Parkersburg 138-pounder Stephen Myers, pictured here during the Mountain State Athletic Conference tournament last month inside Memorial Fieldhouse, will try and conclude his junior season with a third career state mat title. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

PARKERSBURG — The 79th annual West Virginia State Wrestling tournament, set to get underway at 6:30 p.m. Thursday inside Huntington’s Marshall Health Network Arena, will have a different feel this year after the three class system was changed to Division I and II.

Nonetheless, wrestlers still need four wins to secure an individual state championship, which for Independence transfer and Parkersburg South 190-pounder Jesse Adams would equate to becoming the Mountain State’s 28th four-time state champ.

In this year’s team race, the Patriots of head coach Shaun Smith are expected to slot somewhere behind Division I favorite University, the final Class AAA team state champion, and rival Parkersburg, which qualified all 14 members for head coach Matt Littleton.

While the Big Reds secured seven DI, Region IV crowns thanks to Aiden Linko (106), Seth Drennen (120), CJ Carrodus (126), Stephen Myers (138), Colston Skeen (144), Kayden McDonald (150) and Dominic Way (157), Adams is joined by fellow seniors and Region IV champions Nathan Murphy at 165 and 215-pounder Justice Drain.

“Kind of looking at our upperclassmen to kind of carry us and do what they do,” said coach Smith. “We do have a good group of upperclassmen and obviously having Jesse in the room this year has been extremely beneficial, and for him too because that’s why he wanted to come here to wrestle. He wanted better competition. He wanted to get better and see better kids and try to better prepare himself for college. He’s been extremely helpful with Nathan and Asa Yost and like Jansen Dearth.

Parkersburg South head coach Shaun Smith and Patriot 190-pounder Jesse Adams, who is vying for his fourth career state mat title, look on during last month’s regional inside Parkersburg’s Memorial Fieldhouse. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“Those four wrestle a lot. It’s just been extremely helpful having him around. He’s a good kid. Always a positive mindset with him and just always looking to improve and the kids look up to him. I feel pretty good right now, you know, obviously with what we have going on. The kids are ready it seems like. They are practicing hard. They have a good positive mindset. I’m hopeful that we wrestle our best this weekend.”

Aside from a trio of regional champions, the Patriots will have eight others wrestlers vying for podium finishes.

However, 106-pound freshman Austin Conley was left on the outside looking in after placing fifth at the regional.

“Going into the year I told a lot of people I think people are going to be surprised with how good we’re going to be this year,” admitted coach Smith. “We’ve had some setbacks and things and things didn’t go as particularly planned. Like not taking everyone we should’ve taken to the state tournament with 106. It’s unfortunate. Austin’s beat kids that are going to be wrestling this weekend. He was ranked number nine in the state. It’s just the top four kids were in his region.

“Literally, the top four kids were in our region, so unfortunate, but just how it is sometimes. I knew we were going to be better this year than people were going to think we were. I think regardless of how the season ends we did make some noise in some certain situations. Tying for first at the MSAC and everything, like I don’t think anyone thought that was going to happen. Just trying to kind of get back to that and I’m hopeful that this weekend we’ll wrestle to that potential. We are young, but I think our young guys have kind of came along.”

The Big Reds, who have returning state champions in Drennen, Myers, Skeen and Way, know they need to perform at the top of their game if they want to improve upon last year’s state runner-up finish to the Hawks, 225.5 to 195.5.

“We’re still in chase mode,” said coach Littleton. “Obviously it’s the state tournament and anything can happen as we all know. We’ve all seen the craziness that takes place there. We’ve put ourselves in a really good position to continue this race. Now we’re just prepping for the three days at the state tournament. We missed some guys early in the season due to football

“Then we get a little banged up here in the middle of the season. It was nice to get all of our guys back for regional time and ready to go. Obviously getting all 14 through is big. This is hopefully going to be a pretty tight team race here so bonus points are going to play a big factor. Winning a single match might play a big factor. Our guys are ready for that and they understand what their job is. Now we have to go out and execute that plan.”

While the Patriots had regional runner-up efforts from Coleton Hill at 132, Yost at 150 and heavyweight Charles Williams, the red and white had two regional second-place showings with Austin Carrodus at 113 and Parker Woods at 165.

“CJ Carrodus and Parker Woods, I think both are guys that if they find a way to kind of get an upset here they can make a finals run,” stressed coach Littleton. “Parker Woods has Johnny Knight (Bridgeport) in the quarters. Could be a really good match and we win that I think we got a really, really good shot to making the finals.

“CJ Carrodus has the (Kai) Plinski kid from Washington in the semis, who is very talented but we haven’t seen him yet this year. Putting those two in the finals would be big for the team race and big for them as well.”

Both Division I head coaches noted the pill draw did some favors for their program in certain areas and potentially hampered them in others.

“I think it’s a two team race right now and we’re going to need some help from some of those other guys to hopefully knock some of their guys off and help us kind of widen this gap a little bit hopefully,” added Littleton. “At the end of the day we still have to go out and we have to perform. The pill may help you perform better or worse.

“At the end of the day I’m a big no excuse guy. We have what’s in front of us and we can’t make excuses about it. We’ve got to go get the job done with what’s presented to us. I’m not going to sit around and kind of complain about whether the pill helped us or hurt us. We got a job to do and we got to figure out a way to do it.”

When asked what he was looking forward to this weekend coach Smith, who added of the pill “regardless you still have to wrestle,” replied “anxious to see, you know, hopefully Jesse wins his fourth state title. Nathan Murphy winning his title. I feel like at this point, injuries or not, he’s the best in that weight. Whether it works out this weekend we’ll see.

“Our young guys, just hoping to see them wrestle really well in that tough environment because it can be like one of those situations where you shrink because the moment is too big or you thrive because you’re a gamer. Just really anxious to see how our kids do because I think we have the potential to do very well.”

Coach Littleton admitted “I think I’m really just looking forward to watching this team compete out there.

“I’m really excited to watch how they respond and kind of help build each other up and continue to wrestle tough and support each other.”

Wrestling continues at 11:30 a.m. Friday with the state semifinals set for 7:30 p.m.

The final girls state invitational gets underway at 8 a.m. Saturday with the boys starting back up at 10 a.m. before all championship finals get going at 6:30 p.m.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com