Knights grapplers take team runner-up honors at Cambridge

Knights grapplers take team runner-up honors at Cambridge
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Senior Walker Uhl earned the Hammer of the Week from coach Scott Vaughn for his impressive performance at Cambridge.

                        

The West Holmes High School varsity wrestling team opened the 2019-20 season with a runner-up finish at the 16-team 11th annual Southeast Ohio Regional Medical Center Sports & Orthopedics Services Bobcat Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 7 at Cambridge High School. The Knights racked up 220 points, trailing only champion Lisbon Beaver Local’s 296 but well ahead of third-place The Plains Athens’ score of 178.

“Overall I was very pleased with our performance at Cambridge,” Knights head wrestling coach Scott Vaughn said. “To take second place as a team while giving up four weight classes shows how well the boys competed. We even had all four extras place, which shows our depth on the team.”

Despite only having 10 of the 14 weight classes filled, all 10 wrestlers earned top-six finishes.

Snaring individual championships were seniors Cael Woods (120 pounds, 5-0 with four falls) with his third consecutive Cambridge title and Tyler Masters (126, 5-0 with three falls), who copped his second Bobcat Invite crown.

Earning runner-up finishes were junior Jack Welsh (106, 4-1 with two falls) and senior Walker Uhl (160, 4-1 with three falls). Third-place honors went to sophomore Connor Varnes (138, 4-1 with one fall) and senior Cruz Alexander (170, 4-1 with three falls).

Junior Gavin Greer had a fourth-place effort (152, 3-2 with three falls). Fifth-place finishes went to sophomore Tucker Kaufman (4-1 with four falls) and junior Skylar Anderson (220, 4-1 with four falls). Freshman Mason Taylor (113, 2-3 with two falls) took sixth.

Competing for the Knights as “B” team wrestlers, where no team points are earned but wrestlers can receive individual awards, were freshman Blake Norman (113, 1-4 with one fall), sophomore Noah Tish (120, 4-1 with two falls), senior Kendel Weber (126, 4-1 with two falls) and sophomore Dylan Strouse (132, 3-2 with two falls). Tish and Weber garnered fifth-place finishes, Strouse grabbed a sixth-place standing, and Norman placed eighth.

Vaughn also made a somewhat surprising choice for the season’s inaugural individual award, the West Holmes Varsity Wrestling Knight of the Week Award.

“I know Cael and Tyler won the tournament and did it very impressively, but our Knight of the Week goes to Walker Uhl,” Vaughn said in handing out the award. “Walker wrestled a great tournament. He won a match in the semifinals over a kid that beat him last season in a match to go to state. I thought he turned around and wrestled a great finals match against another returning state qualifier.”

Vaughn knows one good performance to begin the season doesn’t mean the work is over.

“I think we still have a ton to work on and improve for next week,” Vaughn said. “I think varsity and junior varsity, I am most proud how we competed. These guys went out and battled no matter what. That’s really what I want out of a team. Win, lose or draw, go out there and battle.”


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