The wait is finally over.

Over the years, Windsor has had a number of individual second place finishes at state meets. In wrestling alone, Windsor has had five second place finishes–Cory Lemery, Timmy Waltenberger (twice), Brandon Campbell and Tyler Warren. In track and field, Windsor has taken second place several times as well–Lisa Forchee (twice) and Shon Kyle (twice).

In fact, Windsor has not had an individual state champion since Doug Whitener won the 100M, 200M and 400M in track during the 1978 state meet. 

Until now.

Junior Jacob Warren made Windsor history on Saturday night. After trailing 4-1 with just over a minute remaining in the final period, Warren was able to rewrite history. While the Windsor junior was facing an undefeated Nikolas Chavez of Willard High School, the Windsor junior would not be denied. Warren was able to get Chavez to his back and pin him with 52 seconds remaining. The victory gave Warren a state title.

“My mind was blank and I was super excited. It feels pretty great to finally achieve what hasn’t been done before in Windsor’s history,” Warren said. “It felt awesome to know all my work paid off.”

For the first two and half periods, it appeared Windsor might be getting another second place finish. However, the luck finally turned in Windsor’s direction. Head coach Kevin Stoffey, who has been the wrestling coach every year since the program was created in 1994-95,  knew Warren had to make something happen.

“At the start of the third period, I thought we may be in trouble. We needed Jake to open up and become more offensive. That’s when he took a shot. He then used his funk style and he eventually stuck the kid,” Stoffey said. “I couldn’t believe it. It was surreal that we were finally going to win.”

As a team,Windsor took four wrestlers to Columbia for the state meet–freshman Grant Pauli, junior Ryan Yarnell, junior Jacob Warren and senior Andrew Marler.  

Andrew Marler’s career came to an end on Thursday night after losing in the first round of wrestlebacks. Grant Pauli’s season came to an end on Friday after finishing 1-2 at the state meet.

Meanwhile, Warren and Yarnell both made it to the state semifinals. Warren beat Jacob Ulrich of Branson by a score of 10-0 to advance to the state title match.  Coincidentally, the last state finalist was Jacob’s brother, Tyler, in 2013.

In the 182-pound semifinal, Yarnell had to face an undefeated Hunter Vanlue from Webb City. Unfortunately, Yarnell was battling an illness all week. While Yarnell still almost won, he eventually lost 6-3.  Yarnell then won his next two matches to finish in third place.

Yarnell said, “It felt amazing, considering that I have not placed before so being able to get third feeling the way I did was pretty great.”

The Owl’s head coach was impressed with the way Yarnell battled all weekend.

“It was one of the gutsiest performances I’ve ever seen,” Stoffey said. “He obviously wasn’t 100 percent. Before his semifinal match, he was hacking up stuff, nose bleeding and he still nearly beats the eventual state champ.”  

As a team, the Owls finished in tenth place in Class 3. The Owls could finish even higher at next year’s state meet. With Pauli, Yarnell and Warren returning next year, anything is possible.

“I feel like there is a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders and the programs shoulders in general,” Stoffey said. “I feel like the pathway is now open. We aren’t just happy to make the finals anymore. We are there to win it.”