Where Are the Virginia State Wrestling Championships This Year
Jay W. Bennett
Staff Reporter
jBennett@newsandsentinel.com
Photo by Jay W. Bennett Williamstown's Colton Slagle takes fifth at 152 pounds versus Tyler Consolidated's Sean Winfrey at Thursday's W.Va. state wrestling meet in Huntington, W.Va.
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Wirt County and Braxton County's hopes of bringing back team hardware from the 74th annual West Virginia state wrestling championships came up short following the completion of the tournament on Thursday held inside Mountain Health Arena.
By virtue of amassing the most points, the Eagles of head coach Sterling Beane were named champs of the Little Kanawha Conference.
Overall, Braxton County was led by senior 195-pound champion Logan Conley, who got a takedown with eight seconds left in the first period and then a reversal with 46 ticks remaining in the second period en route to a 4-1 win versus Oak Glen's Kyler O'Connor.
"Last year not being able to wrestle because of my foot really drove me," admitted Conley, who finished 20-1 and also placed third at 182 when he was a sophomore.
The Eagles had 99 points and finished third in the double-A team race, just ahead of Independence's 98 and Oak Glen's 87.
"That was the first time he'd seen him this year," said coach Beane. "Logan has been a good boy for us. Last year he was out with injury and had surgery and couldn't participate. He was just champing at the bit to get down here and show he was a good wrestler. He did a good job. In fact, his win got us to third place and we're really happy with that, too."
Clay County had 55 points, good for eighth in double-A, as Wirt County's final team total of 49 points was good for third in both single-A and in the LKC.
Clay County had two finalists in 220-pounder Noah Casto and senior heavyweight Colton Casto, who was upended by Noah Brown of Greenbrier West, 6-4. Brown allowed a takedown on the edge of the mat with 13 seconds left in the first to trail 2-0. Brown was still down 3-1 before he was awarded a takedown with the clock at 0:00 in the second. The senior Cavalier, who went 24-0, escaped in the third to take the lead for good.
The sophomore 220-pound Panther lost 5-2 to Moorefield's Isaac Van Meter. The win by Van Meter allowed the Yellow Jackets to move past Cameron for the Class A state title, 54 to 53.5. The Jacket led 3-0 before a Casto reversal with 41 seconds to go made it 3-2. Van Meter got his three-point margin of victory with a reversal of his own with seven seconds left.
Point Pleasant had eight finalists, won six state crowns and rolled to its third consecutive state team title with Fairmont Senior taking runner-up double-A honors, 247.5 to 112. John Bonecutter of PPHS was honored with the Dix Manning Coaching Award.
Head coach Danny Life's Tigers had three in the semifinals, but couldn't get any through. Junior Kolton Parsons at 138 pushed three-time state champ Blake Boyers of East Fairmont to the limit, but was doubled up 4-2. Parsons came back to earn third place while Boyers, the AA Most Outstanding Wrestler, blanked Point Pleasant's Mackandle Freeman, 3-0, to secure his fourth state crown.
The Tigers also lost a tough semifinal showdown at 160 where senior Logan Powell fell 6-5 to Evan Thompson of Berkeley Springs. Powell had to settle for fourth place after losing 9-5 in the consolation finals to Tyler Consolidated sophomore Trenton Huffman. In a 145-pound consolation finals battle of two seniors, Wirt County's AJ Garrett lost by fall in 2:26 to St. Marys' Wiley Houser. Houser's younger brother, 220-pound sophomore Cody, had a 4-3 setback in the semifinals to Panther Noah Casto. However, Cody Houser fought back to claim fifth place after earning a 3-1 decision versus Braxton County's Sturgis May.
Also nearly reaching the state finals in their respective weight classes was Ritchie County 113-pound senior Brady Layman, who lost 11-8 to Parker Henderson of Point Pleasant, as well as Magnolia's Jason Beisel. The Blue Eagle lost a 1-0 decision to Big Black Chris Smith in the 132-pound semifinals, but came all the way back to finish in third place just like the Rebel did.
The Mike Stump Coaching Award went to Cameron's Tim Jones. Petersburg and Greenbrier West tied for fourth place in single-A with 41.5 points. St. Marys was sixth with 40.5. Ritchie County and Tyler Consolidated tied for seventh with 30 points apiece while Doddridge County and Williamstown tied for ninth with 29 points each.
The Williamstown trio of junior Ashton Wasmer (106) along with seniors Colton Slagle at 152 and 182-pounder Caleb Stansberry managed to crack the top 10 team scoring.
Although Wasmer didn't place, Slagle took fifth following a 5-2 victory versus freshman Sean Winfrey of Tyler Consolidated. Stansberry had to settle for sixth after getting pinned in 2:28 by Braxton's Colton Moore.
"This was a heckuva trip. I'm super proud of these guys," admitted WHS mat boss Tyler George. "We brought three. We didn't have the regional we really wanted. It's all about the quality, not the quantity, and those three made it to the blood round. We punched two through and had two placers, which was the first time in six years we've had multiple placers.
"I'm just proud of these guys. I'm ready to rebuild this and we got a bright future ahead. We've got several eighth graders coming up. I think between six and eight eighth graders coming up, several seventh graders and a good core of peewee coming through, so just watch out for us the next couple years. It will be an exciting time to be a Yellowjacket."
Also placing from the area were Clay County freshman Zane Minger (6th at 106), Calhoun County junior Jett Sampson (6th at 113) along with Braxton County teammates Blayne Jarvis (4th, 120, fr), Tyee Ellyson (6th, 132, sr) and Logan Bennett (6th, 138, so).
The other state championship results were: 106: Dillon Perdue (Independence) md. Gavin Boland (Elkins), 10-1; 113: Parker Henderson (Point Pleasant) p. John Sanders (Independence), 5:22; 120: Mikey Jones (Fairmont Senior) pinned North Marion's Brody Hess in 3:47 to seal the Polar Bears' runner-up finish; 126: Isaac Short (Point Pleasant) d. Bryce Perdue (Independence), 11-4; 132: Chris Smith (Point Pleasant) d. Kolbie Hamilton (Fairmont Senior), 2-0; 145: Derek Raike (Point Pleasant) tf. Hunter Kuhn (North Marion), 18-2; 152: Mitchell Freeman (Point Pleasant) p. Gabriel Clark (Berkeley Springs), 1:28; 160: Justin Bartee (Point Pleasant) tf. Evan Thompson (Berkeley Springs), 22-7; 170: Peyton Thompson (Berkeley Springs) d. Wyatt Wilson (Point Pleasant), 3-1 and 182: Ian Bush (Cameron) p. Zach Anderson (Fairmont Senior), 2:50. Bush was named the single-A Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Where Are the Virginia State Wrestling Championships This Year
Source: https://www.mariettatimes.com/sports/2021/04/west-virginia-state-wrestling-tournament-concludes/
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