This year, both the Lady Lancers and the boys wrestling team had winning seasons and will be advancing to state. Lafayette will be sending a total of 12 wrestlers to Columbia, Missouri for the state competition this weekend.

The Lafayette Lancers started their season with a win at the Francis Howell North tournament to set the scene for what the season would look like. The Lady Lancers competed in the Wentzville Liberty Invitational where Faith Cole and Josette Partney took first, Seraphina Blackmon took second and Deshiya Houston took third.

During this season, the Lancers pulled off a clean sweep of Seckman by winning at the Freshman, JV and Varsity levels. This was the first time in history the Lancers wrestling team has swept Seckman. On Jan. 11, at the Lafayette Fred Ross Invitational tournament, the Lancers took third place. The Lady Lancers, on the other hand, finished second overall as a team in the Lafayette Fred Ross Invitational.

The Lancers started the season with an undefeated 10-0 record that continued after the Lancers defeated Lindbergh. The Lady Lancers were victorious on Jan. 22 in a close match against Lindbergh. The Lancers continued the roll the competition heading into December as they defeated both Parkway South and Timberland on Jan. 29.

 On Feb. 1, the boys finished fourth place out of 40 teams in the “Thrasher” tournament at Francis Howell where Jalin Rease and Tommy Hagan finished second in their respective weight classes and Drew Doehring took third after defeating two state medalists. The Lady Lancers took home third place out of the 40 teams on the girls’ side of the “Thrasher” tournament. Faith Cole and Josette Partney finished first in their weight classes while Seraphina Blackmon and Derriona Johnson finished second in their respective classes. 

On Feb. 8, the Lady Lancers participated in the Missouri District 1 tournament and took home the second place trophy. Faith Cole and Emma Cole were crowned as the first place champions of the tournament while Seraphina Blackmon and Josette Partney took second. 

At the MSHSAA District Championships, the Lancers finished second place and had a total of 8 athletes who qualified for state. Those wrestlers were: Jalin Rease and Gabe Frankenberger who both finished as District Champions, Evan Boren, Tommy Hagan and Anthony McRoberts who all finished second in their respective weight classes, Drew Doehring and Henry Thomas who both finished in third place and Yaya Alshami who finished fourth while qualifying for state. On The Lady Lancers’ side of things, Emma Cole, Faith Cole, Josette Partney and Seraphina Blackmon all qualified for state. 

Sophomore, Drew Doehring qualified for state in his first year wrestling at the varsity level. Doehring said, “When I first found out I was going to state I was very excited but I kind of saw it coming. On a scale of 1 to ten, I’m at a ten because going to state is something I wanted to do last year but I wasn’t able to qualify because I was on JV.” 

The tournament will commence on Feb. 20, as the boys’ team will be leaving on Feb. 20 and the girls’ team will be leaving on Feb. 19.