A pair of overtime wins helped Jacob Ruff earn a second place finish at last weekend’s state wrestling tournament. 

Ruff earned three wins in four matches at the Missouri Class 3 state wrestling tournament to place second in the 190-pound weight class. The second place finish was Ruff’s first state medal. Ruff won his first three matches of the tournament before dropping an 8-4 decision to Luca Riley of Belton in the championship match. 

“It’s a good accomplishment but obviously I didn’t get what I was going for,” Ruff said. “It’s really a mindset issue, a mentality issue. So I need to fix that and I need to get better at short offense over the summer.” 

After earning a win by fall in his opening match of the tournament, Ruff won a pair of overtime matches to advance to the state championship match. He beat Chance Benford of Carl Junction 8-6 on a sudden victory in the opening overtime period. He earned two points for a takedown of Benford 15 seconds into overtime. Ruff beat CJ Nelson of Van Horn 14-13 in the third overtime period to win his semifinal match. Ruff earned two points for a reversal with three seconds remaining in overtime. 

“I think he just stayed on his knees so I was able to just capitalize,” Ruff said. 

Warrenton head wrestling coach Clayton Olsson thinks Ruff’s strong conditioning helped him win the two overtime matches. He said Ruff did not let doubt creep into his mind, even when his opening move did not yield a point in the final overtime period against Nelson. 

“That guy gave him an opening and he was able to get the reversal instead of the escape,” Olsson said. “A lot of times when you’re down by one, you’re looking for an escape. Tie it up again at least. He got that reversal and it sealed the win for him.” 

Despite falling behind 4-0 in the championship match against Riley, Ruff was within one takedown of tying the match late in the third period. Ruff pulled within 4-2 early in the third period, a score that stood until Riley earned two points for a takedown of Ruff with 25 seconds left in the match. 

Olsson said Ruff had great movement and aggressiveness in his finals match against Riley. He said Ruff went for the points late in the third period with time winding down and a two-point deficit. 

“When you’re a kid and you’re looking at it and there’s 30 seconds left in the state finals, you think time is almost over and you’ve got to go for broke,” Olsson said. “And once you’ve been in it for a while, you realize 30 seconds is a long time. A lot can happen in 30 seconds. And you don’t have to be as desperate.” 

Despite the disappointing ending to the state tournament, Olsson noted the progress Ruff has made over the past several years as a wrestler. Ruff started wrestling his freshman year. After failing to place at the state tournament last season, Ruff was one match away from bringing home a state title. 

“Results are great but it’s about your effort,” Olsson said. “It’s about the commitment. It’s about how you handle these situations. What you’re doing on the mat. You’re not quitting. That relentless attitude. If you have that, then the results will come. He’s got that. He’s going to dedicate himself all summer so he’s definitely going to jump levels again.”

Overall, Ruff thinks he wrestled pretty well over the course of the two-day state tournament. He said he panicked in his finals match and went for moves “that were really bad.” He believes this experience will help him next year in his quest for a state title. 

“It definitely will help because I’ll know what it’s like next year,” Ruff said.

Warrenton’s Lohrmann earns state medal

Warrenton sophomore Noah Lohrmann earned his first state medal at last week’s Class 3 state wrestling tournament. 

Lohrmann won his first two matches of the tournament to advance to the 126-pound semifinals. He placed sixth after losing three matches the second day of the tournament. 

“I’d say I did fine with all the matches I wanted to except for the last one,” Lohrmann said. “I need to work on setting my shots and not getting extended as much. Getting a medal, I feel successful that I could get it my sophomore year.” 

Lohrmann earned a win in his opening match of the tournament by beating Devon Deckelman of Washington 3-1. He led throughout the match. Lohrmann overcame a 3-2 deficit in the final period to beat Elijah Teiberis of Jefferson City 6-5 in the quarterfinals. Lohrmann executed a takedown of Teiberis with 24 seconds remaining to win the match and guarantee a state medal. 

“He came out first match was against the number one seed from another district,” Warrenton head wrestling coach Clayton Olsson said. “A kid who took first when Noah took fourth. He came out and stuck it to that kid. Got that win. Then he had to wrestle the Jeff City kid and just gritted a tough one out to get into the semis.”

Lohrmann dropped his semifinal match by fall against Porter Matecki of Whitfield. Matecki was the eventual state champion. He lost to returning state medalist Tristen Essig of Hannibal in the consolation semifinals before dropping a rematch to Teiberis in the fifth place match. 

“He battled the whole time,” Olsson said. “Noah never quits. He goes, goes, goes. And he never stops wrestling. And in this sport, anything can happen at any moment as long as you continue doing that.” 

Warrenton wrestlers Joshua Kassing and Manny McCauley were each one win away from earning a state medal. Wrestling in the 106-pound weight class, McCauley earned a 13-2 major decision over Helias Catholic wrestler Parker Lock in the opening round. After dropping his quarterfinal match, McCauley earned a 6-0 win over Rolla wrestler Carson Mickem. McCauley fell to Carter Foglesong of Carl Junction in the consolation quarterfinals. 

Kassing won a pair of matches in the 120-pound weight class. He beat Dominic Stafford of Jefferson City 11-4 in the first round. After dropping his quarterfinal match, Kassing beat Couper Deckard of Washington on a 16-2 major decision. He fell to Presley Johnson of Farmington in the consolation quarterfinals. 

Jeremiah Kassing earned a 6-3 win over Gabe Barnett of Hillsboro in his opening match. He dropped his next two matches. Senior Anthony Lombardo dropped both of his matches. 

With Jeremiah Kassing, Joshua Kassing, Lohrmann, McCauley and Ruff all set to return next season, Olsson thinks the Warrior wrestlers can use this experience going forward. 

"They’re all returning next year and they’re going to continue to build off this experience,” Olsson said. “We can go back. We can look at some things. They all wrestled tough. A lot of our guys had some really tough lineups, but they battled hard. They took it to those guys. It didn’t matter what the rankers or the people online say, they didn’t care. I’m going to take it to this guy which is great to see.”

Freshman Allison Vacek competed for the Lady Warriors at the Class 1 girls wrestling tournament. She dropped both of her matches.