Washington High School has seven wrestlers advancing to the District tournament, along with three District alternates. (l-r); Gavin Huff, alternate; Talon Freese, Jake Bashor, Brady Rohrer, Malachi McCullough, Mack Parsley, Ian Roush, Brendan Peters, alternate; Cody Brown and Cameron Jones, alternate.
Courtesy photo
GALLIPOLIS — The Washington Blue Lions made a strong showing at the Division II Sectional wrestling tournament held at Gallia Academy High School located not far from the Ohio River Saturday, Feb. 25.
There were actually two Sectional tournaments held simultaneously at Gallia Academy High School.
There were a total of 19 teams; 10 in one tournament and nine in the other.
Washington was in the 10-team Sectional and placed third with 152 team points.
Miami Trace won this Sectional, followed by River Valley.
Jackson was fifth with 121 points, Unioto was seventh with 81.5 points and McClain was ninth with 41.5 points.
The Blue Lions emerged from the tournament with seven District qualifiers and two Sectional champions.
Mack Parsley won the Sectional at 165 pounds and Brady Rohrer won the 215-pound title.
Other District qualifiers for Washington are: Talon Freese, placing second at 120 pounds; Ian Roush, second at 144 pounds; Malachi McCullough, second at 150 pounds; Cody Brown placed third at 138 pounds; Jake Bashor was third at 285; Brayden Warner was fourth at 106 pounds.
Washington also has three District alternates, wrestlers who placed fifth at the Sectional; Gavin Huff, 132; Cameron Jones, 175 and Brendan Peters, 190.
Parsley went 3-0 with a 6-2 win over Mike Baker of Jackson, a pin of Jason Williams of Warren in 3:18 and a pin of Miami Trace’s Landon St. Clair in 3:06.
Rohrer was 3-0 in the tournament.
He began with a pin of Kartyr Armstrong of Warren in 3:06, an 11-4 decision over Hunter Sites of Jackson and a 5-4 decision over McClain’s Ethan Hill.
“We wrestled really well at the Sectional,” Washington head coach Louis Reid said. “We’re really pleased with how our kids wrestled.
“We were hoping to get 10 through (to the District),” Reid said. “We got seven through. We were shooting a little higher, but we’re not disappointed with that. Anytime you get kids moving on to the District level, it’s exciting to see.
“As a team, our goal was to finish in the top two,” Reid said. “We fell short of that, but we finished third. We wrestled really well.
“Mack Parsley was champion at 165,” Reid said. “He was seeded fourth.
“Brady Rohrer was champion at 215 and he was seeded fourth,” Reid said.
“Our two seniors also moved on,” Reid said. “Cody Brown at 138 and Ian Roush at 144.
“We had a freshman finish second at 150, that was Malachi McCullough,” Reid said. “Talon Freese, a sophomore, finished second at 120. Sophomore Jake Bashor was third at heavyweight.
“Freshman Gavin Huff was fifth at 132,” Reid said. “Cameron Jones, another freshman, was fifth at 175. Sophomore Brendan Peters was fifth at 190. We have a pretty young lineup. We will graduate two, so, that’s even more exciting that these young wrestlers are going to get to the District tournament and have a shot to make it to the Schottenstein Center and the State wrestling tournament the following weekend.”
The competition ratchets up quite a number of degrees between the Sectional and District tournament levels, Reid explained.
“Now you’re down to the best 64 wrestlers in the whole state of Ohio, Division II, in each weight class,” Reid said. “You have your best 16 wrestlers (in each weight class) at the Districts.
“We’d like to have at least five kids place at Districts,” Reid said. “Our expectation is, we’d like to get from one to three kids to the State tournament,” Reid said. “We’d like to finish in the top 15 as a team. Those are our goals.”
