Feb. 2, 2008, at Parkersburg High School Field House
The Blennerhassett Bobcats limped into the last tournament of the year banged up, beat up, and sick, but they left with a BANG heard all around the state in junior high wrestling circles as the Bobcats stunned top ranked Edison by 4 1/2 points to take the Wood County Championship tournament 241.5 to 237, placing 11 wrestlers into the finals and crowning four county champions.
The win was not anticipated by anyone except the Bobcats coaches who NEVER stopped believing in this elite group of athletes. Edison had just put on an awesome exhibition in the final regular season meeting to give Blennerhassett their worst duals loss of the season with a 40 point win. No sane person who witnessed that beat-down could have possibly predicted what was to come in the season ending county tournament just three days later. But who ever said the Blennerhassett coaches were sane?
It turns out the Bobcat coaches weren't crazy, and they weren't willing to make any excuses despite having virtually an entire team that was sick and injured. They expected their kids to wrestle their best match of the year as best they were able, and that's exactly what happened. The entire team responded by having their best individual results when it counted, championship time.
Blenny started strong by pinning early and often, and led Edison after the first round by 15. At that time, nobody thought it would last. When they extended their lead to 23 points to start finals, the large crowd started wondering if this lead was a fluke or not.
Edison didn't win 4 consecutive WSAZ's and 3 consecutive county championships by giving up, and they proved to be the champions they are by roaring back in the finals, winning and pinning to erase a 23 point deficit to take the lead with only three Blennerhassett wrestlers remaining.
Just as a championship looked like it might be slipping away, two of Blennerhassett's top seeds lived up to their billing, and two more overcame the odds to lead Blennerhassett to the upset victory.
Preston Harris (84) has had a great year. He was the third seed and all he did on his way to winning his second consecutive Wood County Championship was to beat the #1 and #2 seeds in his class. This was a huge boost to the team at this point, and put tremendous pressure on Edison.
Harris not only defeated Ripley's Drew Hill 6-3 in the finals, more importantly he took out #2 seed Edison's Jarod Barker in the semi-finals giving Blennerhassett the all-important advancement points while denying the same to Edison.
Harris didn't win the Outstanding Wrestler award for the tournament, but he was certainly a worthy candidate, as he was the only #3 seed to win a championship, and his team would not have won the title without his heroics taking out the top two seeds.
Tyler Karcher (116) wins with such ease most of time it's easy to take his winning for granted, but we shouldn't. Because of his injuries, this might have been his greatest win ever, because he won under the worst personal conditions for him, and helped lead his team to victory when every point counted.
Karcher had been sick for at least two weeks, and suffered a concussion at the WSAZ tournament that ended his drive for a second consecutive state championship. He probably shouldn't have been wrestling at all but he absolutely refused to allow his injury to stop him. His hard fought 4-1 win in the finals came at a crucial moment as his points added to the Blennerhassett lead that had been rapidly shrinking.
Edison was just nails in their finals matches and by the time the 135 class rolled around the Bobcat lead was gone. This would be the last head-to-head Edison and Blennerhassett contest of the night, and the Bobcats desperately needed not just a win, but a pin.
Joel St. Clair (135) was knocked out of the WSAZ's by mono, and probably has another 4-6 weeks of recovery left. St. Clair had won 27 matches in a row until Edison's Steven Brogle snapped the win streak three days earlier to earn the #1 seed and was now the odds-on favorite to take team points from Blennerhassett in this all-important finals showdown.
Full credit here has to go here to the Bobcat coaches who had St. Clair mentally prepared for the finals. They didn't sugarcoat it, they let St. Clair know that he not only had to win, but pin for his team to have a chance to take the team title. And they had faith in him that he could do it.
St. Clair executed the game plan with devastating results for Edison's drive at another championship. When St.Clair took a 4-0 lead in the last ten seconds of the first period, the partisan Blennerhassett crowd nervously cheered. When he turned Brogle onto his back in the second period an already loud Blennerhassett crowd turned into screaming fanatics as they now began to sense that a team victory was a real possibility. By the time the ref slapped the mat, the Bobcats had snatched back the momentum and everybody in the Parkersburg High School Field House that night could sense it.
The three team points Edison was counting on just turned into six points for Blennerhassett, a nine point turnaround. With the pin the Bobcats now trailed the Eagles by just 2, with two wrestlers left to Edison's one. The Bobcats were smiling, because one of those wrestlers was Joe Malone.
