The wait for an individual State title for Lebanon senior Trevor Christian is finally over.
After three straight years of coming up just a bit short at the Missouri State Wrestling Championships, Christian ranked No. 1 in Missouri Class 3 at 160-pounds, battled through to win a tight match over Hannibal sophomore Trevor Wilson 5-4 to secure his first State Championship on Saturday night at Mizzou Arena.
Within the first 20 seconds of the match, Christian scored a takedown on Wilson to take a 2-0 lead. Still, Wilson was able to escape with a minute remaining in the first period to make the score 2-1 before heading into the second period. In the second, Wilson escaped to tie the score at 2-2, but when Christian needed it most, he was able to get another takedown before allowing another escape to take a 4-3 lead heading into the final period.
In the third, Christian escaped from the bottom to extend the lead to 5-3 but was hit with two stalling penalties that resulted in one point for Wilson with 17 seconds left in the match. The four-time State medalist, four-time district champ, and all-time wins leader in program history had finally captured the coveted first-place spot on top of the podium.
“I have just been so close before, and I knew I was good enough last year (finished 2nd) and didn’t get it done, and I knew I was good enough my sophomore year in Class 4 and didn’t get it done,” said Christian in an interview after the match. “I wasn’t going to let anything deny me this year, but it came down a lot closer than I thought it was going to, and it was a hard-fought match.”
Another important point of significance behind Christian’s first-place win was clinching second-place for the team in Class 3, holding off Kearney by a single point (114-113) after beating the state champions for Class 3 Neosho Wildcats the week before at districts.
“We wanted to knock Neosho off again this week, but obviously their studs came through big, and we couldn’t get them,” mentioned Christian. “I still think runner-ups are still good for the last year because it is the highest our school has ever finished, so I am pretty proud that my guys and I ended it this way.”
Perhaps lost in all the excitement of Christian’s championship was a second-place finish by junior Colt Adkins at 170-pounds, along with six other medalists on the boys’ and girls’ side combined.
Adkins, who head coach Randy Roark has called the most improved wrestler from a year ago, won his first three matches with ease but had a date with No. 1 ranked Coby Aebersold, a senior from Kearney in the finals on Saturday night where he lost via pin.
Despite the loss, Adkins fought hard and was in the match before getting caught and stuck.
Adkins finishes the year with a 37-5 record and will surely be a name to keep an eye out for next year on the mat.
For the complete article, see Wednesday’s print edition of The County Record, or view http://digital.laclederecord.com/ online.
Below is a link to Christian and Adkins' final matches.
