NEW LEBANON — Preble Shawnee captured its first-ever wrestling conference championship as well as the first-ever Western Ohio Athletic Conference title on Friday, Feb. 18 at Dixie High School.
The Arrows topped the six-team field with 112 points followed by National Trail who totaled 99.5 points for the runner-up finish.
Tri-County North and Twin Valley South tied for fourth with 59 points.
The Arrows had the most individual champions with four. National Trail and Twin Valley South each had two, while North and had one.
National Trail coach Bobby Clark was voted as the WOAC Coach of the Year.
“Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud,” Shawnee assistant coach Kage Worley said. “We’ve had a lot of ups and downs this year. We came in short a couple of really good wrestlers. And I’m really just extremely proud of the way these guys banded together and got the job done. First league title in school history. It’s a big deal. I think a few years back we were pretty close but couldn’t quite close a deal. We’re a young team so it’s good to look forward to.”
Nolan Earles was the first Arrows to win a title. The 120-pounder pinned Nathaniel Tirey of National Trail in 5 minutes, 43 seconds.
At 157 pounds, Brayden Doran pinned Levi Rehmert of Arcanum in 1:34.
Riley Stevenson gave the Arrows their third champion with a 6-4 win over Ethan Wilson of National Trail at 175 pounds.
Christopher Parker secured the title with a pin of National Trail’s James Baker in 1:00 at 285 pounds. Parker was trailing 7-2 at the time of the pin.
Isaac Brewer fell in the finals at 144 pounds.
“These guys really did band together and they came to wrestle today,” Worley said. “I can’t stress it enough, we’ve had some ups and downs. We’ve had some some hurt wrestlers and some injuries throughout the season and we came in not quite knowing what to expect. We were short quite a few guys and and they really did step up to the plate. I couldn’t be more proud.”
For National Trail, Zack Creager won the 126 pound division with a pin of Arcanum’s Landon Wagner.
At 132 pounds, Caleb Reynolds won by tech fall over Clayton Woodgeard of Twin Valley South, 17-1.
For Twin Valley South, Jake Gose pinned Micah Jarrett of Arcanum in 1:10 at 150 pounds and Peyton Whaley pinned Aiden Walters of Preble Shawnee in 1:00.
For Tri-County North, Nathan Jeffers pinned Tyler Craft of Dixie in 5:34 to win the 138-pound weight class.
Sectional wrestling begins this week at Sidney Lehman and Covington.