Joe Malone (171) was next up for the Bobcats and stepped to the mat knowing that his team only needed a win to take the title. That's a lot of pressure for most wrestlers, but the newly crowned 171 WSAZ champion knows how to win and was ready to do what was needed. Malone has been Blennerhassett's most consistent winning wrestler all year and on this night he came through like the champion he is.
The match was not a runaway by any means, but Malone would not be denied this night. His trademark power and aggressiveness would wear down #2 seed Williamstown's Mike Adams as Malone built up a lead in the first two periods. Thirty seconds into the third period Malone turned Adams onto his back and never let go. The Blennerhassett crowd went wild as that pin effectively ended Edison's chance at winning four straight county championships, as Edison never scored another point.
Congratulations Blennerhassett Bobcats, 2008 Wood County Wrestling Tournament Champions.
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Complete results: http://www.wvmat.com/scores/08scores/0202wood.htm
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TEAM SCORES
1 241.5 Blennerhassett
2 237.0 Edison
3 142.0 Ripley
4 103.5 Williamstown
5 77.0 Jackson
6 65.0 Hamilton
7 53.0 VanDevender
8 25.0 Ritchie County
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Weight, Name, Seed, Final Placement, Record, Team Points:
78 Lance Hill 2nd (finished 2nd) 1-1, 16
84 Preston Harris 3rd (finished 1st) 2-0, 18
90 Zach Blair (unseeded, finished 4th) 2-2, 8
95 Joe Carvelle (unseeded, lost quarterfinals) 1-2, 3
102 Jake Alexander 1st (finished 2nd) 1-1, 16
110 Josh Caplinger 2nd (finished 2nd) 1-1, 16
116 Tyler Karcher 1st (finished 1st) 3-0, 22
123 Jesse Fickieson 2nd (finished 2nd) 2-1, 18
128 Josh Malone 3rd (finished 2nd) 2-1, 17.5
135 Joel St. Clair 2nd (finished 1st) 3-0, 24
145 Tyler Huffman 2nd (finished 2nd) 2-1, 18
155 Daniel Boles 2nd (finished 3rd) 3-1, 16
171 Joe Malone 1st (finished 1st) 3-0, 22
190 Mac Swisher 3rd (finished 3rd) 2-1, 11
285 Mark Swisher 3rd (finished 2nd) 1-1, 16
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Final thoughts: It's hard to put this win in perspective given the up and down season Blennerhassett suffered with injuries and illness.
Josh Caplinger (110) wrestled all year with a painful shoulder injury and some nerve damage in his neck. Tyler Karcher (116) won his championship while still recovering from a severe concussion and illness the week just before the county championship. Jessie Fickheissen (123) had been sick all week and still made the finals. Josh Malone (123) had a severely cramped muscle in his forearm after winning the semi-finals. Joel St. Clair (135) is still sick with mono yet pinned his way through the tournament.
And there is not enough you can say about how tough a wrestler Tyler Huffman (145) is. Huffman would go win his match then limp off the mat with a knee problem he has had all year, not to mention he also had a shoulder injury! He won all year long, and limped all year long. Daniel Boles (155) should get Teammate of the Year Award for doing everything the coaches asked of him, wrestling up a weight class and winning. Boles was just coming off severe flu to take third place.
Rookie wrestler Mark Swisher wrestled finals with a hamstring injury. Swisher nearly pulled off the upset leading the #1 seed Robbie Kelly (Jackson) the entire finals match into the 3rd period, finally losing in overtime. And I'm sure there were others I haven't mentioned I didn't know about because nobody on the team talked about their injuries or illnesses, I had to ask. This team truly made no excuses and never complained. That is the defination of character in champions.
Blennerhassett won the last Wood County Junior High tournament championship that will be ever be held, since Wood County will go to to a middle school format starting with the 2008-2009 season.
It should be noted the first ones to congratulate the champions after the results were announced were the Edison Golden Eagle wrestlers, who came over as a team and shook their rivals hands. First class move.
There are many, many other reasons Bobcats won this night. They had great coaching, great support from their families, a boisterous crowd, and great matmaids. Of course full credit has to go to the wrestlers themselves who refused to give in to excuses or adversity. They simply went out and got the job done.
At the end of the day, the Bocats had 8 wrestlers seeded first or second and put 11 into the finals. Of the 15 overall #1 seeds, all of them won except three and Blennerhassett accounted for upsetting two of those three. Blenny placed 14 of their 15 wrestlers in the top four, finishing with one 4th, two 3rds, seven 2nds, and crowned four individual county champions.
Every Bobcat wrestler scored team points, and without the wins from every single wrestler on the team, this victory would not have been possible.
Un-believable.
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