CAMDEN — With seven individual champions and four runners-up, Preble Shawnee’s wrestling team claimed its third consecutive Western Ohio Athletic Conference championship on Saturday, Feb. 17 on its home mat.

Shawnee outdistanced the six-team field by nearly 100 points. The Arrows tallied 191 points. Twin Valley South was second with 96. National Trail was third with 83 and Tri-County North was sixth with 59. Arcanum was fourth with 76 and Dixie was fifth with 60.

“You know, (we had) one or two letdowns other than that everybody came up, ready to go,” Preble Shawnee assistant coach Brian Carter said. “Our league is important to people, whether it’s the WOAC or SWBL we all care about the league meet.”

Shawnee senior Riley Stevenson, who won the 170-pound weight class, was named the WOAC Wrestler of the Year.

Earlier this season Stevenson became the Arrows all-time winningest wrestler and is closing in on 150 career wins.

“Riley deserves everything he gets. He puts in the work. He puts in extra time. He’s the first one there probably. Last one to leave,” Carter said. “He’ll go with anybody. It doesn’t matter how big (or) how small he’ll help him out. He’ll wrestle with them. He’s just a great person.”

Carter said the Arrows have a good core group and hopes to have several wrestlers advance to the district tournament.

“We’ve got a good group of six or seven guys that go hard all the time,” he said. “So, it’s hard to pinpoint one individual other than Riley. Seventh in the state’s pretty impressive.”

Carter was selected as the conference Coach of the Year and he tried to downplay the honor.

“Well, I’m not in the awards per se,” he said. “I get more enjoyment out of the kids hitting the moves and doing the right things and coming off (the mat) smiling and coming off with their hand raised than any piece of hardware. It’s nice that Kage (Worley) did this, but he is the head coach and he’s the one that has kept assembling our staff. He’s the one that kept (us) together. So yeah, I have more expertise. But he’s the glue that holds this together right now. That’s key for me.”

Twin Valley South had three champions, while National Trail had three and Tri-County North had one.

The postseason begins this week. Shawnee and Twin Valley South will compete in the Division III sectional at Versailles, while National Trial and Tri-County North will compete at Covington.

Wrestling is scheled to begin at 10 a.m. at both locations.

Championship results:

First Place

106: Jackson Finch (Preble Shawnee) pin Hunter Eley (Arcanum) 0:55;

113: Max Woodgeard (Twin Valley So.) dec. Beau Garnett (Preble Shawnee) 6-3;

120: Zarrin Walton (Preble Shawnee) pin Micah Parris (Tri-County North) 1:11;

126: Nolan Earles (Preble Shawnee) pin Jesus Gonzalez (Arcanum) 2:34;

132: Zack Creager (National Trail) pin Alex Mackellar (Tri-County North) 1:56;

138: Brayden Childers (Twin Valley So.) pin Haylee Bloom (Tri-County North) 1:38;

144: Clayton Woodgeard (Twin Valley So.) dec. John Nestor (Preble Shawnee) 6-5;

150: Charlie Million (Preble Shawnee) pin Aden Jackson (Arcanum) 1:14;

157: Henry Toschlog (National Trail) pin Jackson Conner (Dixie) 1:57;

165: Rylan Haney (Tri-County North) pin Garrett Campbell (Preble Shawnee) 1:11;

175: Riley Stevenson (Preble Shawnee) pin Jayden Kincer (Dixie) 2:20;

190: Konner Kuhn (Preble Shawnee) pin Conner Wyatt (National Trail) 5:52;

215: Christopher Parker (Preble Shawnee) pin Zach Lawson (National Trail) 3:16;

285: James Baker (National Trail) pin Ryder Taylor (Preble Shawnee) 0:47;

Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.