Parkersburg’s Aiden Linko celebrates after winning the 106-pound state championship Saturday in Huntington. (Photo by Ben Powell)

HUNTINGTON — Parkersburg South’s Jesse Adams became the Mountain State’s 28th four-time state champion following the conclusion of Saturday night’s 79th annual state wrestling tournament while the Big Reds of Parkersburg had to settle for a solid runner-up finish behind inaugural Division I champion University, 246-235, after the Hawks had claimed the final two triple-A crowns.

“It was (20)04. Parkersburg won it with 224 and South got runner-up at 204,” said PHS head coach Matt Littleton of the last time a team scored 200-plus points and didn’t bring home the top hardware. “Any given year you’d think 235 points would get the job done, but obviously not this year. Ultimately they had two transfers come in the offseason and those two transfers were the difference in this year’s state tournament, so with them it put them a little bit over top of us.

“Obviously falling short of the goal of winning a state title is rough. Some things didn’t go our way this weekend. We wrestled tough. I thought we did. Everyone across the board I thought did really, really well this weekend. Once again falling short of this state title sucks. It does. It hurts and you know it’s pain we’re going to feel until 365 days when we are back here next year trying to go do it again. We’ve got a year to prep. We’ve got a year to get ready for next year and that’s what we are going to do. Training starts Monday. We got nationals to get ready for and then we’ll start gearing up for that.”

The 190-pound Adams, who had claimed his previous three titles at Independence and was honored as the D1 Most Outstanding Wrestler, got a takedown in the first to go ahead for good against University’s Emerson Murphy. The Hawk was unable to get loose from the grasp of Adams in the second period and trailed by the same score entering the third before the Patriot emerged with an 11-2 major decision.

PHS 138-pound junior Stephen Myers kept his quest to become a four-time state champion on schedule thanks to his 150th career victory against Bridgeport’s Tyler Mason, who allowed a takedown five seconds into the final.

Parkersburg South’s Jesse Adams celebrates after winning the 190-pound state championship Saturday in Huntington. (Photo by Ben Powell)

Myers proceeded to turn Mason for a quartet of near fall points not quite a minute later and secured his 50-5 campaign with a mat slapper in 2:56.

Dominic Way became a two-time state champion for the red and white when the 157-pounder took care of University’s Max Vitale by sticking him in 3:08. The Hawk gave up a takedown 25 ticks in and trailed 6-1 at 1:11 of the first as the junior Way pushed in front 9-2 after one before finishing in style.

Although the Big Reds had six finalists, the only other titles came thanks to sophomore 106-pounder Aiden Linko, who will go down in the record books as the first D1 state winner, and 120-pound junior teammate Seth Drennen.

Following a scoreless first against Bryson Simmons of Cabell Midland, Linko got an escape in the second for the only point heading to the third. Simmons, who took neutral, fell 4-0 after Linko executed a shot and got the takedown with 1:40 remaining.

“I’m kind of upset with myself,” admitted Linko, who had pinned the Knight at regionals. “I didn’t come to win the state championship. I came to win for the team. I mean I wish I could’ve taken more shots and gotten more opportunities to the legs, but it is what it is and we won.

Parkersburg’s Stephen Myers celebrates after winning the 138-pound state championship Saturday in Huntington. (Photo by Ben Powell)

“It means a lot. I wrestled third string JV last year and I mean going from third string JV, losing 17 matches to 113-pounders weighing 100 pounds, this means a lot to me man. It means a lot to me and everybody else on the team.”

Drennen won his 111th career match and became a two-time state champ after securing a 4-1 decision against Cabell Midland’s Reed Davis, who suffered a 13-5 setback at the regional.

Like Linko’s match, Drennen and Davis were scoreless after one and it was 1-1 after Davis had his escape in the third with 1:51 to go. However, Drennen executed a shot on the Knights’ right led and although it took him about 20 seconds, he got his title-winning takedown at the 0:37 mark for the 4-1 triumph.

“I think the first one was more special. I don’t know. It’s just something I was always dreaming of and to have that finally come true, I don’t think I’d ever thought of actually becoming a two-timer when I was a kid,” admitted Drennen. “It feels great. I’m just looking to get my third.

“Coming into today we had wrestled three other times. The first time being in a tri with Capital and I was actually losing in that match and I caught him on top and pinned him. After that it was like a one-point match at Winner’s Choice. From my gameplan I just knew I needed to slow it down. I was getting caught up in bad situations.”

Parkersburg’s Aiden Linko competes against Cabell Midland’s Bryson Simmons in the state wrestling finals Saturday in Huntington. (Photo by Ben Powell)

Parkersburg’s other two shots at individual glory came at 113 with sophomore Austin Carrodus and at 144 where Colston Skeen was trying to win his second career crown.

Carrodus, who was upended by Huntington’s Sawyer Bond 7-6 at the regional, came out and got the initial takedown, but the Highlander went ahead for good at 4-3 after a reversal and two back points as the freshman had his hand raised following the 5-4 decision. Skeen was unable to solve Hawk Nico Maisel, who led 4-0 early in the second and held on for an 8-6 victory.

“It’s an emotional rollercoaster this sport is,” added Littleton, who had three other placers in CJ Carrodus (3rd at 126), Kayden McDonald (4th at 150) and Parker Woods (4th at 165). “You watch one of your kids, Aiden Linko, go out there and win a state title when you knew he could. I know a couple people kind of wrote him off earlier in the year and then you turn around and Austin Carrodus and Colston Skeen lose and those are ones that are hard to swallow. It’s an emotional rollercoaster.

“You’ll have your ups and your downs and as a coach that’s what we deal with. These kids fall short of a goal and they hurt and we hurt. You learn from it and help them kind of handle and process that pain and hopefully they get better from that and we don’t feel that pain down the road, and we grow from that and learn from that and continue to be better and motivate us when the offseason hits.”

