Parkersburg junior Dominic Way, pictured here following his pin of George Washington’s Ben McComas during last year’s 138-pound Class AAA state championship match, is favored to win this year’s Division I 157-pound state title. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — A Class AAA state runner-up finish a year ago for the Parkersburg High School wrestling team was their best showing in Huntington since placing third back in 2020.

A quartet of returning champions for the Big Reds of head coach Matt Littleton are hoping to band with their teammates to dethrone current two-time defending state champ University, which is favored to capture the inaugural Division I title during the 79th annual event that continues today and Saturday inside Marshall Health Network Arena.

“I’ll say it’s doable and possible,” said coach Littleton, who was honored with last year’s Rod Oldham Coaching Award. “Ultimately we have to show up, but I think we’ve got seven to nine guys that all could show up and win a state title on any given day here.

“Obviously you have your favorites going into this, but as we’ve seen state tournaments in the past, even us having some success in the past, not always does the favorite on paper always win that match. That’s the fun of the state tournament. That’s the chaos and excitement we like to see.”

A year ago, then-sophomore Seth Drennen finished 38-11 en route to the 106-pound crown. Colston Skeen went 34-8 as a freshman and won 126. Stephen Myers captured his second title following a 40-1 freshman campaign at 126 by going 46-6 and winning 132, while Dominic Way topped the field at 138 and compiled a 44-6 mark as a sophomore.

Of course, Way fully understands both ends of the chaos and excitement spectrum of wrestling as the Region IV champ is favored this year at 157 after he was unable to compete at the regional as a freshman.

“Obviously the goal is to win a state title, but my goal is to go beyond that so this is just a stepping stone to getting there,” admitted Way. “My goal right now is just focus on getting my team there and then doing my job and pinning my way through, and then getting my team to do their job and come out with a state title. Looking back at it, it seems like I did everything I could.

“I pinned my way through the state tournament, but I really think I could’ve done more for my team. I really could’ve done more in preparing them and getting them more ready and being able to score my team more team points just by helping them. I scored the most I could, but I think I could’ve done more and I’ve strived to do that this year.”

Drennen entered the state tournament with a 37-8 record at 120 and could find himself up against John Marshall’s Nathan Hughes in tonight’s semifinals.

“I wrestled him at the state duals,” said Drennen, who gave himself a current season grade of a B to a B-minus thus far into the campaign. “Score-wise it was a close match, but the whole match I felt like I dominated. He went out of bounds like 13 times and the score was only like 5-0.

“Individually, I’m just looking to get another state title. Team-wise, I think we can definitely pull off the state championship upset. There’s a bunch of things I can improve on, but it hasn’t been the worst. We all act like a team. Nobody does it just for themself. We all do it for each other and that makes it a whole lot better.”

Myers, who is pegged to win 138, might be looking forward to a third straight title, but he’s more amped about the team prospects.

“It’s really fun seeing everyone qualifying,” Myers admitted. “Now I feel like we have a really big chance of winning states because University only qualified 13. Their 120-pounder (Jude Benson) is one of their big hitters. We all really have the same mentality of how we were last year. Just go in there and get in the fight.”

Speaking of getting into the fight, when asked about potential matchups in his bracket he quipped “Oh, it doesn’t matter. I’ll be ready.”

Overall, Myers has had a more than solid season, but looking back he knows things could’ve gone a little differently.

“Unfortunately, my second tournament of the year, Ironman, it’s the toughest tournament in the country, but I kind of fell short of what I wanted,” Myers said. “I mean me losing the very first round wasn’t very ideal, but I fought back and I got seventh. I did better than last year so I’m very thankful for that. Besides that up until Powerade was good.

“At Powerade I had the flu, so I wrestled with the flu that whole weekend and it sucked. Wrestling with the flu, I don’t recommend it, especially going to the second toughest tournament in the country. I don’t recommend doing that and I placed sixth there. I feel ready. I’m all better now. I feel like I’m actually better than what I was before.”

As for Skeen, who was 28-12 entering the state tournament at 144, if everything goes as planned the Big Red could meet up with fellow sophomore and Region I champ Nico Maisel of University during Saturday night’s state final.

“I got a good draw, a good bracket and a good shot to the semis and should handle semis pretty easily and on to the state finals,” admitted Skeen, who said he’s never faced potential semifinal opponent Drew Earehart of Martinsburg.

When it comes to the Hawk, though, Skeen has faced him thrice this year and came up empty.

“He’s beat me every time,” Skeen said. “The length and the size really helps him out a lot, but I feel like overall I’m the better wrestler. Him winning the scrambles and winning the good positions I can get better at, but I really think that’s been his weapon of beating me is just winning the scrambles and just staying in good position all the time. I just need to finish my shots and stay in good position always.”

Although this is only the second year for Skeen in the program, he’s noticed the growth in the matroom and is enjoying every minute.

“Grind don’t stop. You got to put in the hours and you got to put in the work to get what you want,” he said. “It’s all about taking one match at a time. You can’t overlook someone because you overlook someone then you don’t realize what’s in front of you and then it’s too late and you already lose. You got to take your time, focus and grind it out. We’re really enjoying practice and working hard as a whole team. I feel like last year’s team, we had some holes we needed to fill. Same with this team.

“I feel like if we don’t do it this year we’ll definitely do it next year, but I feel like we have a very good chance of doing it this year if everything goes our way. We can definitely bring it home. It’s an amazing ride. I got this year and then two years after this and I’m really looking forward to then just taking in every memory and all that, really sucking it in for when I’m actually done and then looking back and having no regrets. I want to put all my energy and effort into wrestling until it’s over.”

Way fully understands where Skeen is coming from and he’s not taking anything for granted.

“I’m expected to win, but you get out there and it’s different,” stressed Way. “The lights are on you. The pressure is on you. It’s different being an underdog and going in there and having nothing to lose. I got a big target on my back. I got to go out there and validate.

“Everyone on the team kind of has a role. There are some guys who are expected to go win a state title, but there are some guys who did their job by qualifying and are going out there just to win one match. I mean they are going to do the best they can, but winning one match could be the difference.”

Way continued “we just try to stay present in the moment. Surrender the outcome and wrestle hard and just try to score the next point always. We really preach that and being able to just stay present no matter what happened. No matter what the ref called. No matter what happened earlier the last time you wrestled him.

“Just stay present and focus on scoring the next point and dominate. Just trying to bring the team together. We’re not the favorites. We’re the underdogs. It’s fun being the underdogs. They got the targets on their back. They can wrestle scared. We’re going to come out firing.”

No matter what happens during the final two days of the state tournament, Myers is just happy to go out on the mat and compete while donning his Big Red singlet.

“I mean ever since we were little up until now we’re just a family,” Myers said. “We bang on each other, fight, it like doesn’t matter, but at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about. We’re going to go through our ups and downs, but it’s the journey. The journey is what matters.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com