High school boys wrestlers tell their stories of becoming Class 2 District 4 Champions

(EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, MO) - The Class 2 District 4 high school boys wrestling tournament featured district champions all with unique stories.

We had a couple sophomores from local schools win district titles for the very first time, like Mid Buchanan's Colby Schreck, who took home the 120 pound championship. He heads to state for the second time, going in with a 35-6 record. He had a dramatic championship day to say the least. 

"I woke up this morning, I was a little over, I had to get some weight off," said Schreck. "Then my first match, I came out wrestling better than I did yesterday, so I knew I was going to be good for the rest of the day."

Another sophomore emerging victorious was Benton's Coltyn Hollingsworth, who won the 132 pound district championship and now heads to Columbia with a 30-6 record. He says bringing home this title to the southside means a lot, especially this time finally getting over the hump.

"I think it's a pretty big accomplishment for me, especially my sophomore year. Last year I fell a little bit short getting second last year at districts," said Hollingsworth. "It's a pretty big accomplishment for me and hopefully I keep doing how I've been wrestling and push it to state."

Savannah finished second in the team title and had two wrestlers win district championships, starting with senior Deagen Pasley, who won the 165 pound title in just a minute and a half. He's a district champ for the first time after knocking on the door for the past few years. Pasley also passed 150 career victories during the meet as well, a memorable day all around for him, a 33-3 record heading into state. 

"It's pretty great. I came in second, my sophomore year, third my junior year, so to just finally get that championship, it means a lot," said Pasley. "I knew it was gonna be tough, kind of just staying fresh, trying to keep warm. I'm going in there with the mindset that I just want to dominate everyone."

Pasley's Savannah teammate Kaiden Phillips has also been a dominant force for the Savages' wrestling program in his career. Phillips won the 175 pound title. As the junior got the pin in just 1 minute and 55 seconds. Back to back district championships for him, and he heads to state for the third straight time, going in with an insane 48-2 record. Even not feeling his best, he still was not going to be denied.  

"You sit around for 4 or 5 hours, you're not feeling the best. Sickness is going around. You just have to find a way to push through it and help your team out to win second at districts," said Phillips. "That's really all it is. It's amazing. We go into practice, we laugh and joke, but when we know when it's time to be serious. We flip the switch, we get going and we put people away. That's what we do."

In the heavyweight championship, the last man standing belonged to Maryville's Kade Watkins. The junior was shockingly labeled as a 5-seed in the tournament. That fueled Watkins to prove everyone wrong. In a year in which he also moved up weight classes, Watkins is now a district champion with a 30-9 record and is one of four boys wrestlers Maryville is sending to state, the most since 2018.

"It was just like, wow, people think I'm the 5 seed, so I just moved on from that loss and came back and fought hard and I'm here where I'm at today," said Watkins. "I just want to place. I want to place at Columbia and just getting there is an awesome experience. It's probably one of the best events. The atmosphere is insane and I love it in first place."

Maryville is also sending its first ever girls wrestler to state with senior Avery Berry.

The Class 2 boys will wrestle at state in Columbia on February 25th and 26th.