Parkersburg South and head coach Shaun Smith, who finished in fifth with 134.5 points and were behind fellow Mountain State Athletic Conference programs Cabell Midland (168.5) and Huntington (146.5), also placed Jordan Dearth (3rd at 120), Aaydin King (3rd at 138), Asa Yost (3rd at 150), Nathan Murphy (3rd at 165) and Justice Drain (5th at 215). Yost nipped McDonald, 3-1 while Murphy got the best of Woods, 6-2.

Parkersburg South’s Jesse Adams competes against University’s Emerson Murphy in the state wrestling finals Saturday in Huntington. (Photo by Ben Powell)

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

79th annual W.Va. State Wrestling Championships

DIVISION I

TEAM SCORES (top 10): University 246, Parkersburg 235, Cabell Midland 168.5, Huntington 146.5, Parkersburg South 134.5, Bridgeport 126.5, Washington 75.5, John Marshall 73, Martinsburg 67, Wheeling Park 62.5

106

The Parkersburg wrestling team finished runner-up in the Division I state wrestling tournament Saturday in Huntington. (Photo Provided)

1st: Aiden Linko (Parkersburg) d. 4-0

2nd: Bryson Simmons (Cabell Midland)

3rd: Jake Welsh (Hurricane) p. 1:38

4th: Hunter Flanegin (Wheeling Park)

5th: Milo Ward (John Marshall) md. 11-1

6th: Wyatt Kennedy (Woodrow Wilson)

113

1st: Sawyer Bond (Huntington) d. 5-4

2nd: Austin Carrodus (Parkersburg)

3rd: Anthony Maple (Brooke) won by forfeit

4th: Vacant

5th: Bronson Matthews (University) won by forfeit

6th: Vacant

120

1st: Seth Drennen (Parkersburg) d. 4-1

2nd: Reed Davis (Cabell Midland)

3rd: Jordan Dearth (Parkersburg South) d. 14-9

4th: Kamdyn Carr (Washington)

5th: Nathan Hughes (John Marshall) p. 2:25

6th: Jameson Hare (Morgantown)

126

1st: Kai Plinski (Washington) md. 8-0

2nd: Jacob Hensley (University)

3rd: CJ Carrodus (Parkersburg) p. 2:08

4th: Trevor Morgan (Huntington)

5th: Kayden Maynard (Cabell Midland) p. 2:48

6th: Landyn Lioi (Spring Mills)

132

1st: Dallas Owens (Spring Mills) d. 7-2

2nd: Evan Ulrich (Oak Hill)

3rd: Ben Barrett (Huntington) d. 7-0

4th: Levi Jennings (Preston)

5th: Kayden Riggleman (Martinsburg) won by injury default

6th: Landon Burdine (Brooke)

138

1st: Stephen Myers (Parkersburg) p. 2:56

2nd: Tyler Mason (Bridgeport)

3rd: Aaydin King (Parkersburg South) p. 3:18

4th: Shad Henry (Huntington)

5th: Timofey Husk (University) won by injury default

6th: Isaac Wiseman (Cabell Midland)

144

1st: Nico Maisel (University) d. 8-6

2nd: Colston Skeen (Parkersburg)

3rd: Kaden Stone (Greenbrier East) tf. 18-3

4th: Dennis McCrary (Cabell Midland)

5th: Elijah Cossin (South Charleston) p. 2:53

6th: Drew Earehart (Martinsburg)

150

1st: Jason Walker (University) p. 5:51

2nd: Kaleb Ice (Bridgeport)

3rd: Asa Yost (Parkersburg South) d. 1-0

4th: Kayden McDonald (Parkersburg)

5th: Eli Derr (George Washington) d. 8-2

6th: Ian Webb (Woodrow Wilson)

157

1st: Dominic Way (Parkersburg) p. 3:07

2nd: Max Vitale (University)

3rd: Nate Hodge (Wheeling Park) d. 9-3

4th: Grady Stotts (Huntington)

5th: Jordan Murrell (Cabell Midland) p. 3:32

6th: Maddox Pudder (Bridgeport)

165

1st: John Knight (Bridgeport) md. 11-2

2nd: Isaac Sands (Wheeling Park)

3rd: Nathan Murphy (Parkersburg South) d. 6-2

4th: Parker Woods (Parkersburg)

5th: Charlie Robb (University) md. 13-3

6th: Kai Johnson (John Marshall)

175

1st: Maximus Fortier (University) tf. 16-1

2nd: Rowan Dunham (Huntington)

3rd: Carson Kohl (Cabell Midland) d. 4-3

4th: Andrew Thompson (Martinsburg)

5th: Landon Dunlap (Oak Hill) md. 11-0

6th: Spencer South (John Marshall)

190

1st: Jesse Adams (Parkersburg South) md. 11-2

2nd: Emerson Murphy (University)

3rd: Braxton Johnson (Cabell Midland) md. 18-5

4th: Cohen Lusher (Nitro)

5th: JT Morris (John Marshall) md. 9-1

6th: Eli Taft (Riverside)

215

1st: Eli Knight (Bridgeport) p. 0:54

2nd: Terrell Cofield (Martinsburg)

3rd: Ryder Hastings (University) d. 4-2

4th: Brannock Barlow (Washington)

5th: Justice Drain (Parkersburg South) d. 7-0

6th: Aiden Robinson (Oak Hill)

285

1st: James Payne (George Washington) p. 2:46

2nd: Brad Edens (Cabell Midland)

3rd: Ethan Koloski (University) p. 2:17

4th: Remington Rose (Riverside)

5th: King Abercrombie (Fairmont Senior) p. 2:23

6th: Jeremiah Lyles (Huntington)