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‘No next week’: South trails University going into final day of state tournament

By Jay W. Bennett 6 min read

HUNTINGTON — University, Point Pleasant and Wheeling Central were the respective leaders in triple-A through single-A following Friday’s action inside Mountain Health Arena during the 77th annual West Virginia state wrestling tournament.

Shaun Smith’s Class AAA defending state champion Patriots of Parkersburg South trail the Hawks 159.5-148 as each program will have three wrestlers vying for a state crown. UHS will place 11 overall and PSHS will secure 10 top-six efforts.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow," Smith said. "The guys that lost tonight, we told them they have to wrestle back and get third. If not, we have no shot at this. We have to wrestle back, get third and kind of just forget about this night.

“You got to move on past it and wrestle harder tomorrow because there’s no next week. There’s nothing after this weekend. I mean you got to leave it all here. If you have anything left and you bring it back home you didn’t finish as high as you’re supposed to.”

PSHS, which leads Woodrow Wilson (132), Spring Mills (118.5), Washington (103) and Parkersburg (87.5) in the team race, finished 3-5 during the semifinal round.

Gage Wright stayed on pace to become a four-time state champion after he was finally able to flatten Bridgeport’s Eli Knight in a 175-pound semifinal by sticking him with two seconds remaining. Wright now faces Wheeling Park’s Jameson Maynard.

Ayden Morris at 215 will square off versus Brooke’s Tyler Wise after the Patriot used just 35 seconds to earn a win by fall in his semifinal against University’s Ryder Hastings.

Also advancing to his first state final is Patriot 144-pounder Nathan Murphy, who allowed the initial takedown to Jack Lowe of Wheeling Park, but then hit a reversal and secured three near fall points en route to an 11-7 decision.

“That kid has had a battle of a season,” coach Smith said of Murphy, who is up against Huntington’s Joe Riggs. “Just kind of consistently going through injuries and banged up a lot, but he’s toughed it out. I have high hopes for him tomorrow night and hopefully he can pull off a big run because he deserves it.”

Parkersburg head coach Matt Littleton’s program had five in the semifinals and came away with wins by 126-pounder Stephen Myers, who will face George Washington’s Ben McComas, and 138-pounder Simon Inboden, who now has Woodrow Wilson’s Jimmie Bailes. Inboden utilized a takedown in the first and a second period reversal to secure a 4-1 win against Greenbrier East’s Kaden Stone. Myers was able to win by fall with four seconds left in the first versus Jack Todd of Washington.

Ripley’s Cooper Durst fell behind South’s Brycen Arthur 3-1, but stayed the course and emerged with a 6-3 decision in a 190-pound semi. He is now set to face Cabell Midland’s Robert Shockey.

The Vikings of head coach Matt Smith were hoping 157-pounder Ethan Kay, who upset top-ranked John Knight of Bridgeport in the quarterfinals, would advance to Saturday night. However, Kay came up short 3-2 against Woodrow Wilson’s Vance Neal.

“We wrestled at South in January and Cooper won that one. Cooper won at WSAZ in overtime and then Brycen won the last one at regionals,” said coach Smith. “They were 2-1. Cooper is really tough. Getting him going is the biggest thing.

“Sometimes he’ll kind of hold back. He knows that Brycen is tough. He’s real reserved, but today he was a little bit more upbeat and moving a little bit more. Regionals he was wrestling a lot different.”

Parkersburg South’s first two chances at earning a finals berth came from freshmen Cole Smith at 113 and Cade Staats at 120. However, Smith was pinned by Ian Cornett of Buckhannon-Upshur and Bucs teammate Liam Garcia decisioned Staats, 8-2.

Makiya Powell will attempt to wrestle back for third when action resumes at 10:30 a.m. today. The Patriot Powell lost his 150-pound semi to top-ranked Moses Eads of St. Albans, 9-3. Patriot heavyweight Logan Middleton also was pinned in the second period by top-ranked University Hawk Brock Kehler.

Cole Middleton (165) and Jordan Dearth (106) also will place for PSHS.

PHS had semifinal setbacks at 106 by Seth Drennen (12-1 loss to Spring Mills’ Dallas Owens), at 120 by Kayden McDonald (first period pin to Kai Plinski of Washington) and at 132 where Lars Cooper was pinned late in the first by Woodrow Wilson’s Tyler Roark. Joining the five Big Red semifinalists as placers will be 150-pound junior Jesse Showalter.

The Vikings also will have top-six showings from Cam Goode at 138 and 215-pounder Carter Neal.

Wheeling Central has the Class A team title locked up with 84.5 points, while Ravenswood (53) and Greenbrier West (50) are set to battle it out for runner-up honors.

The Red Devils of head coach John Heath had semifinalists thanks to 165-pounder Trenton Bush, who lost 7-2 to Wyatt Brady of Wheeling Central, and 215-pounder Wyatt Milhoan, who edged Brady Witt of Berkeley Springs, 11-8, to reach the championship against Central’s Isaac Martin.

Ravenswood also will place Jacob Bowling at 150.

The push for an undefeated season continued for Braxton County 157-pounder Blayne Jarvis. The senior for veteran boss Sterling Beane improved to 65-0 after breezing to a 19-6 major decision versus Oak Glen’s Michael Heath. Jarvis will need to top Central’s Eli Tedrow to finish his perfect campaign.

Only one Class AA/A state final will pit a pair of Little Kanawha Conference wrestlers and that will be at 190 when Tyler Consolidated’s Sean Winfrey and Roane County’s Lane Watson clash. Winfrey won 6-4 versus Shady Spring’s Gabe Knoblet, while Watson secured a 4-3 decision against Greg Sauers of Oak Glen.

Clay County’s Zane Minger (126) as well as Braxton County’s Paxton Smith (138) and heavyweight Connor Facemire fell in their semifinal matches, but each will claim a podium finish.

The only other placer for Braxton County will be 190-pounder Eliah Moore. Minger, who will be a four-time state placer along with Jarvis, also will have teammates James Sears (113) and Blake Coleman (138) finish on the podium. Roane County’s other top-six grapplers will be Tyson Pena (12) and Grayson Steele (175).

Wirt County 190-pounder Chase Lowe is the only Tiger who will place, while WIlliamstown head coach Tyler George’s ‘Jackets brought seven and will place a pair thanks to 144-pounder Tyler Newlon and 157-pounder Kipp Freed.

Winfrey will be joined in the top six by 126-pound teammate Colsen Spragg.

State finals for Class AAA, Class AA/A and the girls get underway at 6 p.m.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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