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Barnesville, Bridgeport claim OVAC mat crowns

WHEELING – Although no area individuals won titles during the 66th annual Ohio Valley Athletic Conference Ron Mauck Wrestling Championships Saturday, a pair of local teams left WesBanco Arena with some top hardware.

Bridgeport hadn’t won an OVAC mat championship since it went back-to-back in 1987-88 in Class 2A and 3A, respectively. The 31-year drought ended over the weekend as the Bulldogs piled up 62 points in three days to win the Class 1A/2A crown by four points over Caldwell.

Barnesville, meanwhile, returned to the top for the first time since 2007 by claiming the Class 3A championship with 80 points, which was also good enough for 10th place overall.

“I’m proud of the entire team. We wrestled hard all weekend. This was a total team effort,” Bridgeport head coach David Nelson said. “Every kid that won a match contributed to this victory.”

The title was the 10th overall for the Bulldogs. They also won the first seven tournaments ever held (1954-60) when it was a one-class field, but had fallen on some hard times until Nelson’s arrival.

“As a staff we’re good at getting kids to come out and developing them,” Nelson noted. “The kids go out and wrestle hard and that’s all we can ask for.”

Bridgeport was led by its two senior leaders in Tino Kusic (170) and Mason Kuneff (160).

Kusic, who finished runnerup, became the school’s all-time win leader Saturday afternoon with his 157th victory, surpassing Brian Roskovich and Bryan Skoff. Kuneff ended up fourth.

Kusic, the No. 2 seed, dropped a tough 7-5 sudden-victory decision to Beaver Local’s top-seeded Beau Smith. The Bulldog senior trailed 1-0 after two periods but took a 5-2 lead with a takedown with 56 seconds left. However, he surrendered an escape and subsequent takedown in the waning seconds to force overtime where Smith secured a takedown and the win.

“We’ve had a lot of runnerup finishes as a team where we’ve just fallen short,” Barnesville head coach Jayson Stephen said. “It wasn’t looking good in the blood-round (fourth round of consolations) when we lost four kids from placing, but the two kids that wrestled today did what they had to do.”

He was referring to freshman Griffen Stephen (106) and senior Brylan Clouse (182) who both lost in the semifinals but bounced back to each grab third place.

“Brylan and Griffen both battled back from tough semifinal losses to each get third place, and that was huge for points,” he offered. “You can’t ask for anymore than that after losing in the semis. It didn’t affect them and they came back and did what they needed to do.

The Shamrocks also have 10 team titles now. They won their first title in 1977 as Class A/AA champs before taking the Class AAA titles in 1983 and 1985, which was the only time they won the overall title. They have been Class AA runnersup in 1995, 1997, 2000-01 and 2006-07.

St. Clairsville finished second in Class 4A with 120 points, which was well behind overall champion Beaver Local’s 303. Head coach Joel Sansone had half-a-dozen of his Red Devils reach the podium.

“When you have the overall champions in your division, it kind of makes it hard to get first-place, but, you know what, we’ll take second place to them,” he said. “The kids wrestled a good tournament. The six placers are the most we’ve had since I’ve been here. We were on the brink of having 8 or 10, but the good news is that our of our six placers, only one is a senior.”

That one would be senior Justice McCamick (220) who finished fifth. He was joined on the podium by sophomores Koen Kish (120-3rd), Caden Stout (132-6th), Austin DaRe (138-7th) and Reese Skaggs (170-5th); along with junior Derek Witsberger (195-4th).

Buckeye Local had four placers in sophomore Brian Palmer Jr. (132-3rd); junior Zac Cesario (220-8th); and seniors Charlie Smith (170-7th) and Shayne Christian (182-8th).

Martins Ferry had a trio of individuals reach the podium in senior Drake Dobson (195-3rd) and juniors Richie McFarland (182-5th) and Donte Lewis (285-8th).

Harrison Central also had three placewinners in seniors Blayne Erwin (182-6th), Josh Croft (195-6th) and Cody Gamble (285-3rd).

Bellaire checked with two placers in senior Joseph Bonfini (120-8th) and junior Cody Albaugh (160-8th).

Steubenville’s Peyton Blasko earned the coveted Bierkortte Award. The Big Red senior capped his run through the 126-pound bracket with a stunning, 6-5, ultimate-tiebreaker victory over Beaver Local’s two-time defending champion, Cole McComas.

Beaver Local, by virtue of four individual titlists, ran away with the overall and Class 4A team championships. The Beavers damned up a whopping 303 points to 243 for second-place Parkersburg South, which had won five straight crowns and eight of nine since joining the bi-state conference. The Wood County Patriots, however, did pocket the Class 5A title. Steubenville, the Class 4A runnerup, was third overall with 214.5 points. Wheeling Park, with 171, and John Marshall, with 154, rounded out the top 5.

Winning titles for the champions were Jaymin Salsberry (106), Logan Ours (120), Brenden Severs (160) and Smith. All but Smith, who’s committed to NCAA D-I Edinboro, are freshmen. Ours was also named the Hercules Award winner with the most pins in the least amount of time in the championship bracket. He pinned his way to his title.

John Marshall’s Anthony Carman (182) and Steubenville’s Anthony Rice (152) defended their titles, and both did so in dominating fashion. Carman, who has signed with WVU, moved to 34-2 on the season with a 9-1 major decision over Steubenville’s David Tuttle.

Other repeat winners were East Liverpool’s Howard Williams (113) and Parkersburg South’s Brayden Roberts (145) and nationally ranked Braxton Amos (220). Amos is ranked No. 1.

Oak Glen’s Peyton Hall (138) re-joined the winners circle as he won a championship as a freshman before finishing second last year. He won the Bierkortte Award two years ago.

University’s Jacob Simpson (132), Madonna’s Garrett Cook (195) and Parkersburg South’s Louden Haga (285) rounded out the individual titlists.

Parkersburg South won the Class 5A title.

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