photo by: Kim North

Barnesville’s Hoyt Hartshorn works for bonus points at 113 pounds Wednesday afternoon in dual meet action against Union Local. He prevailed with an 11-5 decision. The Shamrocks won, 45-20.

MORRISTOWN – For nearly two decades, Barnesville has owned possession of the coveted ‘Mike Cow Award,’ the trophy presented to the winner of the annual Barnesville-Union Local dual wrestling meet.

Nothing has changed in western Belmont County as the youthful Shamrocks flexed their muscles early and often in taking down the Jets, 45-20, before an assembly match crowd inside ‘The Hangar’ on the Union Local schools campus.

The trophy has been around since 2007 when then-Union Local equipment manager, the late Tug Robson, and Mark Cook, the athletic director at Barnesville back then, came up with the idea that the two schools play for a trophy in every sport.

Barnesville bolted to a 19-0 advantage after four matches and never looked back in posting the lop-sided victory. It captured eight of the first nine matches – three by decisions, two by pins, a pair by major decisions and one by technical fall. The Shamrocks were also awarded two forfeits.

“It is what it is, 45-20. I didn’t feel like it was going to be close,” veteran Barnesville head coach Jayson Stephen said. “They won the matches they probably should’ve won.”

Junior Easton Stephen gave the Shamrocks a big start when he recorded a pin of Luke Kildow in a mere 40 seconds. Freshman Hoyt Hartshorn added to the margin with a 11-5 decision of Max Dubiel at 113 and classmate Jaxon Aberegg bumped the count to 13-0 with a 16-3 major decision of Cole Rogers at 120. A forfeit to Barnesville’s Bentley Stephen at 126 made it 19-0.

The Jets got on the board when Gamble Gossett, a returning OVAC Ron Mauck Tournament champion as a freshman, pinned Haden Bowman in 3:40 at 132.

Freshman Ryder King (138) posted a 17-0 technical fall over Jaxon Lewis. Junior Colt Carpenter (144) pinned George Groves in 51 ticks and classmate Brayden Trigg (150) scored an 18-9 major decision over Preston Apostolec. When freshman Knoxx Mankin (157) earned a 10-4 nod over Gavin McVay, the lead had ballooned to an insurmountable, 37-6, advantage.

Union Local, which was a preseason Top 10 pick in Division III, won three of the final four bouts, with Barnesville’s Zach Foster being awarded a forfeit at 285.

Winning for the Jets were juniors Gunnar Gossett (165), Brody Perzanowski (175) and Kolten Snyder (215). Gossett, a returning D-III state runnerup, claimed a 17-0 technical fall, while Perzanowski, an all-Ohioan last winter, registered a pin; and Snyder, a transfer from Meadowbrook where he advanced to the D-II state meet, had a sudden-victory win over Christien Hannahs.

“Barnesville has a really solid dual team. When you look at our team, we’re more built for tournaments,” Union Local head coach Nate Starkey revealed. “Having a couple holes didn’t help us today, but I thought we wrestled fairly well overall.

“When we got ranked (in the preseason), everyone thought Barnesville just went away, but they didn’t,” Starkey noted. “They are a solid team.”