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Warriors victorious in Hickory Grove Invitational

By Aaron Lee 4 min read

VINCENT -- At the Hickory Grove Market Invitational at Warren High School, the Warriors won their home meet handily. With a point total of 204, 43 points higher than any other team, their success stands as an outlier in an otherwise normal distribution of points.

The Warriors were led by two first place finishers. Drake Jenkins took home the gold at 113 by tech-falling Braiden McGinnis of Jackson 16-0. In the 175 pound weight class, Aden Strahler pinned Morgan's Tanner Bankes to claim first place.

"It feels pretty good to win my hometown meet," said Strahler afterwards. Near the end of the match, he landed a strong, but controlled slam on his opponent.

"Just shot in, he sprawled out, I shot again. I couldn't really set him down too hard because it's illegal," Strahler explained.

Strahler took home the MVP award as voted on by the coaches. Warren wrestling coach Jeff Parsons described his dedication to his craft, "He placed seventh in the state last year. He trained really hard all summer, went through the camps, wrestled on different teams all over the place, went down to Virginia Beach nationals with the team down there. He's on a mission to move that placement further up than seventh."

Warren did not dominate in terms of the number of champions. Its total of two was the same as Morgan and Hillsboro, and Waterford amassed a meet-high three. Instead, the sheer number of placing wrestlers for the Warriors powered them to victory.

The Warriors had a trio of second place finishers, coincidentally in consecutive weight classes. Reme Fairbanks got second at 126 pounds. Paul Harshberger claimed silver at 132, followed by Jacob Berg at 138.

Berg had an especially competitive championship match against Jacob Roblero of Meigs. The match had to be momentarily paused after he took an incidental slam. "To be honest it wasn't too bad, but when they come down like that they put all the force from their shoulder right down into your gut. You just gotta get back up and pretend it didn't happen," said Berg of the stoppage.

On getting second, Berg commented, "It feels really good to be honest."

Other placers for the home team included Brodie Bolen (106, 3rd), Mitchel Rehl (144, 4th), Levi Strahler (150, 5th), Devon Legleitner (190, 5th) and Kartyr Armstrong (215, 4th).

"Last week our team was split up. The boys split in two different places. We had our experienced wrestlers up at Cambridge last weekend, and the newer wrestlers went to Waterford. This weekend, everybody was together, so that made a big difference. They came together as a team and really wrestled well today," explained Parsons.

For the Warriors, things are moving in the right direction, especially in terms of numbers, "I think our team wrestled really well. We've got one of the largest teams around. We've got 27 boys on the high school team, 15 girls and 19 on our junior high team, so wrestling is coming right along here at Warren."

Logan won second place at the meet with a point total of 161. Jackson finished third with 131.

The Wildcats of Waterford had a strong fourth-place showing, coming up with 126.5 points. Their three first place finishers were Briceson Cline (120), Hayden Jones (150) and Judson Cooper (215). The three of them also won their home Wildcat Invitational last weekend. Waterford had two other wrestlers place – Kameron Johnson (138, 6th) and Trevin Zimmer (157, 2nd).

Marietta placed 8th with a total of 78 points. The Tigers had four grapplers make the podium, including Scotty Orick (113, 3rd), Braxton Wells (120, 4th), Ian Horsley (132, 3rd) and Eli Vessels (190, 6th).

Fort Frye ended the day with 69 points, good enough for 11th place. The Cadets had two wrestlers take home the bronze, Gavin Rauch (120) and Mathias Kesselring (165). In addition to that duo, Fort Frye had two fifth place finishes from Murray Stewart (157) and Morgan Smith (285).

Reedsville Eastern placed 15th and had 50 points. The Eagles had one champion, Landen Basham, who wrestled at 144. He also won the title at the Wildcat Invitational. Gavan Smith finished in third for Eastern at 175 pounds.

Frontier's Zeke Rinard placed fifth in the 138 pound weight class. Luke Davis of Belpre finished 6th at 144 pounds.

Following the conclusion of the Hickory Grove Market Invite, The Coliseum hosted a division I college wrestling dual between the Ohio University Bobcats and Drexel University. It was a special occasion for the Warriors, as alumnus Peyten Kellar donned the green and white in his hometown gym. Kellar won by major decision his match against Tyler Williams of the Dragons by a score of 12-0 as the Bobcats won the dual 21-13.

Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com

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