconds in the quarterfinal and needed a little more than a minute against Ste. Genevieve’s Ty Brown in the semifinal.

McCormick (40-16) was dominant in his three matches.

In the quarterfinal, he won a 19-7 major decision against Bishop DuBourg’s Luke Enright. In the semifinal, he pinned Central’s William Mayberry in 11 seconds. Facing Owensville’s Tanner Rector in the finals, he needed 3 minutes, 11 seconds for the pin and the district title.

Blankenship (45-11) reached the championship match by pinning Ste. Genevieve’s Jacob Boyer in 3 minutes, 1 second and taking a 5-3 decision over Lutheran South’s Jacob Mirly. Blankenship was pinned by Borgia’s Dylan Hellebusch in the finals.

Kilburn (17-6) also had a tough draw in the finals. After pinning Central’s Kenneth Bell in 31 seconds and Ste. Genevieve’s Noah Ogden in 3 minutes, 25 seconds, he came up against St. Clair’s Ryan Herman for the championship.

Herman (43-1) pinned Kilburn in the second round.

Brown (31-20) took a pair of decisions. He won 9-4 against St. Clair’s Trevion Harvey, then 4-2 against Affton’s Kyle Johnson. Against Kennett’s Trevon Lemons, he was pinned in the finals.

Witt (42-10) won a 12-0 decision against Borgia’s Joseph Lause in the quarterfinal, but was pinned by Dexter’s Bryston Pemberton in the semifinal.

With his season on the line, Witt pinned Lift for Life’s Adom Yisrael in 3 minutes, 55 seconds to advance to the third-place match. He pinned Central’s Garrett Smith in 2 minutes, 3 seconds to for the victory.

Others

Luke Dixon (113) was defeated by Ste. Genevieve’s Nathan Geisner and Dexter’s CJ Greene in the first wrestleback. Ethan Hines (120) fell to St. Clair’s Dalton Thompson and Central’s Gavin Ward.

Isaac Peregoy (145) pinned St. Clair’s Trenton Balderson in 5 minutes, 9 seconds, but fell by a major decision to Owensville’s Dustin Jahnsen. In the consolation semifinal, he lost 4-2 in overtime against Potosi’s Austin Harris.

Trey Eplin (182) lost to Ste. Genevieve’s Wade Hahn and Cape Notre Dame’s Christopher Greene. Luke Landwehr (195) was beaten by Potosi’s Ben Turnbough and Kennett’s Zachary Lewis.