The Williamsburg Wildcats pose after finishing in first place as a team at the Division III sectional wrestling tournament at Blanchester High School on Feb. 20. Burg advanced nine wrestlers, including three individual champions.

The Williamsburg Wildcats pose after finishing in first place as a team at the Division III sectional wrestling tournament at Blanchester High School on Feb. 20. Burg advanced nine wrestlers, including three individual champions.
By Chris Chaney
Sports Editor

A busy weekend of sectional wrestling around Southwest Ohio led to 43 local individuals across three divisions qualifying for the upcoming district tournaments this weekend.

Clermont County boasted six sectional individual champions and a team sectional championships for the Wildcats of Williamsburg.

Competing at the Division III sectional at Blanchester High School, Burg qualified through nine individuals, which included three sectional champions.

The Wildcats’ three sectional champions were Nate Golden (160 pounds), Dawson Davis (170 pounds) and Brian Stears (285 pounds). Kendal Johnson (126 pounds) and Trent Brewer (132 pounds) were sectional runners up. Johnson also won his 150th career match this past weekend.

Joining their teammates at the district tournament this week at Troy are Ezra Wallace (fourth place, 120 pounds), Wyatt Lefker (third place, 145 pounds), Randy Thornberry (third place, 152 pounds) and Dylan Bailey (fourth place, 195 pounds).

Also wrestling out of the DIII Blanchester sectional were the Bethel-Tate Tigers who boasted seven individual qualifiers, two of which were sectional champions. They also finished in second place as a team behind Burg.

Justin Hixson (132 pounds) and Jeffrey Botts (195 pounds) led the charge for the Tigers as sectional champs. They’ll be joined at districts by teammates Matt Hall (fourth place, 126 pounds), Jordan Newberry (third place, 160 pounds), BJ Ratcliff (second place, 170 pounds), Wyatt O’Neil (second place, 182 pounds) and Kermit Beckworth (second place, 285 pounds).

Clermont Northeastern was the third local team at Blanchester, advancing a pair of district qualifiers: Sam Patterson (fourth place, 113 pounds) and Tyler Cole (fourth place, 285 pounds).

In Division II, New Richmond was best of the area at the Batavia sectional. The Lions finished in third place as a team and advanced 10 qualifiers to this week’s district tournament at Wilmington High School.

Brandon Planck at 132 pounds led the way for New Richmond as their lone sectional champion. Joining him this weekend at districts are Elijah Richards (third place, 106 pounds), Elijah Worley (fourth place, 113 pounds), Austin Planck (third place, 120 pounds), Lane Dees (fourth place, 126 pounds), Ryan Wolf (fourth place, 138 pounds), Gavin Clark (fourth place, 145 pounds), Ryan Buckley (fourth place, 160 pounds), Justin Noble (fourth place, 220 pounds) and Cory Higginbotham (fourth place, 285 pounds).

Also wrestling out of Batavia were the host Bulldogs and the Goshen Warriors, both of whom advance two wrestlers.

The Bulldogs finished in seventh place as a team and were led by Jordan Cahall (145 pounds) and Jake Pugh (285 pounds) who both won their third-place matches.

Goshen’s Jacob Kube (132 pounds) and Trey Atwood (152 pounds) also finished in third place in their respective weight classes.

In Division I, Glen Este continued their solid season by advancing eight wrestlers to next week’s district tournament at Kettering Fairmont.

Wrestling out of the Hamilton sectional, the Trojans moved on Oscar Santana (fourth place, 113 pounds), Brandon Hertel (second place, 120 pounds), Tristin McGrath (second place, 138 pounds), Brandon Smith (fourth place, 145 pounds), Joe Wahl (fourth place, 160 pounds), Avery Jones (second place, 182 pounds), Nate Stone (second place, 195 pounds) and Austin Phillips (third place, 285 pounds).

In the DI Lebanon sectional, Milford advanced two wrestlers to districts: Kobey Bronaugh (second place, 106 pounds) and Jimmy Murphy (fourth place, 132 pounds).

Amelia also wrestled at Lebanon and advanced Vinny Gabriele (fourth place, 113 pounds) to this week’s district tournament.

Across all three divisions, the same qualifying standards apply to move on from districts to state: the top-four in each weight division move on. The district tournaments will take place on Friday, Feb. 26 and Saturday, Feb. 27. The state tournament will take place the following weekend in Columbus at the Jerome Schottenstein Center at The Ohio State University.

For more information about the sectional tournament results and district tournament qualifiers, log on to baumspage.com.