Photo by Kim North Barnesville’s Aydan Andrews works for back points against John Marshall’s Clayton Pyles-Dugas at 120 pounds during their dual meet Wednesday inside Monarch Field House in Moundsville. Andrews won by 19-4 technical fall, but the Shamrocks fell, 37-36.

MOUNDSVILLE — Two local wrestling teams prepared for their respective state dual meet tournaments this weekend with an exciting dual of their own Wednesday night.

Barnesville and John Marshall went head-to-head inside the Monarch Field House with the hosts prevailing by the slimmest of margins, 37-36.

The Shamrocks travel to Marion Elgin High School north of Columbus Saturday for Ohio Division III action, while the Monarchs venture to the W.Va. State Fairgrounds in Lewisburg to take part in the W.Va. Class AAA event.

“We needed a good win like this to give us some momentum going into the state duals this weekend,” John Marshall head coach Ryan Asbury said. “Barnesville always has a solid team. We’ve had a couple close matches (losses) with them in the last couple years, so it was nice to finally come out on top.”

Asbury and his staff made an adjustment in the latter stages of the dual that provided just enough points to win. Leading 31-20 entering the 175-pound bout, John Marshall bumped up senior Maverick Lemasters to 190 and sent Spencer South out to face Hines Ward. Ward won by a 15-0 technical fall to pull the Shamrocks to within 31-25.

Lemasters then recorded a 63-second pin to bump the margin to 37-25, meaning Barnesville needed back-to-back pins at 215 and 285 to tie.

Christien Hannahs had his opponent on his back in the first and second periods, but couldn’t seal the deal before earning a 15-0 technical fall, thus giving the Monarchs an unreachable 37-30. Barnesville’s Blake Kirk took a mere 30 seconds to pin his foe for the final margin.

“Coming into the match we were looking at bumping Maverick up from 175 to 190 if we got the chance, but when we got the pins at 150 and 157 that allowed us to do so,” Asbury explained. “We were pretty much evenly matched in the middleweights, but we were fortunate enough to come out with two pins there.”

He was referring to six-point victories from Waylon Wyckoff (150) and Kai Johnson (157) in 2:41 and 4:22, respectively. That took the lead from 19-14 to 31-14.

“I’m a little displeased,” Barnesville head coach Jayson Stephen said. “You always want to win the dual. Win the dual or lose the dual, it’s not the end of the world. We came down here for the matchups. Then they bump their good kid away from ours just so they can win the dual. That’s not what we came here for.”

Barnesville led 6-0 as Easton Stephen (106) received a forfeit, but John Marshall drew even when Nathan Hughes (113) recorded a pin in 4:31. The Shamrocks took a 14-6 advantage on a 19-4 technical fall by Aydan Andrews (120) and a 16-9 decision by Haden Bowman (126).

However, a forfeit by Barnesville started a five-match winning streak for the hosts and they never trailed.

After Carter Adkins (132) had his hand raised, OVAC Ron Mauck Tournament champion Zander Ward (144) earned a 4-3 nod over Colt Carpenter in a rematch of their OVAC semifinal, in which No. 4 seeded Ward prevailed 4-2. Ironically, the fourth-seeded Carpenter pinned the top-seeded Ward in the 2024 semifinals on his way to the 126-pound title.

“That was a very good match for Zander,” Asbury said. “He wrestled smart and wrestled his match. He did a nice job of getting that takedown to put the match away.”

Kaden Harding followed up with a 11-1 major decision as the margin grew to 19-14.

Barnesville won four of the final five matches, including a 4:52 pin by OVAC Ron Mauck Tournament champion Ayden King (165), but it was too little, too late.