Photo by Kim North Martins Ferry’s Jayce Nixon looks for back points as he has a cradle on Barnesville’s Hoyt Hartshorn in their 113-pound bout during the OVAC Bill Hinegardner Class 3A Dual Meet Championship Thursday night inside the John Marshall Fieldhouse in Moundsville. Nixon won by pin, but the Purple Riders fell to the Shamrocks, 40-22.

MOUNDSVILLE — Ever since the OVAC Bill Hinegardner Dual Meet Championships were canceled and paper champions were declared in 2020, Barnesville hasn’t lost a Class 3A championship.

Thursday night was much of the same as a young Shamrock squad rolled to a pair of victories in claiming their sixth consecutive title inside the John Marshall Fieldhouse.

The No. 1 seed routed short-handed fourth seed Wheeling Central, 61-12, in the semifinals before handing No. 2 Martins Ferry a 40-22 setback in the championship bout.

“I knew Martins Ferry had a better team than it has had in the past couple of years and we figured they were going to do a little bumping around with their kids,” veteran Barnesville head coach Jayson Stephen said. “We decided to bump with them and our kids understand why we did it. It worked out for us, but if we hadn’t, it might have been a little bit tighter.”

Barnesville bolted to a 21-6 lead before the Purple Riders cut it to 21-12 but a pin from Colt Carpenter (150) and a decision by Knoxx Mankin (157) bumped the count back to 30-12.

A pin by senior Hines Ford (175) sealed the deal. Ford has been a part of the last four titles.

“It feels amazing to be able to do this with my teammates … my brothers,” Ford said. “We’ve got a lot of really good underclassmen and it feels good to be the lone senior.”

Martins Ferry head coach Chad Ware was pleased with what he saw from his young squad, as well.

“I’m always proud of my guys. No matter who we wrestle, they go out and wrestle hard,” he said. “We know what we are up against with Barnesville. We tried to move our lineup around a little bit and we were close for a while, but eventually they overtook us.”