Nevada brings home three state wrestling medals

Nevada Tiger, Spenser Daniels stands atop the awards podium for the second year in a row after taking first place in the 189-pound state wrestling championships. Pictured from left: Lawrence Coleman, Berkeley, fifth; James Alter, Kirksville, third; Spenser Daniels, Nevada, first; Kyle Gustin, Pleasant Hill, second and Jake Gentry, Savannah, fourth.

Above: 215-pound Nevada senior Ryan Herda stands in second place after three days of wrestling at state. Herda defeated three opponents before falling to Orion Ross in the finals of state competition. Pictured from left; Riley Glasgow, Oak Grove, fifth; Aaron GIbson, Marshall, third; Orion Ross, Westminster, first; Ryan Herda, Nevada, second and Derek Lee, Boliver, fourth.

After three days of hard fought wins and losses Nevada wrestlers left the Mizzou Arena in Columbia, with three medals and a lot of respect from their coach, spectators and area residents awaiting their return.

On Feb. 13, 10 Nevada Tigers left for the Missouri state wrestling championships, one of the largest rosters in the competition. Nevada High School wrestling coach Kevin Huck announced how proud he was of the teams hard work. "I was very proud of our kids, I think we did a very good job," he said. "We had 10 kids go to state, and I think that showed their hard work and dedication in the post season."

Nevada wrestlers Mason Heard, Trey Miller, Austen Payne, Colby Sheperd, Austin Denning, Josh Palmer, Cole Bond, Spenser Daniels, Ryan Herda, and Jerrod Alexander all took wins at district to qualify for state.

After the first round of state matches, half of the Nevada Tigers remained in contention for the title of state champion.

Daniels took a technical fall win in the first round defeating Chillicothe junior, Clayton Dahlberg 16-0. Mason Heard eked out an 8-6 decision win against Fort Zumwalt East sophomore Alex Larson. Bond took out Center's junior Greg Carroll with a pin at 3 minutes, 59 seconds. Herda got a major decision win over Eli Relford, a senior from Benton, and Alexander pulled out a fall win at 2 minutes, 56 seconds.

The second round left Nevada with three wrestlers still in the line up for the title.

In the end three Tigers placed at state and seven others proved their loyalty to the sport by making it as far as they did, said Huck. "We have four underclassmen and they all did a great job. Trey Miller will be a senior next year and he went out in one of the toughest weight divisions, the 125-pound District 2 division and he was able to win a match."

Huck and the entire team was of course very excited by the performance and repeat title win from Daniels. "Spenser Daniels repeated his title win for the second year, so we were very excited about that. Herda was able to go from fourth to second throughout his senior year, we were all thrilled about that. He has been putting in a lot of working in the off seasons getting himself ready for that. Mason Heard went out and he brought home a fifth place medal."

After the competition Huck spoke of his team with great respect and was very quick to say how proud he was of their performance and dedication. He said, "Overall, I think our team took their wrestling to another level, I'm very proud of them."