Pioneers take five individual SVC wrestling titles

• Zane Trace took five individual SVC wrestling titles Saturday at Zane Trace High School.
• Westfall won an SVC title as a team and had four athletes win individual titles.
• PV's Teagan McFadden and Caleb Johnson as well as SE's Alex Gordy were also individual winners.

KINNIKINNICK - The best of the best wrestlers in the Scioto Valley Conference were all gathered together Saturday evening at Zane Trace High School.

In the second-ever SVC Wrestling Championships — the conference recognized wrestling as an official sport for the first time in 2014-15 — pride was put on the line and individual titles were won.

"I'm pleased that the SVC is doing this and it's a thing now," Zane Trace coach Reggie Wax said. "This is good for high school sports. This is what it is all about. The fans are into it. When they come to matches, it's not a social event. They're here to watch wrestling. It was just a great event."

Westfall upended defending conference champion Zane Trace 178-157. Finishing third was Southeastern at 96, followed by Paint Valley (93), Huntington (61), Unioto (53.5) and Adena (37.5).

However, the biggest story of the night was the 14 local student-athletes who are now individual conference title winners.

In the 106-pound division, Westfall's Nevin Netherton and ZT's Alex Brown squared off in the championship final. Netherton pinned Brown (3:40) after leading the bout 11-1. Southeastern's Shawn Knight finished third after beating Huntington's Jeremy Fletcher in the consolation finals.

At 113 pounds, the Pioneers grabbed their first individual title of the day when Jordan Hoselton beat Westfall's Liam Smith 9-3. Huntington's Dylan Carroll took third with a 15-12 decision over Paint Valley's Noah Davis. At 120, Unioto won its lone individual title of the day as Ashten Moody pinned Huntington's Cody Thomas (1:34). PV's Adrian Salomone was third with a 13-3 major decision over Westfall's Alexis Wickline.

Westfall's Hunter Bolt was the 126-pound champion after beating PV's Tygr Tesi 11-2. Huntington's Devon Carroll took third with a pin of SE's Kayla Lipscomb (0:27). 2015 state qualifier Alex Gordy of Southeastern then took the 132-pound title — the fourth conference title in his career — with an 11-3 decision over Westfall's Jonas Profitt. Unioto's Trevor Lewis took third by pinning PV's Zach Thompson (5:16).

"Alex looked good today, all the way around," Southeastern coach J.C. Abner said. "It's hard to keep that bigger picture out of his head and get done what needs to get done before the postseason. We're taking the necessary steps, though. But overall, he looked good today."

Following Gordy was yet another 2015 state qualifier in ZT's Avery Brown, who beat SE's Blake Vest 6-3 for an SVC title at 138 pounds. Unioto's Chad Uhrig was third in the weight class after beating PV's Jaren Holbert by major decision, 16-3.

In the 145-pound weight class, Westfall's Sean Netherton topped ZT's Bobby Nye 8-7 after Nye had led earlier in the match 5-3. PV's Dylan Knight took third with a pin over SE's Cinque Gibson (2:18). At 152 pounds, Westfall's Justin Butcher topped ZT's Dawson Hoselton 9-6 for a title while Adena's Tyler Felts came in third thanks to a 13-3 win over SE's Bryce McDonald.

Adena's Brett Posey then claimed the Warriors' lone title by edging Westfall's Justin Trapp 6-5 at 160 pounds. Coming in third inside the weight class was SE's Shane Gibbs. At 170 pounds, ZT's Brendan Johnson took a title bout over Westfall's Mitchel Green with a pin (2:36) after SE's Autumn Newberry took third by forfeit.

PV's Teagan McFadden then pinned Westfall's Scott Mulkey (1:41) at 182 pounds before teammate Caleb Johnson followed with a pin of his own over Adena's Bret Lane (3:44) at 195 pounds. Finishing third at 182 was Southeastern's Zach Ratliff, while Westfall's Gaven Calahan took third at 195.

"(Teagan and Caleb) did what we expected of them," Paint Valley coach Dave Salomone said. "We've seen most of these teams this year. We hadn't wrestled Adena yet, but Caleb got to try some new moves there, so that's good. Both of them are wrestling up a weight class so we've got to get their weight down. But they're within five pounds or so. Going into sectionals and getting to districts, they've got to work on their fundamentals."

The win for McFadden was his fourth career individual conference crown, while Johnson's win marked his third.

ZT's Austin Carroll then beat Huntington's Jerod Coey 5-1 at 220 pounds before teammate Tanner Kunz bested Westfall's Alex White 11-2 at 285 pounds, finishing the night off. Unioto's Nick Robinette took third at 220, while Huntington's Lyle Watters took third at 285.

"Our guys wrestled hard," Wax said. "You could see their emotion and I'm glad they were that much into the matches. If you see a kid out there doing his best, you can't ask for anything more. That's the way it should be. They're just great overall kids. I'm proud of them from start to finish."

In all, Westfall took home four titles, six second-place finishes, one third-place result and one fourth place. Zane Trace won the most individual titles with five, while having three wrestlers finish second and two taking fourth.

"Tomorrow, we'll get back to it and leave at 4:30 to work out," Wax said. "We go down to Caesar's Creek to a place called Prodigy. So we'll keep training. Today wasn't practice, it was competition. They competed well and in two weeks, it's the postseason. So we're excited. I think we can put multiple wrestlers into Columbus."

Division II Southeast District sectional tournaments will be Feb. 19-20 at Alexander and Washington Court House high schools. The Division III Southeast District sectional will be the same dates at  Alexander High School.

dwebb@chillicothegazette.com

Twitter: @dw1509