By Dean Backes
MaxPreps.com
As Kirksville freshman Justin VanHoose celebrated a hard fought 2-0 win in a Class 2 112-pound semifinal match at the Missouri state wrestling championships last weekend, his counterpart wandered from the mat suffering from a broken heart.
Randi Beltz had just left everything she had on the mat, along with her dream of being the first girl in Missouri prep wrestling history to win a state championship. She needed to get away.
“It was over,” the St. Clair senior said of the realization that she had lost. “I couldn’t get first anymore. I had just lost my final chance at being first. It was a heartbreaker.”
Beltz, however, didn’t allow herself to become too inundated with the negative feelings that often seep in following a loss. She still had much to accomplish. There were still doors to kick in.
“I already knew I had a medal,” Beltz said. “As a freshman I took fifth (103 pounds) and I wanted to do better than that. I wanted to go out with a bang. I wanted to do the best that I could.”
The four-time girls national champion then went on to upend Lafayette-St. Joseph’s Derek Bohnsack 8-0 in one consolation semifinal and pinned St. Joseph-Benton’s Bryson Dixon in a Class 2 112-pound record 14 seconds in the third place match.
Following the win that officially ended her high school career, and calmed the nerves of other wrestlers in the Show Me State in the process, first-year St. Clair coach Mark Payne was taken aback by the crowd’s reaction.
“Mizzou Arena just erupted when they realized that they had just witnessed history,” Payne said. “It was really neat to look up and see everybody in the stands happy after seeing what they had just saw.”
With her medal draped around her neck, Beltz proudly awaited the championship match of her freshman sparring partner and brother, Ryan, who had qualified for the 145-pound finals by pinning Kirksville’s Jacob VanHoose in the semifinals.
Although the younger Beltz was knocked off by Monett senior Kellen Bounous 14-7 in his final match of the season, that didn’t take away from the success of the brother-sister tandem.
The Beltz duo had a lot to say about St. Clair’s 83 points and seventh place finish at the state championships.
While Payne gets half of the duo back next season, he is already missing the other half.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without her back next season,” Payne said. “She scored so many points for us. She wasn’t just winning matches, she was scoring bonus points and getting pins. She helped this team so much. She’s really not replaceable.
“Randi has definitely proven the skeptics wrong. She is a great voice for female athletes in Missouri and nationally.”
Beltz, who began wrestling when she was six years old, qualified for the state meet all three years she has wrestled for St. Clair. During her 2007 run at 119 pounds the sophomore finished with a 2-2 mark, but no medal.
Following her family’s move to South Dakota before her junior season, Beltz walked away from the high school wrestling scene for a season so she could make a run at the Olympic Trials. But a knee injury put the skids on that dream for the time being.
Her senior season was by far her best. Beltz nearly ran the table after starting the 2008-09 campaign with 27 straight wins.
Following a 4-3 loss to Parkway North’s Sean Cannady, who Beltz had defeated six times previously, the senior captain won 15 straight matches on her way to securing the Four Rivers League and district championships.
Beltz, who took a 42-1 mark and No. 3 ranking into the state meet, finished the season 46-2.
When you add up the numbers Beltz finished her career with a 104-14 record, including a 9-5 postseason mark. She was credited with 21 pins and 63 takedowns this season, and led the team with 319 points.
Beltz won every tournament she entered her senior season except for the MICDS and state tournament meets. She won the district meet for the third time in her career.
In Payne’s opinion, Beltz would have won her first state title this season had she been wrestling at a different time, or in a different place.
“Missouri is such a strong state as far as high school wrestling goes,” Payne said. “If she had been anywhere else she would have walked right through the competition. It’s just too bad she had to face Justin in the semifinals. They really should have met in the finals.”
Beltz, who is not sure where she will compete in college, laid out plenty of praise for VanHoose, who pinned Harrisonville’s Joe Hunter in the finals.
“He was a really good wrestler,” she said of the two-time national champion. “Once he got me with that take down, I tried to reverse him and stand up. I tried to do anything I could to score points. But he is so tough.”
Now that she’s been on the mat for more than 10 years, Beltz has become a natural at wrestling. No longer does she have to think before she reacts, her body knows what it’s doing out of memory.
Because of her ability to lure her opponent into the position she wants, Beltz has acquired the nickname ‘Black Widow’ from her teammates. Like her eight-legged friend, she uses trickery to get her way with the wrestler on the other side of the mat.
Once the unsuspecting grappler is in position, she pounces.
“For me it’s all about fun,” Beltz said. “Make weight and have as much fun as you can I say.”