Yet again, Centralia boys wrestling left the state meet with loads of hardware.

Class 1 Boys State Wrestling Photo Gallery

The Panthers hope for higher-quality hardware next season after finishing third and having five state medalists last week in the Class 1 state meet at Mizzou Arena. Going in as the defending state champion, Centralia advanced three of its nine qualifiers to the semifinals, several wrestled back after losses to make the podium.

Head coach Luke Gramke said the week might not have gone as well as Centralia would have liked, but it was still a solid week but with great performances. After falling into third place on the morning of Day 2, the Panthers held off Clarence Cannon Conference foe Brookfield for their fifth state trophy since joining Class 1 five years ago and had medalists that included Rex Bryson at 157 pounds placing third, Charlie Robinson at 126 and Wyatt Adkisson at 165 each placing fourth, and Weston Ward at 144 and Ian Tuggle at 215 each placing fifth.

“It’s a nice spot to be in as a program if you have kids that are earning state medals, but they’re not happy with what color it is,” Gramke said. 

Regardless of undesired results, Gramke said the Panthers don’t struggle to find motivation to do better, whether it's within a span of a few matches or between seasons. A prime example was the sophomore captain Bryson, who was a state runner-up last season only to lose in the semifinals this season. Gramke said that didn’t negatively impact Bryson on the mat, as it usually doesn’t for the kid who only has three losses in two years.

“He does everything the right way — he works really hard in the room, he’s really coachable and he’s a good leader,” Gramke said. “You see it every year where you have somebody that is favored to win a state title or in the mix to win a state title, when they lose, we call it the ‘semi slide.’ If you lose in the semis, it’s really easy for them to not necessarily value anything besides a gold medal or a finals appearance. You see people slide from the semis all the way to that sixth-place spot. Instead of him doing, he did the mature thing and wrestled really hard for his teammates.”

The efforts of Bryson and the rest of his fellow medalists were the reason Centralia held off Brookfield for third place, beating the Bulldogs by three with 108 points. Each Panther avoided the sixth-place spot, including the senior Ward.

Ward leaves quite the career at Centralia, winning a state medal all four years and recording his 100th career win earlier this season, making him the second Panther along with Wyatt Adkisson to reach that milestone this season. The senior with a family wrestling background — including his father and sisters — pinned his opponent in the fifth-place match.

“We are blessed in the community in which we live in because they value wrestling and provide a lot of opportunities for our wrestlers so Weston started at a very young age,” Gramke said. “What we have at the youth level is we get kids to buy in and care and then when they care about it, they can branch out and start wrestling in the Purler room (in Centralia).”

Gramke said accepting in “well-established” wrestlers every year who don’t need to be taught basic concepts keeps the program going. It also helps when it comes to motivation as he said his kids are the first ones usually to express their higher aspirations and goals.

“We use the analogy a lot that if I asked you to go clean your room and am forcing you to go clean your room, you’re going to stuff everything in the closet or under the bed and it’s just not going to be a good job,” Gramke said. “But if you walk into your room one day and go, ‘Wow, this is a mess. I better clean it up.’ You’re going to do a good job cleaning it up because it was your decision and you’re invested in it.”

Tuggle is a fine example of this, Gramke said, after losing in the districts blood round last season to narrowly miss state. The Tuggle of this season didn’t see the blood round as he ran the table for a district title and then went on to win a state medal, giving him a team-best record of 46-7.

“He’ll tell you his first tournament was his first one: the Marceline tournament,” Gramke said. “He took a few losses he wasn’t necessarily expecting to take, but it was a blessing in disguise that got him motivated and really got him back in the room to work on his craft. His ultimate goal is to leave high school with a state title.”

Like Tuggle, Gramke said that state title goal applies to two Panthers who earned their first career state medals including the freshman Robinson and junior Adkisson. As a freshman, Robinson sustained a 7-6 loss in the semifinals but didn’t slide too far to fourth place while the district champion Adkisson lost an overtime match 4-2 in the semifinals but earned a medal after losing in the blood round a season ago.

“Charlie Robinson is a lot of fun to work with,” Gramke said. “We call him the little robot as you show him something once, he’s got it down pat. He had youth success but making that transition to high school can be difficult. He lost some matches earlier in the year where if we had those matches at the end of the year, he would have won. Instead of feeling sorry for himself, he stayed the course.”

“Getting his first state medal, I know (Adkisson) is not satisfied with fourth place as he wants a state title,” Gramke said. “Hopefully, he can hold on to that feeling of not achieving that goal to help motivate him throughout the spring and summer and end of the fall.”

Gramke is happy they, along with others, are returning next year with big goals after gaining a taste of the podium this season. Centralia had less experience from last season’s six seniors within its group of 10 qualifiers compared to two seniors this year, including first-time qualifier Cade Smith. The Panthers gained valuable experience and still had a solid finish.

“We took some losses we weren’t expecting to take, and there were some matches we’d love to have back,” Gramke said. “When all the dust settled, we still placed third as a team. That’s a blessing. It wasn’t too many years ago I was thinking how awesome it would be to win a team trophy.”