COLUMBIA — After 31 years in the Hearnes Center, the MSHSAA Wrestling Championships will move to a new home next season.
The 2006 event will be held in the one-year-old Mizzou Arena. The change made necessary by the expansion to a four-class meet, which lengthened the schedule.
“The [MSHSAA] Wrestling Advisory Committee recommended finding a facility that could accommodate at least eight mats, “said assistant executive director Dale Pleiman. “Committee members believed that adding … two mats would allow for a more traditional schedule at the tournament.”
The expansion, approved by Missouri schools in 2004, added 224 wrestlers to the state tournament — which meant 406 more matches for the three-day event.
Although the contract to hold the meet in Mizzou Arena is for only one year, both parties will evaluate the logistics of the event and its long-term potential to remain on the Columbia campus.
“The move … will allow us to maintain a strong, traditional relationship with the University [of Missouri], keep the event in a central location in Columbia and also give us some needed latitude in the tournament schedule, “Pleiman said.
Marshall, the only Saline County high school with a wrestling program, has five returning lettermen who have qualified for the state meet in past years. Seniors D.W. Bradshaw and Alex McKinney medalled last season, senior Michael McCampbell and sophomore Corey Smith made the field and senior Kendall Jones went to the tourney in ’04.
The meet will be held Feb. 16-18, 2006.
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