Saturday, December 16, 2007
The Covington wrestling team battled their way to a third place finish at the twelve-team Lincolnview Invitational. The Buccs finished with 201.5 team points – not quite enough to catch runner-up Ayersville (214), but plenty to hold off fourth-place finisher Spencerville (145.5). Tiffin Calvert, with their two returning state qualifiers and five additional district qualifiers, captured the title with 279.5 points.
All eleven wrestlers in Covington’s starting line-up placed in the top five of their weight classes with two – Andrew DeHart (130 lbs) and Logan Hall (171 lbs) finishing in first place. After pinning his way into the finals, DeHart squared off against Tiffin-Calvert’s Darris Correll – a returning district placer and wasted no time in earning the first takedown. From there, Dehart went to the cradle to earn nearfall points and continued to smother Correll, building a 10-1 lead in just the first period. He would go on to win the bout in the second period with a 17-1 technical fall.
In the 171 lb. championship, Logan Hall faced Van Wert’s Matt Noggle – a Division II district qualifier. Noggle struck first with a throw out of bounds to earn the near fall, and after Hall escaped, scored another takedown off of a throw to build a 4-1 lead. Hall earned a reversal and near fall points to go ahead 6-4 and then controlled the match from that point on, ending with a 9-5 victory.
Covington’s other three finalists dominated the rest of their competition, but dropped their championship bouts to finish in second place. Sam Herron (119 lbs) fell to Spencerville’s Justin Caudill, Matt Breisch to Carey’s Eddie Fredritz and Justin McMillion to Dayton Jefferson’s Jacob Mendenhall.
Both Quentin Layman (135 lbs) and Jake Jennings (160 lbs) finished up in fourth place for the Buccs. Layman had three pins on the day before injury defaulting his final bout, while Jennings earned two pins and a major decision before falling in his final bout, 9-4, to Van Wert’s Brad Allmandinger.
The rest of Covington’s squad won some and lost some, but all finished on a high note with a win to finish in fifth place. At 103 lbs, Zach Shilt went right to work with a takedown on Wayne Trace’s Cole Bowsher. He would earn a reversal in the second and control the match from the top in the third en route to a 10-1 major decision.
At 125 lbs, Tyler Tebbe finished the tourney on a strong note earning a takedown in the first and a reversal in the second before pinning Coldwater’s Brian Hemmelgarn. Tebbe also advanced to the fifth place match with a pin. Josh McMillion (140 lbs) finished his tournament in much the same way, earning a number of takedowns before getting a fall against Carey’s JJ Regatti.
Also finishing in fifth place was Covington’s Aaron Devenport. Devenport maintained a very narrow lead throughout the bout, but took advantage of an opportunity to pin Tiffin Calvert’s Byron Mack and finish with three pins on the day.
Covington will host Mechanicsburg and Lehman on Wednesday, December 19. The Bucc’s jr. high and youth teams will also compete against Mechanicsburg, and this will be the only opportunity to see all three squads in action at the same time. The meet starts at 5:30 pm.
