Williamstown takes third in Zide Rumble
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WILLIAMSTOWN -- The 18th annual Bob Zide Rumble took place on Saturday inside the Williamstown High School gymnasium, and the nine teams involved used this meet as a stepping stone for bigger opportunities down the line. Class AAA's Woodrow Wilson came out on top of the team scores, and they were closely followed by Class AA power, Independence.
The host Yellowjackets achieved a podium finish, as leading results by Ashton Wasmer, Blade Britton and Colton Slagle helped the 'Jackets break the top 3. In this round robin meet, it gave the nine involved squads a chance to feel out everyone in their weight classes. An added incentive for some teams is that they will see each other again when the Little Kanawha Conference championship meet takes place next weekend in West Union.
Three LKC teams participated, as the already mentioned WHS got to see what Roane County and Clay County had to offer. Williamstown's sole weight class champion was Wasmer (4-0) at 106. He got the better of Marietta's Jake (3-1) and Maclane Roe (0-4) en route to the victory. Interestingly enough, Clay and Roane finished right behind Williamstown in the team standings. That adds intrigue to the LKC championships, as WHS mat boss Ryan Scott wants his team to take this finish and use it to build towards a strong showing in West Union.
"Ashton did really well. This is the first varsity tournament he's won. We've got the LKC and regionals coming up," he said. "It's a good thing to help push him and get him down to the state tournament. We had Independence here, and they're one of the top teams in the state in AA. They push you and make you find what you're good at and what your not good at. A team like Woodrow Wilson helps you face good competition and gets us set. Brandon Burrell, in his first match wrestled a kid from Clay County who beat him out of the state tournament last year. Blade Britton had a really good day, until he got injured late. Nick Bower ended up getting second. He had a couple of really good wins for us. Colton Slagle faced a really tough kid from Woodrow Wilson, but he came back to finish second in his weight class. He's been wrestling well over the last few weeks. He's had some tough weight classes where we go against tough kids."
Marietta head coach Jeff Davis saw key results from some of his top scorers, but he made sure to say his team was young. While the team finished in eighth, a meet like this was sure to test the Tigers and prepare them for late-season trials.
"Well, for the most part, we're still young and learning," he said. "We have a tri at Morgan on Thursday, and then we have our league meet on Feb. 14. Jack Roe got second and had a pretty good day. Ethan Prather got fourth (at 285). His brother (Josiah) didn't place, but he had some good matches."
Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com