There weren’t many scenarios available to allow John Erneste another chance to wrestle at Park Hill High School.
Missouri’s unique decision to take a home dual on the road created a special opportunity Thursday, Dec. 20. A redshirt senior, Erneste earned an important major decision in the sixth-ranked Tigers dramatic 23-21 victory over Virginia in front of a more-than-capacity crowd in the gymnasium of his alma mater.
Erneste, a two-time MAC champion and NCAA tournament qualifier, was a four-time state medalist at Park Hill before opting to continue his wrestling career in his home state.
Missouri coach Brian Smith remembered hosting duals at Oak Grove, Helias Catholic and Hazelwood Central in the early part of his current 15-year tenure with the Tigers. This was a first in a while but also a return to Park Hill, which hosted a dual with Oklahoma in the late 1980s.
Pushed much more than expected, Missouri improved to 6-0 on the season and won a 26th straight dual — a run dating back to the 2016-17 season. However, the Tigers didn’t end up with a runaway as expected.
Instead, Virginia opened a 12-6 lead ahead of Erneste’s 133-pound match. He dominated from the outset against Louie Hayes. Erneste didn’t allow a point and rode out his opponent for the majority of the final minute of the match to earn an extra point for riding time in a 9-0 major decision.
Ranked No. 9 in the country, Erneste improved to 8-1 on the season and pulled Missouri within 12-8.
Six of 10 wrestlers in the lineup for Missouri hailed from an in-state high school, but two Kansas City-based seniors were the stars. Following the win for Erneste, the Tigers sent out a run of three straight four-time high school state champions from Father Tolton Catholic in Columbia, Mo. starting with a pin for Jaydin Eierman — ranked No. 3 in the country at 141 — to put Missouri back in front.
Virginia won back-to-back matches at 157 and 163 to take a four-point lead into the final match.
However, Daniel Lewis — No. 4 at 174 and a Blue Springs graduate — went out in the final match for Missouri, scored an early takedown and locked in a cradle. He flatbacked Virginia’s Drew Peck for a pin in 1 minute, 14 seconds to earn the last-ditch win.
“We kind of struggled in a couple of matches, ones we felt we should have had,” Smith said. “I knew Virginia was coming to wrestle. They pulled a couple kids out of redshirt. Last year, we had a dual with them that went down to the wire. They seem to have our number a little bit.”
Lewis came up flexing to the celebrating crowd to put an electric end to a memorable night.
Park Hill has three graduates on the Missouri roster. Erneste was a 2014 graduate, two-time state runner-up and two-time third-place finisher for the Trojans. Canten Marriott — a spot starter in his first two years — graduated in 2016 and a was a four-time state medalist and state champion as a junior.
Weston DiBlasi is a 2018 Park Hill graduate in his redshirt freshman season.
Additionally, Alan Waters currently serves as a volunteer assistant coach for Missouri. He was an All-American for the Tigers after a standout career at Park Hill that included four state championships.