St. James wrestlers honored

ST. JAMES – Several awards were given during the awards banquet for the St. James High School wrestling team recently.

This was the inaugural season for wrestling at John F. Hodge High School.

As a team the Tigers won the Four Rivers Conference junior varsity championship.

Individually St. James had one first-team All-Four Rivers Conference wrestler – Cory Rose in the 130-pound weight class. Rose finished the season 13-3 but didn’t compete in the district tournament due to fractured ribs.

The Tigers also had four honorable mention/junior varsity wrestlers in Spencer Vanbibber at 130, Clark Martensen at 145, Michael Rankin at 152 and Jake Mankin at 189.

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Tigers end first wrestling campaign

ST. LOUIS – The St. James High School wrestling team ended its inaugural season by finishing 14^th in the 15-team Missouri Class 2 District 1 Tournament, held Saturday, Feb. 9 at Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School (MICDS).

Ste. Genevieve won the team title with 223 points followed by Westminster Christian with 137.5, Union 123, Owensville 122.5, St. Clair 116.5, MICDS 110, John Burroughs 88.5, Sullivan 80, Dexter 67 and Affton 59.

St. James finished with 23 points.

None of the Tiger wrestlers advanced on to the state meet.

"We grew a lot this season and I am very proud of our team," said St. James head coach Marty Hauck. "The kids all finished their last matches with all they had and walked off the mat with their heads high and realizing how close some of them were to making it to state.

"I thought our conditioning was great, as it seemed like we were in better shape in our matches, just behind in points. Most of our matches that we wrestled in districts went to the third period. We had a lot of great defense, but our offense at times was either a bit out of control or non-existent at times. The guys have come a long way."

Here are the St. James results at the district meet (overall season records in parenthesis):

130 – Spencer Vanbibber (2-14) was pinned by Dylan Hardin, Dexter; lost to Jimmy Ley, Owensville, 5-3.

140 – Chase Dillon (6-14) was pinned by Colin Fried, Clayton; was pinned by Dick Ross, Westminster.

145 – Clark Martensen (6-17) – pinned R.J. Quimby, Affton; was pinned by Stephen Turner, Owensville; pinned Tim Neal, Miller Career Academy; was pinned by Adam Amato, Union.

160 – Landon Pogue (8-12) – was pinned by Alex Cacciarelli, Westminster; pinned Mike Little, St. Clair; was pinned by Seth Pryor, Sullivan.

171 – Jeff Morris (1-6) – was pinned by Dominic Valli, Westminster; lost to Josh Potter, Dexter, 8-3.

189 – Jake Mankin (5-11) – was pinned by Brad Landwehr, Sullivan; pinned LeVell Henderson, Miller Career Academy; pinned Nick Cuchetti, Owensville; was pinned by Brad Landwehr, Sullivan.

215 – Ryan Dautenhahn (6-12) pinned by Andy McDermott, Affton; was pinned by Robert Herman, St. Clair; pinned Jerrell Coleman-Miller, MICDS; was pinned by Parker Wehner, Ste. Genevieve.

Heavyweight – James Johnson (2-5) was pinned by Michael Spencer-Hayes, Dexton; was pinned by Tyler Declue, Affton.

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Tiger wrestlers fall to Union

UNION – The St. James High School wrestling team dropped a 64-8 dual meet to Union on Tuesday, Jan. 15.

Here are the varsity results, with the St. James wrestlers listed first:

130 – Cory Rose pinned Straatman.

135 – Spencer Vanbibber was pinned by Bridgeman.

140 – Chase Dillon was pinned by Bradley.

145 – Clark Martensen was pinned by Adam Amato.

152 – Jacob Waggoner was pinned by Dunn.

160 – Landon Pogue was pinned by Rice.

171 – Ryan Lambert was pinned by Davs.

189 – Jake Mankin pinned Sachs.

215 – Tyler Wendels was pinned by Barnhart.

285 – James Johnson was pinned by Bridges.

Trevor Gillespie was pinned by Sitzes.

Michael Rankin pinned Bromet.

Ryan Dautenhahn pinned Montalbo.

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Tiger wrestlers fall to Owensville

ST. JAMES – In the first home meet of the program’s history, the first-year St. James High School wrestling team fell to Owensville 48-18 on Tuesday, Dec. 11.

For the Tigers Cory Rose pinned Ethan Feruna in the 125-pound weight class; Brandon Sturdivant pinned Nick Davidson at 135 and Jake Mankin pinned Adam Byerson at 189.

"I think the boys did well and we accomplished our team goal for the dual meet," said St. James wrestling head coach Marty Hauck. "Owensville is a tough wrestling team and our kids were aggressive, which is what helped us the most. Our kids seemed positive after the match and are ready to compete again."

Owensville also won the junior varsity meet 24-18.

St. James is not scheduled to compete again until the Owensville Tournament on Jan. 12.

The Tiger wrestlers finished ninth in the 10-team varsity Union Tournament, held over the weekend.

The Tigers came home with one medal, a third-place finish by Rose at the 130-pound weight class.

