Sun staff
A strong showing across three divisions of Southwest Ohio High School sectional tournaments on Feb. 28 resulted in four Clermont County teams and 10 more individuals qualifying for this week’s district tournament.
Glen Este, New Richmond, Bethel-Tate and Williamsburg all qualified through their respective sectionals as a team, while wrestlers from Milford, Goshen, Batavia and Clermont Northeastern punched their tickets to the next round through individual qualifying.
In Division I, the Trojans of Glen Este finished in third place behind Moeller and Lebanon. An impressive nine wrestlers grappled for sectional titles, yet none were able to win their final match. One more, Owen Reeves at 145 pounds, lost a third-place match.
All in all, Glen Este placed 10 wrestlers on the podium: runners up Oscar Santana (106), Brandon Hertel (113), Gage Branson (120), Evan Gottis (138), Avery Jones (152), Matt Kennedy (182), Nate Stone (195) and Seth Crissman (285) and fourth-place finisher, Reeves (145).
Also emerging from the Division I sectional at Lebanon High School was a pair of fourth-place finishers from Milford: Trevor Worley (120) and Shaun Burgdorf (126).
The other local team competing in Division I, Amelia, was unable to qualify anyone through, although Tyler Howard (182) finished in fifth place and Vinnie Gabriele (113) came in sixth.
In Division II, New Richmond finished in third place as a team behind Western Brown and Ross. The Lions boasted one sectional champion in Brandon Planck at 126 pounds and three other runners up.
Lane Dees (113), Mike Jones (152) and Justin Noble (220) all finished in second place. Nickoli Lewis (132) and Ryan Buckley (160) came in third.
Batavia’s Darnay Foley was a sectional champion at 220 pounds and the only Bulldog to advance to the next round.
Goshen had a solid showing despite having no wrestlers in a championship match. The Warriors moved six wrestlers on from the Batavia sectional, including Trey Atwood (145) and Maxwell Glass (195) who won third-place matches. Brice Briggs (113), Collin Briggs, Jacob Kube (132) and Alan Fastovich (138) qualified for the district by virtue of fourth-place finishes.
The Blanchester Division III sectional saw Bethel-Tate and Williamsburg advance to districts as a team.
The Tigers matched the hosts, Blanchester, with four sectional champions. Aric Peters (120), Justin Hixson (132), Jeffrey Botts (182) and Kermit Beckworth (285) all stood atop the podium by day’s end.
BJ Ratcliff (160) was Bethel’s lone sectional runner up, while Travis Kinnard (152) and Wyatt O’Neil (170) finished third and Matt Hall (113) and Austin Carter (126) came in fourth.
For the Wildcats, three championship hopefuls fell in first-place matches: Kendal Johnson (113), Wyatt Lefker (132) and Dawson Davis (170).
Bryson Vize (285) was a third-place finisher for Burg and Trent Brewer (138), Mike Ellison (182), Dylan Bailey (195) and Billy Cadwallader (220) were fourth-place finishers.
The Clermont Northeastern Rockets will be represented at districts by Seth Chambers (126) who finished second.
The Division I district tournament will be held at Fairmont High School, the Division II will be held at Southeastern High School and the Division III will be held at Hobart Arena in Troy, all of which are being contested on Friday and Saturday, March 6 and 7.
A complete schedule of events can be found on swdab.org.