Six Warrenton wrestlers placed at last weekend’s district tournament to qualify for state, led by junior Jacob Ruff’s district title. 

Ruff pinned David Glenn of Ft. Zumwalt East in less than one minute in the 190-pound semifinal match to qualify for the Class 3 state wrestling tournament. Ruff earned the Class 3, District 2 title with a 5-0 win over Jaren Jackson of DeSmet in the 190-pound championship match. 

“I wrestled good all the way up to the finals,” Ruff said. “The setups were there. I wasn’t taking them and I was just trying to force everything. The flow was there and I need to quit doing that.” 

Warrenton head wrestling coach Clayton Olsson thought Ruff came out on a mission throughout the two-day tournament. Olsson noted Ruff earned quick pins on his first two opponents and also dominated Glenn in the semifinals before winning a closer match in the finals. 

“The kid was giving him a lot of looks,” Olsson said. “Kind of wrestled very passively on the edge. So those are hard to wrestle. But he just kept attacking. Kept being relentless and sticking with his moves and came out on top. He was very focused.” 

Senior Anthony Lombardo placed second in the 157-pound weight class to qualify for the state tournament. He won a thriller in his semifinal match against Jayden McCaster of DeSmet. Holding a 5-4 lead into the final period, McCaster earned one point on an escape at the end of the third period to force overtime. After a pair of scoreless overtime periods, Lombardo earned three points on an escape and subsequent takedown to take an 8-5 lead in the overtime period. Lombardo won the match 8-7. 

“Just a lot of heart,” Olsson said. “That kid had a lot of blood time. So it made the match go on and on. And it’s easy to lose your momentum. Easy to lose your flow of the match when it keeps stopping every minute. But he did a great job staying focused and just fighting through it.”

Lombardo nearly joined Ruff as a district champion. He fell to Koen Erickson of Ft. Zumwalt South on a 3-1 sudden victory in overtime. Lombardo nearly won the match in regulation. 

“I honestly thought I had the two points initially because I had him locked up and then he grabbed my leg to roll,” Lombardo said. “And then I thought I was up two so I was just slowly trying to break that off and maybe keep him on his back. Just keep everything nice and slow. I didn’t want to rush anything. I got up and the score was the same. But it wasn’t over yet so I was like I’m just going to keep going.”

Warrenton wrestlers Jeremiah Kassing, Joshua Kassing, Noah Lohrmann and Manny McCauley also placed at last weekend’s district tournament to qualify for this week’s state tournament. All four wrestlers rebounded from losses in the semifinals to win their consolation semifinal matches to qualify for the state tournament. Jeremiah Kassing, Joshua Kassing and McCauley placed third in their weight class. Lohrmann placed fourth in his weight class. 

“There’s a thing in wrestling called the semi-slide where a guy loses in the semifinal and then he just can’t bounce back,” Olsson said. “He loses in the next match and then he’s out. Our guys all battled back and got big wins and then they battled even more and got third place. They did really great there.”

All six Warrenton wrestlers are scheduled to compete at the state wrestling tournament in Columbia Feb. 24 and Feb. 25. Every state qualifier except for McCauley previously competed at the state tournament. Jeremiah Kassing, Joshua Kassing, Lohrmann and Ruff all competed at the state tournament last season. Lombardo competed at the state tournament two seasons ago. 

“This week in the room, we’re going to look at some of the matches they lost,” Olsson said. “What they can improve on. Try to get them focused. And really, try and focus on the mental side of things. Because physically, they’re ready. They’re in shape. Their technique is there. We’ve just got to focus on the mental side of being in this big tournament.”

The state wrestling tournament will be held at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.