T-L File Photo/KIM NORTH ST. CLAIRSVILLE’S Gannon Kazmirski works for control of Martins Ferry’s Dylan Ward during a match earlier this season. Kazmirski is in the Division II district semifinals at 106 pounds.

GALLIPOLIS — St. Clairsville advanced five individuals to today’s Division II Eastern District wrestling tournament semifinals. Each won a pair of matches Friday during the two-session event at Gallia Academy.

Red Devils remaining alive for championships include Gannon Kazmirski (106), Harrison Kazmirski (126), Koen Kish (132), Caden Stout (145) and Reese Skaggs (220).

Behind those performances, St. Clairsville sits in fourth place in the tightly contested team race with 63.5 points. Beaver Local leads the pack with 73, followed closely by Minerva with 72.5. Steubenville is fourth with 63.5.

Gannon Kazmirski, Harrison Kazmirski, Kish and Skaggs all recorded a pair of pins. Stout had a pin and major decision.

Gannon Kazmirski, who finished third at the Steubenville sectional, pinned Fairfield Union’s James Worthington in 1:54 before getting a mat-slapper in 3:54 over New Lexington’s Ethan Burkhart, who won the Alexander sectional. The Red Devils’ junior is now 31-7 and ranked No. 23 by Borofan.

Harrison Kazmirski, a runnerup at the Steubenville sectional as a freshman, improved to 27-10 with pins over Minerva’s Anthony Fletcher (3:43) and Gallia Academy’s Todd Elliott (0:43), who was also a champ at Alexander.

Kish, like he did in breezing to the Steubenville sectional title, made things look easy with a 30-second fall of Jackson’s Blake Sheeter and a 56-second pin of River View’s Austin Philabaum. Kish, now 35-2 as a senior, is ranked No. 3 in his weight class. He is a defending district champion at 126 and a two-time state qualifier.

Stout, now 34-6 as a junior and ranked 10th, started with a pin of Washington Courthouse Washington’s Zaigne Fettig in 1:55. He then romped past Indian Creek’s Dominick Paterra by a 21-9 count.

Skaggs is now 30-3 and ranked fifth, needed a mere 35 ticks to flatten Washington Courthouse Washington’s Brady Rohrer before taking down Claymont’s Myles Clark in one minute.

Staying alive in the consolation bracket was junior Mason McCort (152) who won two matches after losing his first bout.

“There is a lot of good competition here. We were hoping to be somewhere in the top 5 after the first day, so to be in third right now is pretty pleasing,” St. C. head coach Joel Sansone said.

Sansone was impressed by three of his semifinalists.

“We thought Gannon had a really good shot at getting to state,” Sansone admitted. “He really went out and controlled the match and finally broke the kid at the end to get the pin.

“We told Harrison that his second opponent didn’t see the type of competition we did,” Sansone said of Elliott. “He got the takedown and went right to the half and got the pin.

“Caden putting up 21 points on Paterra was pretty impressive, too,” he added.

Union Local’s duo of Brady Crum (152) and Claude Romshak (170) remain alive.