Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Covington high school wrestling team traveled to Ben Logan to compete in their 12-team invitational and the squad put in an outstanding performance. Despite forfeiting the 215 and 285 lb weight classes – while competing against numerous teams with full rosters – the Buccs missed claiming the tournament title by a mere 1.5 points.
Covington was forced to overcome very bad draws and the withdrawal of one of their finalists, but still managed to rack up 235 team points for second place – their highest finish at the tournament. Ben Logan won the event with 236.5 points, while Franklin (196.5), Northwestern (183.5) and Tecumseh (171) rounded out the top five.
With three champions, four runners-up, a fourth, two fifths and a sixth place finisher, the Covington wrestlers out-placed and out-pinned the tournament champions, but received so many byes in the early rounds that they didn’t have nearly as many opportunities to earn team points.
Taking home tournament titles for the Buccs were Matt Breisch (119), Kyler Deeter (130) and Andrew DeHart (145). DeHart was also named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) at the event.
Breisch went 4-0 on the day, upsetting the no. 1 seed, Zach Creamer of Ben Logan with a convincing 9-4 decision. Deeter stormed through the tournament with a 4-0 record, pinning or tech-falling each of his opponents and pinning Oscer Romero of Franklin just one minute into the final bout. DeHart also pinned or tech’d each of his opponents on his way to a 5-0 record, and needed just over a minute to earn a fall in the finals over Chuck Buchanan of Tecumseh.
Advancing to the finals and finishing in second place were Brock Smith (103), Dylan Gustin (135), Tyler Tebbe (140) and Josh McMillion (152). Smith dropped his final bout to Chase Crabtree of Northwestern, while Gustin lost to Ben Logan’s Luke Smith, finishing with a 4-1 record. Tebbe built a 4-0 record with 3 pins to advance to the finals, but forfeited his final match as a precautionary measure. McMillion went 4-1 on the day with an impressive 12-4 major decision victory over Northwestern’s Mason Sherrock, who entered the tournament with a 24-2 record.
Sam Angle placed 4th at 125 lbs, and both Bryton Lear (112) and Josh Shefbuch (189) placed 5th. Aaron Devenport took 6th in a very deep 160 lb weight class, while Brian Olson also competed for the Buccs.
Covington travels next to Versailles on Thursday, Feb. 4, for a dual with the Tigers starting at 6:30 pm.
The Covington reserve wrestling team traveled to the 27-team Vandalia-Butler JV invitational and competed well – placing 15th with 33 points. Brandon Flora led the way for the Buccs with a 4th place finish at 135 lbs and became Covington’s highest placer ever at the event.
Flora may have finished even higher as he went 4-1 on the day, losing only to the eventual tournament champion Andrew McCord of Lakota West, but since he had wrestled the maximum number of matches allowed by the OHSAA in a day, he was forced to default to fourth place.
Jake Sowers (125, 1 pin), Alex Bitner (130, 2 pins) and Lon Bitner (140, 1 pin) all won matches for Covington, while Justin Millhouse (112), D.J. Seger (125) and Cody Adams (160) each competed for the Buccs and gained valuable experience.
The reserve team travels to the Tipp City JV Invitational on Saturday, February 6.
