Logan Montoya heard a pop. During his quarterfinal match Friday morning in the Class 3 state wrestling championships, the Helias junior thought something went wrong in his knee. “I was a little concerned, nobody likes to think about a tear in their knee,” Montoya said. “We think it might be a torn meniscus. But I knew there were just two matches left in the season, so all I could do was wrap it up and gut it out.”
It was a familiar finish for Joe Kuster. Familiarity isn’t always welcome. The Jefferson City senior finished fourth at 150 pounds in the Class 3 state tournament Saturday afternoon to earn his third state medal. All three are for fourth.
It wasn’t as if you blinked, you missed them. But it was close, as Carter Prenger of Helias won both of his matches by first-period falls Friday to open the Class 3 state wrestling championships at Mizzou Arena.
Only two matches went the distance as the Helias Crusaders beat the Capital City Cavaliers 53-24 in a Central Missouri Activities Conference dual Tuesday. “Some of those closer matches will really come in clutch,” Helias coach Weston Keleher said. “We were able to come out on top in a couple and we may be able to steal a district seed that way.”
The Jefferson City Jays took a chance. It paid off win a winning way. “We had a plan and the kids executed the plan,” Jays coach Nathan Redcay said Wednesday night after Jefferson City defeated the Helias Crusaders 42-21 in a Central Missouri Activities Conference dual at Fleming Fieldhouse. “They really wanted this win and it showed.”