MMA wrestling splits North Callaway tri meet, sees growth from young guys

By Jeremy Jacob, Sports Editor
Posted 1/25/23

Many spots on Missouri Military Academy’s wrestling team are being filed with younger grapplers.

The Colonels’ roster full of young or inexperienced kids earned a split Thursday …

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MMA wrestling splits North Callaway tri meet, sees growth from young guys

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Many spots on Missouri Military Academy’s wrestling team are being filed with younger grapplers.

The Colonels’ roster full of young or inexperienced kids earned a split Thursday night at North Callaway’s tri meet in Kingdom City, defeating California 60-18 and losing to North Callaway 58-24.

Sam Stevens at 126 pounds led MMA with two pinfall victories, and several other Colonels came away with one victory — including Deonte Kerns at 106, Matthew Pfeifer at 113, Caleb Xamis at 120, Bryson Powell at 150, Blake Krull at 165 and Ben Huynh at 285.

Several of those kids are either freshmen like Kerns, Pfeifer and Stevens or are first-year wrestlers like Kerns, Xamis, Krull and Huynh, head coach Tom Allen said. Allen said California is a young program that is starting out well and North Callaway is an established program with many returning state wrestlers, so he is happy how they all fared.

“What I like out of the younger guys is toughness,” Allen said. “They want to go out and do the best they can. It sounds like it’s easy and simple, and that’s what everybody should be doing, but I tell you what, it’s something that you have to reinforce and teach kids. They’ve really responded to that. They’ll give you a match — win or lose.”

Allen said some of those younger or inexperienced Colonels stood out to him Thursday, including Xamis, Stevens and Huynh

“Xamis is normally a 113, and he wrestled 120 (Thursday) and was able to get a win,” Allen said. “This kid is just a no-quit kind of wrestler, even though he is new at the sport.

“I know (Stevens) had a really good kid in (North Callaway’s John) Higgins — (state) qualifier last year. To get a win like that, it’s a big deal for a freshman.

“Ben Huynh is a first-year wrestler from Taiwan — very strong and he’s been a good learner. He listens to us and listens on the mat, which is difficult to do when you have a big crowd and North Callaway always does. He’s always looking over, so he’s not just a quick learner but he is also solid in what he does.”

Allen said the freshmen class that contains much talent will be able to add Trae Griffiths again at 144 pounds. Griffiths couldn’t compete because of injuries the previous two weeks and is someone that is a freshman but has prior wrestling experience at lower levels.

As far as more experienced Colonels, Adam Swenson is someone else returning from injury, Allen said, but was back on the mat for the first time on Thursday. Swenson was pinned by North Callaway’s Casper Safranski but will provide MMA with some experience at 190 pounds.

Matthew’s older brother, Michael Pfeifer, is dealing with an injury but is close to returning at 138 pounds.

Conditioning and strength training are part of wrestling preparation, Allen said, but so is being disciplined when it comes to making weight.

Allen said the Colonels have met the weight expectations and have also met the character expectations instilled by the coaches.

“There’s a lot of components to wrestling,” Allen said. “All those come into play, but one of the things at the top of the list is to teach them perseverance and character on the mat — to go out and do their best, don’t quit whether they win or lose and good sportsmanship. We’re trying to teach other character-building traits that we could pass on to them.”


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