Also for the Tigers, Brittany Kiker placed sixth at 125, Spencer Vanbibber eighth at 135, Chase Dillon sixth at 140, Clark Martensen fourth at 145, Michael Rankin sixth at 152, Landon Pogue seventh at 160, Jacob Waggoner fifth at 171, John Gibbon sixth at 189, Jake Mankin seventh at 215 and Ryan Dautenhahn eighth at 275.

"For our first year of wrestling, and with the level of competition up there, I think we held our own," Hauck said. "Brittany wrestled a kid she got pinned by in the first period at North County and only lost 4-2 to him on Saturday. Jacob wrestled up two classes and took fifth. So it shows us that we are growing and learning. As a team if we would have had one or two more pins in our pool play we would have been in either sixth or seventh place. There was nothing to hang our heads about.

"This was one of our biggest learning experiences to date, though, as we got to see some good wrestling teams and where our weight needs to be."

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Wrestling comes to St. James High School

ST. JAMES – Marty Hauck has always wanted a wrestling program for his hometown.

Now he’s got it.

Hauck was an athlete in St. James as a youth who was fond of wrestling. He competed in the Rolla Wrestling Club in his pre-high school years and later competed in freestyle and Greco-Roman AAU tournaments. But he never had a high school wrestling program to compete in.

Now as a teacher/coach at St. James High School, Hauck will be leading the very first St. James wrestling team has its head coach.

The St. James Board of Education approved wrestling as a part of the high school’s athletic department starting in the 2007-08 school year.

"It’s always kind of been my dream to start a wrestling program in my hometown," Hauck said. "I am very excited about doing this."

The first-ever Tiger wrestling team will compete in about half a varsity schedule this season. The Tigers will have one junior varsity tournament, two varsity tournaments and four varsity/jayvee dual meets this season.

And in the first year the turnout for the Tiger wrestling program has been very good.

Hauck said there were more than 80 youths in the first St. James Youth Wrestling Club practice on Monday, Nov. 12.

And the Tigers have 29 wrestlers on their roster.

"We’re definitely excited," Hauck said. "There is definitely a lot of interest there. Everybody’s excited and ready to get started. We’ve got five or six kids who have wrestled before in the Rolla Youth Wrestling Club. It’s definitely going to be a learning experience for the kids, and for me personally. It’s just great."

And Hauck has had to start at the very beginning in teaching the Tigers wrestling fundamentals.

"We’re worked on the basics," he said. "Take-downs, trying to control the points. The first thing we did was actually get them together and watch a match. We explained the points and rules. We had to explain to them that you can get points and win matches without pinning someone.

"You’ve got to crawl before you can walk, and that’s what we’re trying to do."

The Tigers will have their first wrestle-offs for varsity positions on Friday, Nov. 16 at the old high school gym, starting at 6 p.m. "We will try to make it as much like a match as possible," Hauck said. "We’ll have referees; it’ll be like a basketball or football scrimmage for us."

The Tigers don’t have a full lineup yet; as the 103-, 112- and 119-pound weight classes are currently open.

At 125 sophomore Cory Rose and junior Spencer VanBibber are battling for the varsity spot and at 130 Rose, VanBibber and sophomore Brittany Kiker – the only girl on the squad – are competing.

Sophomore Brandon Sturdant is at 135 while junior Clark Martensen is at 140.

There are two youngesters, freshman Trevor Gillespie and sophomore Jacob Waggoner, at 145. At 152 freshman Chase Dillon is competing with senior John Ortega.

At 160 sophomore Drew Carter, sophomore Rick Haffer and junior Michael Rankin are all battling for spots while at 171 junior Ethan Rodgers, junior Landon Pogue and freshman Jeff Morris are in competition.

There are four wrestlers at 189 – senior Ryan Lambert, senior John Gibbons, junior Jake Mankin and foreign exchange student Daniel Djurberg.

At 215 juniors James Johnson and Lance Cunningham and senior Johnny McGowan are in competition. And at 285 there are a pair of seniors – Ryan Dautenhahn and Justin MacFarlane.

The Tigers are scheduled to open their season on Dec. 1 in the North County Junior Varsity Tournament.

TIGER NOTES – Two former Rolla High School wrestlers are assisting Hauck in coaching the Tigers, Craig Lonning and James Pogue.

The Tigers lone home meet of the season will be on Tuesday, Dec. 11 against Owensville.

Hauck has a website for the wrestling team. Fans can get on the website to get schedule information, directions to matches, photos, etc. The website address is www.stjschools.org/mhauck/wrestling

Here is the 2007-08 St. James wrestling schedule:

Dec. 1...North County Jayvee Tourney, 9 a.m.

Dec. 3...at St. Clair, 6 p.m.

Dec. 8...Union Tournament, tba

Dec. 11...Owensville, 6 p.m.

Jan. 12...Owensville Tournament, 9 a.m.

Jan. 15...at Union, 6 p.m.

Jan. 24...at Pacific, 6 p.m.

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