After taking 11th place at last weekend’s Class 4 District 1 Tournament, the Oakville Senior High School wrestling team hopes the tandem of Nick Savage and Charles Toney will prove to be successful this week at the Class 4 Missouri Wrestling Championships in Columbia.

“I was very pleased with the way we wrestled at districts,” Oakville head coach Brett Lieberoff said. “We had some guys that fell one match short of qualifying for state.”

Possibly the most courageous effort at the District 1 Tournament was by senior Luke Vogel at 152 pounds.

Vogel had been battling a sprained ankle for the past several weeks. But during a district quarterfinal match against Marlon Dorsey of Kirkwood, Vogel suffered a fracture of the same ankle, yet still won the match 12-10.

Vogel could not finish the tournament and had to forfeit his semifinal match and a possible trip to the state championships.

“Luke broke his ankle in the quarterfinal and still won the match,” Lieberoff said. “Losing him was a big loss for everybody on the team.”

Oakville junior Nick Savage (31-9) had the best showing of the tournament with a second-place finish at 125 pounds. Savage was pinned by Zach Meury (16-0) of Fox in the third period of the championship match. He’ll face Charles Johnson (29-14) of Hazelwood East in the first round of the Class 4 state tournament at 125 pounds today — Feb. 14.

“Nick’s been putting together some great matches,” Lieberoff said. “I thought he wrestled really well. He tried a throw against Meury and got caught in a cradle. You can’t be scared to try a move, so we’ll take our shot at state and see what happens.”

Charles Toney (27-3) of the Tigers took fourth-place overall at 215 pounds with a loss by pin to Dan Shadmani of Parkway South in the consolation championship match. The senior grappler is slated to face Harry Kirchoff (25-11) of Chaminade today in the first round of the 215-pound state tournament.

“Charles didn’t wrestle a bad tournament, but he didn’t put out his best tournament either,” Lieberoff said. “He’s going to have a tough draw to start out the state tournament.”

The Tigers head coach believes that despite sending just two wrestlers to the state championships this week, Savage and Toney have the chance to bring home some hardware.

“I think that both have the opportunity and ability to medal at state,” Lieberoff said. “It all comes down to who can put together the best tournament this weekend.”