COVINGTON – The Covington wrestling program honored three Buccaneer seniors on Senior Night and was able to capture a close victory over a very good Piqua team, 39-36.
The three seniors who were honored were Caleb Ryman, A.J. Reyes and Christian Clark. Unfortunately, Reyes and Clark were not able to wrestle on the final home floor of their careers due to injuries they had suffered.
The things that hurt the Buccaneers the most were the 18 points surrendered to Piqua due to forfeits in three weight classes; 106, 165 and 285. Fortunately, Piqua had to forfeit the 126 pound weight class, which helped the Buccaneers record the dual victory.
Overall, Covington won six out of the ten matches wrestled in the dual.
After surrendering the 106 pound weight class with a forfeit, Brody Taylor started off the dual by moving up to the 113 pound weight class and capturing a 1:01 pin against Piqua’s Aiden Allen. Unfortunately, the Indians picked up 12 straight points with a victory by pin at 120 pounds and a forfeit by Covington at 126 pounds.
At 132 pounds, instead of his original weight class at 126 pounds, Henry Skaggs followed up by recording a pin against Cameron Albright with just 8 second left in the match. Unfortunately, his six points accumulated for the team were minimized to five points due to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Jonny Miller also moved up a weight class from 132 to 138 and captured an impressive 15-0 technical fall victory over Charlie Shawyer, but the Indians responded with a major decision victory over Covington in the 144 pound weight class to close the deficit to 22-15.
The Buccaneers pushed their lead to 33-15 in the next two matches as Liam Geeding recorded a 46 second pin over Chase Kellems at 150 pounds and Caleb Ryman captured a 16-0 technical fall victory over Evan Hewitt.
The next three weight classes went into Piqua’s momentum as Nickolai Kaye received a forfeit at 165 pounds, William Ahrens won by a pin at 175 pounds and Austin Koehl won a 9-3 decision at 190 pounds.
With the outcome of the dual being determined in the 215 pound weight class, Covington received exactly what it needed as Trenton Havenar captured a 1:25 pin victory over Kaden Rice. This win by a pin pushed Covington’s lead to 39-30 with the final six points given to Piqua were a forfeit at 285 pounds.
The next competition for the Buccaneers on the schedule is a very tough league tournament on the TRC at Miami East High School on Saturday, February 21.
MATCH RESULTS: COVINGTON 39, PIQUA 36:
106 – Liam Alspough (Piqua) win by Forfeit (Covington) – 0-6
113 – Brody Taylor (Covington) win pin 1:01 over Aiden Allen (Piqua) – 6-6
120 – Brayden Hall (Piqua) win tech. fall 20-4 over Eddie Deaton (Covington – 6-11
126 – Ava Ostrov (Covington win by Forfeit (Piqua) – 12-11
132 – Henry Skaggs (Covington) win by pin 5:52 over Cameron Albright (Piqua) – 18-11
(Covington was penalized one-point with an unsportsmanlike like conduct) – 17-11
138 – Jonny Miller (Covington) win by Tech. Fall 15-0 over Charlie Shawyer (Piqua) – 22-11
144 – Seth Holt (Piqua) win by Maj. Dec. 12-3 over Weston Roth (Covington) – 22-15
150 – Liam Geeding (Covington win by pin 0:46 over Chase Kellems (Piqua) – 28-15
157 – Caleb Ryman (Covington) win by Tech. Fall 16-0 over Evan Hewitt (Piqua) – 33-15
165 – Nickolai Kaye (Piqua win by Forfeit (Covington) – 33-21
175 – William Ahrens (Piqua) win by pin 1:00 over Diego Lopez (Covington) – 33-27
190 – Austin Koehl (Piqua) win by Dec. 9-3 over Landon Beeman (Covington) – 33-30
215 – Trenton Havenar (Covington) win by pin 1:25 over Kaden Rice (Piqua) – 39 – 30
285 – Kylan Hughes (Piqua) win by Forfeit (Covington) – 39-36
