Southern Boone wrestlers wrap up season with strong performance at state

Grant Leininger pins his opponent in the MSHSAA Class 2 State Semifinals. Leininger went on to place 2nd in the finals.

By: Cathy Leininger
The last couple of weeks saw a lot of action for the Southern Boone wrestling team. In early February, the girls traveled to St. Charles West High School, where they competed in the Girls Class 1 District Tournament.

Two of the five girls came home with a chance to compete in the Girl’s State Tournament. Junior Nova Porter came home as the Class 1 District 2 Champion, while Zafaran Satterfield took 3rd. Two Seniors, Moravia Satterfield and Addi Hinton, as well as Freshman Imogene Cooper lost close matches in the blood round, ending their seasons. The boy’s team traveled to Seneca for the Class 2 District 3 Tournament.

Of the 13 boys that competed, six wrestlers advanced to the Boy’s State Tournament. Junior Grant Leininger came home as the Class 2 District 3 Champion, while Freshman Peter Heyen was the district runner-up. Junior Kaid Shaw, Freshman Owen Britton, and Senior Aidan Yung took home the bronze, while Junior Blaine Bergthold took home 4th. The boy’s team finished in 4th place at districts.

The State Tournament took place on Wednesday, February 26th and Thursday, February 27th at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. Of the eight wrestlers who qualified, Leininger and Satterfield earned a top 6 finish. Satterfield was able to pin her opponent (a returning state champion) in the consolation semifinals advancing her to the 3rd/4th place match, where she finished 4th, making her a 3X state qualifier and 2X state medalist.

Zafaran Satterfield takes down her opponent in the MSHSAA Class 1 consolation semifinals. Satterfield went on to place 4th in the finals.

Leininger, a 3X state qualifier, was able to pin his opponent in the quarterfinals advancing him into the finals match. He lost a very close match in the finals, by 2 points, earning him a 2nd place finish at state.

Head Coach Lee Bradley adds, “As I reflect on the 2024-2025 wrestling season I am grateful for the opportunity to be one of the coaches on this staff. The boys team had many firsts this year- including Tri-County Conference Champs! This is the first conference title in program history. 

The boys had a record number of qualifiers for the MSHSAA state tournament(6). The boys team had their first MSHSAA state finalist in Grant Leininger. Grant loves wrestling and is a true student of the sport. It’s all he wants to talk about and all he wants to do. Grant is scary, because he is just scratching the surface of how good he’s going to get. Grant has one year left at Southern Boone and we are all excited about what the future holds for him. 

We have a ton of freshmen we are also excited about. Freshman Peter Heyen and Owen Britton came out and made some noise in our district and got some valuable state experience. 

The girls program qualified two girls for the state tournament with Nova Porter being a district champ and Zafaran Satterfield coming in third. Zafaran Satterfield is only a third year wrestler and embodies all the core values our program is built on (F.A.I.T.H.). Zafaran is now a 3X state qualifier and a 2X state medalist, placing 4th her sophomore and junior year. 

All year long we had a consistent group of girls who were extremely solid in the lineup for us. We took five girls to districts and all five were in the “blood round” (win and your in) or the district finals. The staff is extremely proud of all the effort by the girls team! They have been a joy to coach and their drive and determination is admirable.”    

While the Southern Boone Wrestling team will see a lot of the wrestlers returning next year, we’d like to say thank you to our Seniors Aidan Yung, Nate Melvin, Drezden Hicks, Moravia Satterfield, and Addi Hinton for their years of leadership and dedication to this sport.

The wrestling team says goodbye to seniors Moravia Satterfield, Nate Melvin, Aidan Yung, Drezden Hicks, & Addi Hinton.

We wish them the best of luck with their future endeavors.