North Callaway hasn’t stopped winning so far this boys wrestling season and hopes to not stop anytime soon.

The Thunderbirds defeated Lexington 63-18 and St. Pius X (Festus) 54-17 on Jan. 7 during a home tri meet. The dual victories improved the team’s season record to 5-0 to add to a season that has garnered top-two Class 1 rankings in state polls. 

Head coach Brock Davis said it has been an “exciting” start to the season. The Battle at the Katy Trail tournament is one of the biggest wrestling tournaments in the state, bringing many schools and wrestlers to Sedalia every year, and the Thunderbirds won that championship without their full lineup, according to Davis.

North Callaway Tri Meet Photo Gallery

“It makes me excited because these kids are still getting better,” Davis said. “We just blew out two pretty solid teams.”

Davis said the way North Callaway has been wrestling has made the team a tough matchup for anybody. He said he noticed more of this during the home meet.

“It’s not stopping,” Davis said. “We didn’t sit a lot. We were always moving and always making guys react to us. That’s where a lot of these kids thrive. We’re trying to stay relentless and stay in our tank and do what we know we can do.”

Bryson Twillman, Carver Safranski, Collin Moore, Wyatt Haden, Hunter Long and Gunnar Wenneker each won two matches while Leyton Crane, Eli Borcherding, Aiden Wimmer, Bryce Haden, Kellen Long, Ben Haubner and Hayden Fansler each beat one opponent. 

Kellen Long and Moore are the core of North Callaway’s lineup in the middle weights at 157 and 165 pounds, respectively, and each stayed undefeated through the home meet. They each earned a milestone win at the Battle at the Katy Trail as Long picked up his 150th career win and Moore logged his 100th. Moore said he knew the 100th was coming while Long didn’t realize he was that close.

“100 wins is great,” Moore said. “I loved getting it. I had a rough second day, but the first day was good.”

“It’s a great accomplishment to have,” Long said. “It’s something I can keep memories with and tell my kids in the future.”

Long and Moore said they have a great coaching staff and teammates that push them to be better. They said they wrestle with everybody up and down the lineup, from the 106-pounders to the heavyweights, to help everyone improve. Because of this, they know this lineup’s strength firsthand.

“I think we’re the best in the state,” Moore said. “We had some great younger guys come into the bottom of our lineup like Bryson Twillman and Leyton Crane. The middle of our lineup’s stacked. Our two heavyweights are great.”

“Even if they have a bad match, we’re still on them to tell them, ‘Good job,’” Long said. “We keep going through the lineup building excitement and it carries up through the rest of the lineup.”

Davis said he expects Moore and Long to finish their high school careers with close to 200 wins. He has known Long since instructing the sixth-grade Long so he is well aware of his abilities, and Davis said Moore secured his 100th win so early into his junior season. 

While Long and Moore are “cornerstones” in the program, Davis said the rest of the lineup fills out nicely with the 150-pound Safranski and the 175-pound Wyatt Haden in the middle. Davis said Safranski has improved “a ton” in the past year so he is looking forward to his postseason, and he said Haden signals that opponents aren’t anywhere near a safe spot in the lineup. Opposing schools still have Haubner at 190, Hunter Long at 215 and Wenneker at 285 to worry about along with freshmen Twillman and Crane at 106 and 113, respectively.

“As far as top-to-bottom strength, I have never coached a team that is as solid as this one,” Davis said. “This is overall the best team I have ever coached.”

North Callaway can accomplish much more this season so Davis said the team has to look past the results of the two duals at home. 

“It doesn’t matter that we blow out teams in a dual if we can’t peak in February,” Davis said. “That’s where my mind is at. They all know. We’re all on the same page. It’s a treat that we’re wrestling this well right now, but everybody in the room wants to be wrestling better in February.”