After tonight's 6 p.m. home tri-wrestling meet at Warren High, the Warrior grapplers are scheduled to be on the road for the remainder of the season.
Warren's opponents will be non-conference foe Williamstown and Chillicothe, a Southeastern Ohio Athletic League opponent.
"I don't know too much about Williamstown," said Warren head wrestling coach Mike Pahl. "But Chillicothe looks pretty strong. It should be very competitive."
Article Photos
Photo courtesy of Kevin Pierson
Warren's Brandon Pahl grapples with a John Glenn wrestler during the annual Burt Builders Invitational at Warren High School on Dec. 8 in Vincent. The Warriors are slated to host a tri-match with Williamstown and Chillicothe today.
Also slated to wrestle in a tri-match today at 5:30 p.m. at Marietta Middle School is the Marietta High varsity mat team. This will be the Bill Heldman-coached Tigers' home opener. The other two schools in the field are John Glenn and Cambridge.
MHS's only other home wrestling meet this season is a scheduled tri-event on Jan. 9, 2013.
Both Warren (13-3) and Marietta are coming off good outings at last Saturday's Ray Webster Wrestling Tournament at Trimble High in Glouster. The Warriors finished runners-up with 276 points, while the Tigers were third with 260 points in the nine-school field.
Westfall, out of Williamsport in Pickaway County, was first with 308 points. Also participating in the event were Trimble (246 points), Crooksville (232), Athens (175), Meigs (173), West Muskingum (164) and Waterford 137).
"I thought we did pretty good," Pahl said, "considering only nine of our weight classes wrestled. Westfall had 12 (weight divisions) compete, and that was the difference."
Warren crowned three champions in Cory Parsons (120 pounds), Austin Antill (170) and Brandon Pahl (285), and two runners-up in Levi Congleton (113) and Cody Dobbs (138).
Zach Pike ((182) placed third, Brandon Hewitt (145) finished fourth, and Austin Klintworth (152) and Austin Miles 160) each was sixth.
Some of Warren's highlights at Ray Webster were Antill's three pins and one tech fall; Brandon Pahl's 6-1 triple overtime win against Westfall's Jeremiah Koah; and Congleton's battle against Westfall's Derek Thomas.
"Levi (Congleton) had the kid (Thomas), who was a state qualifier last season, on his back three times in the match," Mike Pahl said. "I thought Austin (Antill) should've been the Most Valuable Wrestler of the tournament, but....
As it turned out, Waterford's Austin Lang (132) was named the Most Valuable Wrestler at the Ray Webster tournament.
"And," continued the Warren coach, "Brandon (Pahl) wrestled a kid (Koah) who finished second in the sectional last year. He won the match when he got a reversal on that kid and had him on his back for a near fall."
At tonight's tri-match, Warren will probably have vacancies in the 106, 126, 132, and 220 pound weight classes. But Chris Massey may be back from an injury to compete at 195.
Williamstown's wrestling line-up is expected to include Dalton Smith (106), Brye Mullenix (113), Brett MacIver (120), Dalton George (126), Austin Raines (132), Joel Swisher (138), Logan Lindsey (145), Jake Tracewell (152), Trevor Anderson (160), Cody Smith (182), and Alex Rauch (285).
The Yellowjacket grapplers are coached by first-year boss Ryan Scott.
Marietta, under the direction of first-year head man Heldman, also crowned three champions in Joshua Clark (106), Will Cogswell (182) and Nick Spurr (195) at the Ray Webster Tournament. The Tiger third-placers were Garrett Davis (152) and Jake Dickson (160).
Both Spurr and Cogswell posted 3-0 marks. All of Cogswell's wins were mat-slappers.
Clark's pin of Trimble's Peyton Cruse was in 26 seconds. For the Tigers, Scott Bricker (138) and Malachi Vaughn (120) each finished fourth; David Vann (113) and Troy Smithberger (170) were fifth; and Anthony Winters (145) was sixth.
Due to the Ray Webster tournament format (round robin pool play), Marietta and Warren only went head to head in four bouts.
In Round 2, Antill (170) flattened Smithberger in 52 seconds.
In Round 3, Cogswell (182) earned a fall against Pike in 4:23.
In Round 4, Parsons (120) pinned Vaughn in 1:20.
And, in Round 2, Dobbs (138) decisioned Bricker, 5-2.
