HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Parkersburg South finished off one of the more dominating seasons a high school wrestling team could dream of Saturday night, claiming its fifth straight Class AAA state championship with 248 points at Big Sandy Superstore Arena.
Six Patriots won individual championships to help in the team’s record-setting effort, while Point Pleasant and Greenbrier West won the Class AA and Class A championships with 203 and 95 points, respectively.
Braxton Amos was his usual dominant self for Parkersburg South, improving to 46-0 for the season and 93-0 for his prep career with a 16-1 technical fall victory over Wheeling Park’s Dylan Wood in the 220-pound title match.
“I’ve wrestled him four other times before this one and knew what I needed to do to take the guy down,” Amos said.
Amos was joined by three teammates — Zane Hinzman, Brayden Roberts and Gavin Quiocho — in recording their second individual title.
Hinzman earned an 18-5 major decision win over Buckhannon-Upshur’s Jake Smithson in the 160-pound title, while Roberts took home the 145-pound crown with a 2-0 victory against Wheeling Park’s Andrew Shelek.
“When I’m going forward, no one in my weight class is better than me and I just needed to attack,” Hinzman said.
Quiocho was the 138-pound champ with a 5-1 victory over Parkersburg’s Bo Moler.
Brayden Johnson also recorded a title for PSHS, defeating Parkersburg’s Garret Donahue 8-2 in the 120-pound final.
Perhaps the most rewarding of Parkersburg South’s titles came from Louden Haga, who had lost in the finals three straight seasons. Haga earned a hard-fought 2-1 win over Riverside’s Austin Chapman in the heavyweight title match.
“It’s a lot of long, tough practice and a lot of extra cardio and extra drilling, but it shows that it pays off,” Amos said of his team’s success. “We were making noise at national tournaments and did our jobs here.”
For Point Pleasant, Isaac Short, Derek Raike and Justin Bartee each won titles.
Short got the better of East Fairmont’s Geno Casuccio 1-0 in the 106-pound final, while Raike pinned Oak Hill’s Ashby West at the 3:02 mark of the 120-pound title match and Bartee pinned Wirt County’s Wyatt Powell at the 3:41 mark of the 126-pound final.
“The conditioning we do in practice really helped me push through,” Short said. “My training is high level and my coaching staff is great. That’s what helped me win a state title this year.”
Greenbrier West’s Chase Patterson had the Cavaliers’ best individual finish, earning runner-up honors in the 195-pound division after a 5-2 loss to Independence’s Mason Kump.
Other Class AA/A individual champions were: East Fairmont’s Blake Boyers (113) and Lane Flint (132) and Nate Kotsko (182), Madonna’s Alec Cook (145) and Garrett Cook (220), Oak Glen’s Peyton Hall (138), Winfield’s Jamie Ward (152), Bridgeport’s Austin Gibson (160), Braxton County’s Jordan Williams (170) and Fairmont Senior heavyweight Zach Frazier, who pinned Braxton County’s Quin Meador to win a state title less than three months after playing a key role on the Class AA state champion football team.
“I was just trying to beat down on his head and wear him out basically to make it a longer match than normal,” Frazier said of his win in the final.
In Class AAA, individual titles were won by Spring Mills’ Michael Dolan (106), Wheeling Park’s Nate Shelek (113), St. Albans’ Brandon Holt (126), Musselman’s Joey Miller (132), Parkersburg’s John Martin Best (152), St. Albans’ Isaiha Casto (170), John Marshall’s Anthony Carman (182) and Hampshire’s Dustin Swisher (195).
Independence finished second in Class AA with 120 points, slightly ahead of East Fairmont (114.5).
Wirt County was runner-up in Class A with 74 points.
Wheeling Park, with 175 points, was second in Class AAA, while Huntington took third with 154 points.