Narrowing the gap

Sikeston's Greg Hale wrestles Anna-Jonesboro's Logan Tripp in the 160 pound division Wednesday night at the Sikeston Field House. Hale won by decision.
(Photo by David Jenkins, Staff)

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SIKESTON -- Thinking back to their last match against the Anna-Jonesboro Wildcats just last season, Sikeston wrestling coach Seth Harrell saw a tremendous improvement against that same Wildcat team on Wednesday night.

"Obviously, they have a good program," Harrell said. "We went there last year and it really wasn't even close. Tonight, we wrestled real well."

The Bulldogs lost by just six points at the Sikeston Field House Wednesday night as the Wildcats escaped with a 36-30 final.

"We've got a good group of kids that work extremely hard and it's starting to pay off," said Harrell. "We're starting to compete and are giving ourselves a chance. When you lose by six points at least you know your giving yourself a chance."

Sikeston would actually come away with more decisions and pins in their favor as they beat the Wildcats in that department 6-4. However, a minus-two margin in forfeits and a few lop-sided losses turned out to be the difference.

"We won more matches than they did it was just the ones we lost we gave up more points and that hurt us in the long run," said Harrell. "We had a couple mistakes here and there."

The match was highlighted by three very competitive matches between Sikeston's Dustin Ruby, Clayton Driskill and Josh Carlyle and Anna-Jonesboro's Brandon Cerrey, Taylor Fitzgerald and Alex Gonzales.

Each match went the distance and ended by decisions. Both Ruby and Carlyle's matches between Cerrey and Gonzales ended in sudden death. The 285 weight class match between Carlyle and Gonzales came to an end in an ultimate tie breaker situation after Gonzales received a point by escaping from Carlyle out of the clinch position.

Ruby was able to score a decision win against Cerrey in a sudden death situation.

"Typically when you have two good teams going at it your going to get some of those longer matches," Harrell said. "You like to see that because you know the kids are competing. It's good for everybody to see that because they know what it takes to win those kind of matches. That's what's important when you get in them, and it's tight and close like that you got to be able to win."

The six Sikeston wins by decision or pin fall came from Blake Angle, Jacob Stinnett, Ruby, Kenton Robinson, Tyrone Webb and Greg Hale.

Individual results are listed below:

Anna-Jonesboro 36,

Sikeston 30

103: Cody Middleton (S) W forfeit.

112: Blake Angle (S) W by decision over Daniel Heata (A).

119: Jacob Stinnett (S) W by pin over Andrew Adams.

125: Forrest Palis (A) W by pin over Austin Curtis (S).

130: Austin Noble (A) W by forfeit.

135: Brandon Crosser (A) W by forfeit.

140: Dustin Ruby (S) W by decision over Brandon Cerrey (A).

145: Kenton Robinson (S) W by decision over Preston Brimm (A).

152: Tyrone Webb (S) W by pin over Keno Martin (A).

160: Greg Hale (S) W by decision over Logan Tripp (A).

171: Enrique Anreola (A) W by forfeit.

189: Brett Turner (A) W by pin over Austin Henson (S).

215: Taylor Fitzgerald (A) W by decision over Clayton Driskill (S).

285: Alex Gonzales (A) W by decision over Josh Carlyle (S).