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Wheeling Park Wrestling Places Second at Regionals

11 Patriots Qualify For State Tourney

Photo by Kim North Wheeling Park’s Kaleb Simpkins, left, battles John Marshall’s Chas McCool in the 170-pound championship during the W.Va. Region One Tournament. Simpkins won, 7-2.

WHEELING — Half of the 14 individual championships at the W.Va. Region I, Class AAA wrestling tournament came from Ohio Valley Athletic Conference schools Saturday afternoon at Wheeling Park’s “Palace on the Hill.”

John Marshall and Wheeling Park claimed three titles each, while Brooke secured the other.

The Monarchs’ champions included Jordan Wood (120), Austin Love (126) and Anthony Carman (138), while Patriots ruling their weight classes were John Nash (160), Kaleb Simpkins (170) and Austin Loew (195). The Bruins’ Alex Edgell (220) was the other victor.

Wheeling Park took second place in the team standings in a close race with John Marshall, 194-185. Both were well behind University’s 226.5. The Hawks became the first team besides Parkersburg or Parkersburg South to win the Region I title since 1991 (Oak Glen), with the exception of Wheeling Park in 2006 and 2008.

Locally, the Patriots qualified an area-high 11 individuals for this week’s state tournament inside Big Sandy Arena in Huntington. The event starts Thursday night and continues through Saturday night’s championship finals.

“It was a good day for us,” second-year Wheeling Park head coach Clay Tucker, a former Ohio state champion while at Martins Ferry, said. “This delegation is a lot bigger than the three guys we sent last year. That’s a pretty big upgrade. I’m happy with our performance and I’m happy with the way we wrestled.

“We had three champions today, so I’m proud of those guys.”

Two-time OVAC champion John Nash (42-5) claimed his first regional title after missing the postseason a year ago. The Patriots’ top-seeded junior pinned University’s No. 2 Adam Frisco in 2:20. He was leading 7-3 at the time.

Top-seeded classmate Kaleb Simpkins (38-8) made it back-to-back regional crowns at 170 when he decisioned John Marshall’s second-seeded Chas McCool, 7-2. Simpkins finished sixth in the state at 138 last winter.

Austin Loew, the top seed at 182, continued his solid campaign with a 20-12 major decision of University’s Landon Ellifritz, the No. 2 seed. Loew, a junior, is now 28-13.

John Marshall coach Ted Zervos was also proud of the way his team competed. The Monarchs have 10 qualifiers.

“It was a good effort,” Zervos said. “You always have some rollercoaster rides along the way. There’s those ups and downs You don’t get a couple of guys through that you expected, but then you get a couple advance that you didn’t expect. It all equals out, but, overall, it was a good day.”

The top-seeded Wood (19-6) punched his return trip to Huntington with a 7-0 blanking of University’s No. 2 Jacob Simpson. Wood, who missed most of the season with injuries, placed fourth in the state at 106 last season.

Love, also the No. 1 seed, decisioned third-seeded Brise Bennett of University, 6-2, while improving to 29-13 as a sophomore.

Top-seeded Carman (37-5), a sophomore, advanced to his second straight state tournament with a 3:28 pin of University’s No. 2 Austin Rohrbaugh. Carman finished fourth in the state at 120 a year ago.

Brooke rookie coach Dan Doyle is thrilled to have seven kids heading to the state.

“I’m absolutely happy with all of my kids,” he said. “I wish I could take them all, but the guys that we are taking worked hard to get to this point.”

Edgell (35-3) leads the contingent. The top seed advanced to his second consecutive state tournament by edging Buckhannon-Upshur’s Cameron Payne, 3-1, at 220. Edgell was sixth in last year’s state tournament.

Other champions were University’s Matthew Simpson (106); University’s Jake Staud (113); Buckhannon-Upshur’s Jacob Smithson (132); University’s Owen Zeiders (145); Buckhannon-Upshur’s Jack Garcia (152); University’s Nick Valachovic (182); and Buckhannon-Upshur’s Christian Boggs (285).

University used 10 victories in the semifinals to pull ahead and never look back in capturing their first regional wrestling championship.

“This is exciting for our school to win the region, but ultimately it’s not our top goal. We’re focused on next week and trying to win a state title,” head coach Ken Maisel said. “We knew we had a chance for that to happen in the semifinals, but we didn’t wrestle well in the finals.”

The top four finishers in each weight class advanced.

Buckhannon-Upshur was fourth in the team standings with 142 points, which was 11 better than fifth-place Brooke. Morgantown was sixth at 101 and Preston seventh with 59.

2017 WVSSAC Region I A-AA Wrestling Tournament

1. East Fairmont 178; 2. Keyser 171; 3. Oak Glen 141.50; 4. North Marion 138; 5. Petersburg 137; 6. Fairmont Senior 119; 7. Madonna 114.5; 8. Berkeley 97; 9. Weir 81; 10. Ritchie County 66; 11. Magnolia 61; 12. Frankfort 45; 13. St. Marys 40; 14. Cameron 36; 15. Tyler Consolidated 23.

FAIRMONT — Oak Glen fell short of earning first place in the Region I A-AA Wrestling Tournament but the Golden Bears did pick up third-place honors with 141.5 points, while East Fairmont claimed the win with 178 points.

Madonna finished seventh with 114.5 points and Weir secured the ninth spot with 81.

Leading the way for Oak Glen was Robert Bozek who was victorious in the 138 contest, winning by a 9-4 decision, while teammates Peyton Hall (120) and Shawn Moore (113) each garnered runner-up honors.

Madonna was paced by Alec Cook (132) and Phil Good (152) who each finished second in their classes, while Weir’s Caleb Rea turned in a victory in the 126 group by a 4-2 decison in overtime.

Caleb Nice delivered the lone win for Magnolia in the 195 weight class with a 3-2 decision.

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