Cape Girardeau, MO - The Dexter Bearcat Wrestling Team traveled to Cape this weekend to take part in the prestigious 39th Annual Tiger Classic Wrestling Tournament.  Noted as one of the largest wrestling tournaments in the state of Missouri, high quality skilled athletes converge on this premier event to attempt to become the champion of the Tiger Classic.

With near 40-years of tournaments under their belts, the Tiger Classic continues be a strong determinant of what a wrestler will do the remainder of the season.  Wrestlers come from various sized schools so many times a competitor could face competition that will normally be seen on the path to the MSHAA state championships. 

Year in and year out, the Jackson High School wrestling program has always been the top contender at the event.  Since the early days of Indian Coach Paul Weber, the Indians have always put forth a strong overall team in all weight divisions.  The past two years, the Indians have had to be become satisfied with second place, losing by narrow margins last year to Northwest and in 2010 to Christian Brothers of Memphis, Tennessee.

The 'Classic" is sponsored by the Cape Girardeau High School with teams from both Memphis and St. Louis joining in on the day of competition.  The tournament hosted 17-teams this years, up from 15-teams in 2011.

The roster of teams for 2012 Tiger Classic are;  Jackson HS, Central HS, Notre Dame HS, are Christian County HS (Ky.), De Soto HS, Dexter HS, Francis Howell North HS, Hillsboro HS, Mehlville HS, Rockwood Summit HS, Rolla HS, Sikeston HS, Ste. Genevieve HS, Sullivan HS, University City HS and Union HS.

The 2-day tournament is held at the Cape Junior High School gymnasium and has multiple matches going on at the same time.  It's somewhat of a madhouse of activity, but after 38 years of practice, the organizers have certainly learned to run a wrestling tournament. 

Friday's competition is a round robin of matches or pool play that allow athletes to qualify for second day of the tournament based upon their wins and losses. 

Bearcat wrestlers Dylan Bazarian (160#), Logan Quertermous (182#), Ethan Stevens (145#), Trevor Waldner (138#) and Steven Parks (113#) were all were able to advance to Saturday's tournament.  Both Trevor Waldner and Dylan Bazarian gave strong performances to captured 3 wins with no losses on Friday.

The 'Cats were only able to advance Waldner and Stevens to the medal rounds in the competition on Saturday.  Trevor Waldner ended the tournament with a record of 5 -1 and was the 2nd Place medal winner in the 138 pound weight class.  Cody Stevens posted a record of 3-4 for the tournament and was the 6th place medalist in the 145 pound weight division.