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Regional wrestling this week, state berths at stake

By Jay W. Bennett 7 min read

PARKERSBURG -- There might not be anyone looking more forward to his first high school wrestling regional than Gilmer County's Dallas Goodrich.

The 106-pound Titan freshman, who became the first wrestler in school history to win a Little Kanawha Conference championship, will enter Saturday's Class AA/A, Region II tournament in Braxton County as the No. 1 seed.

The host Eagles are currently the team to beat in Region II as head man Sterling Beane's squad, which came up short to Williamstown for the LKC team crown, is ranked second behind Cameron in single-A.

Ripley, which is ranked second in double-A, will stay in Jackson County for the Class AA/A, Region IV tournament Friday as the Vikings look to challenge top-ranked Point Pleasant. They will be joined by area single-A programs Calhoun County, No. 3 Ravenswood, No. 5 Wahama, Wirt County as well as No. 6, Class AA Williamstown.

Mat fans also can opt to take in some Class AA/A, Region I action on Saturday in St. Marys as the Blue Devils, who are ranked fourth in single-A, will be joined by the Dragons and fellow top 10 program Tyler Consolidated, which is ranked eighth.

The journey for the Parkersburg High School mat program will find the top-ranked Class AAA Big Reds making the trek on Saturday to Huntington to compete with No. 4 Parkersburg South, No. 8 Cabell Midland as well as the host Highlanders, Hurricane, Spring Valley and Winfield.

As for Goodrich, who was homeschooled through seventh grade and competed as a youth for Brian Ritchie in Calhoun County, he's just glad the Titans had a team this year.

"I thought we wouldn't have one at first, but I'm glad Denny stepped up and coached us," Goodrich said of coach Hardman, who applied for the job after it was posted several times with no takers.

"I wrestled for Gilmer for my eighth grade year, but before that I wrestled for Calhoun all the way up to my seventh grade year from when I was 4."

Coach Hardman said there was no youth program in Gilmer County when Goodrich started out.

"Me and his dad went to school together," added the coach, who said of Goodrich making school history "it was nice. I just let the kids wrestle. He's doing good. He's had some struggles with doing old school stuff so I finally had to breakdown and let him read the rule book.

"He's made some changes and they are really working out the better for him. Issues we're having on some of our defeats we kind of went in and we have worked on some new things and he's doing new moves and working different situations so he's developing some new skills. We're looking forward to some rematches."

Currently, the Titan is predicted to just miss out on a podium finish next month at the state tournament in Huntington as he is ranked seventh in Class AA/A.

"I've learned different moves and just how to counter stuff a lot more," Goodrich said. "It's different moves. How to work with my legs more and just use my whole body instead of certain parts at times."

Goodrich, who said he doesn't really have to worry about making weight at 106, admitted of his LKC title "it was really good.

"I was the first one to do it and that's something no one else can do that, and I hope to win it all the way up to my senior year. I plan on winning it."

Although the Titan understands he still has a lot of work left to do, he added "I plan on being up there on the podium in Huntington and I plan on winning regional."

That echoes the thoughts of PHS head coach Matt Littleton, whose program won the Class AAA team duals after dispatching current No. 2 University in the championship match and No. 3 Woodrow Wilson in the semifinals.

"We came into the preseason ranked third and due to a couple bad weather tournaments and things like that we didn't get a lot of opportunities early to kind of grow that," explained coach Littleton. "Winner's Choice was a different venue due to some weather and teams getting knocked out of it, and obviously sickness plays a factor. Sometimes we don't have a full lineup either. At the WSAZ we were able to kind of jump over Woodrow there and still not a completely healthy team. Going into state duals people still kind of had us written off a little bit.

"We beat Woodrow Wilson on the last match of the dual and heavyweight Gabe Davies got the win for us there. Then we go against University, which is a very solid team top to bottom, and we were able to kind of maneuver some things there and get a win against them in the duals. That kind of propelled us to number one, but we kind of talked to our team and to not let that be our peak of the season. We want to end the state tournament at number one as well. That's our goal right now and that's what we are focused on, but that starts this weekend so we've kind of put ourselves in a position to go out there and get in the fight a little bit."

Parkersburg, which has top seeds at the regional with Seth Drennen (106), C.J. Carrodus (120), Stephen Myers (132), Dominic Way (138), Kayden McDonald (144) and 150-pounder Lars Cooper, are expected to qualify 13 of 14 to the state tournament.

McDonald has a 2-1 edge on No. 2 seed Jeff Hood of Huntington and 126-pound Big Red Colston Skeen is in the opposite situation with a 1-2 mark versus top-seeded Highlander Ben Barrett.

The PHS coaching staff opted to move Jesse Showalter to 175 with Cyler Marks going at 165.

"We want to make a state title run and we think 165 is pretty deep so I think to maximize our abilities we put Showalter up to 175 and he's got a good chance to make a run and then put Marks at 165, and hopefully he can make a little noise there," said coach Littleton. "Really, that's kind of where we are at. We're taking a little calculated risk."

The Patriots of head man Shaun Smith, who lost fifth-ranked 165-pound junior Nathan Murphy to injury, still will have a full lineup that features expected regional champions in 157-pound freshman Asa Yost as well as a trio of seniors in Cole Middleton (175), Brycen Arthur (215) and heavyweight Logan Middleton.

Coach Littleton knows strange things can happen at the regional, let alone once the bright lights of Huntington are shining, and that's why he's stressing the importance of every single match to his wrestlers whether its a returning state champ in Myers or 10th-ranked 190-pounder Akeem Bivens.

"Akeem has gotten tremendously better since he started," said the coach. "This is only his third year wrestling.

"He's obviously gotten tremendously better and qualified last year so he looks to kind of build off that qualifying. He won a match last year and we're looking to build off that."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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