By DAVID WALSH
-- The Herald-Dispatch
[email protected]
HUNTINGTON -- When the wrestling season started, Huntington High coach Bill Archer didn�t know what to expect of his young team. When the season ended Saturday night, the Highlanders, who had five freshmen in the lineup, had climbed to No. 2 in the state in Class AAA.
"The best attitude team I�ve ever had," said Archer, who�s been at Huntington High -- new and old -- for 30 years.
"The kids always seemed to respond when they had to," added Robbie Archer, who once wrestled for his dad and now serves as his assistant coach.
Coming into the 54th annual West Virginia High School tournament, Parkersburg South and Oak Glen were virtual locks to repeat as champions in their respective classes.
When crowds filed out of the Huntington Civic Arena on Saturday night, Parkersburg South had 218.5 points to secure a third straight Class AAA title. Oak Glen made it five straight in Class AA-A. Six of seven Golden Bear wrestlers in the finals won, giving them 228 points to 163.5 for runner-up Cameron.
Huntington High, which had a champion, a runner-up and five placers overall, totaled 103.5 points to take second by a point over Nitro, which had a class-high three champions. It�s the best finish ever for an Archer-coached team. Before this season, the highest a Huntington High team had placed was third on five occasions.
"We did what coach told us all year," said junior Jason Mayes, who beat Bryan Moats of Hedgesville, 11-6, in the 145-pound title match. "We all pulled together."
At 189, North Marion�s Andrew Starsick pinned Huntington High�s Joey Thomas at 5:38, making it two straight years Thomas finished second.
"Everybody said this was a rebuilding year," Thomas said. "This is awesome and I�m glad to be part of it and help give coach Archer his first second."
During the season, Huntington High won five major tournaments.
Cabell Midland also went 1-1 in the finals. Heavyweight Byron Wellman, who lost in the first round the past two years, lived up to his top billing with a 4-2 overtime win over Chris Satterfield of East Fairmont. At 130, Adam Kennedy of Wheeling Park won a 2-0 decision over sophomore Chris Gibbs.
Wellman, one of two seniors, forced overtime when he scored an escape with six seconds left in the third period to tie the match at 2-2. Moments earlier, he was called for stalling to give his opponent a 2-1 lead. He scored the decisive takedown 10 seconds into overtime.
"No, it wasn�t by design," Wellman said of the late-match drama. "When I got that stall, it made me mad. The ref said go and you�d be surprised what you can do in that situation."
"It was gut check time and he came through," Knights coach Ernie Sparks said.
Parkersburg South�s individual champions were John Duncan at 135 and Casey Daggett at 160. Overall, the Patriots had 11 wrestlers place.
"We start on next year Monday," said Patriots coach Tim McCartney, who was voted Class AAA coach of the year. "That ain�t bad for three days work. This trophy goes to the whole program."
Parkersburg South held the No. 1 ranking all season and breezed to the Region I title last Saturday at University High. Only two schools outside Parkersburg have won the Class AAA title since 1987. The last was North Marion in 1998.
Parkersburg�s Matt Stevens, champion at 119, and Fairmont Senior�s Jeff Courtney, winner at 171, shared the outstanding wrestler award in Class AAA.
Oak Glen coach Larry Shaw was named coach of the year in Class AA-A.
"I�m tremendously proud of these kids," Shaw said. "We wanted to finish things off strong and we did."
The outstanding
wrestler award went to Ravenswood�s Ash Gandee, who pinned Casey Biddle
of Williamstown in the finals at 112. The decision made him a three-time
state champion.