Berkeley Springs grapplers win Cameron Tri-State Tournament - by Horace Blankenship - 1/14/2009

Berkeley Springs crowned five champions, had a pair of silver medallists and one third place finish, lifting the team to the title at the Cameron Tri-State Wrestling Tournament in Cameron on Saturday, January 10.

The Indians scored 164 points to easily outdistance Grafton, which finished second with 118 points.

Cohen Hovermale brought back the title at 103 pounds with a 3-0 decision over Dylan Aulenbacher of John Marshall. Loguen McKee followed with a second period pin of John Marshall's John Gonchoff in the 112 pound title match.

Derek Hovermale won the third title of the evening, for the Tribe, with a 5-1 decision over Devon Phillips of Magnolia in the 125 pound final.

Damen Capper, 140, secured Berkeley Springs’ fourth individual title by defeating Nate Taylor from Tyler Consolidated, 5-2, and Hobert Delph brought back the final gold medal for Berkeley Springs with a 1-0 win over John Marshall's Michael Berardi in the 285 pound final.

Both Brad Reed and Tory Bennett were upset in the finals.

Reed, the top rated wrestler in Class AA at 130 pounds according to WVmat.com, was pinned in the third period by Cameron's Tevin Hall, while Bennett, ranked third in Class AA, fell in overtime, 6-4, to Grafton's Beau Bartlett in the 160 pound title match. Barrett came into the tournament ranked fourth in Class AA.

Zach Risinger also brought home some hardware with a third place finish at 145 pounds. Risinger pinned Lewis Mason from John Marshall in the 145 pound consolation final.

On the way to Cameron, Berkeley stopped by Morgantown High on Friday, January 9, for matches against South Harrison, Preston County and Morgantown. The Indians won all three, defeating Morgantown 45-36, Preston County 48-27 and South Harrison 57-18.

Cohen Hovermale (103), Derek Hovermale (125), Reed (130), Richard Marshall (125), Caper (140), Bennett (160) and Delph (285) each won all three matches, while McKee (112) and Risinger (145) won two matches apiece. CJ Gosey also won a match at 189 pounds.

"I thought we wrestled well, but we still need to schedule something over Christmas break, because we weren't as sharp as I like, especially in our matches at Morgantown," said Berkeley Springs Coach Darrell Bennett. “We lost a couple of tough matches in the finals at Cameron, but the kids have time to recover and improve over the next six weeks. This is the time of the year that you should really start seeing some improvements."

Berkeley Springs, currently ranked fourth in Class AA, will face a stern test this week when they travel to Fairmont for the Winner's Choice Tournament.

Tri-State Wrestling Tournament Team Scores

1. Berkeley Springs 164

2. Grafton 118

3. Cameron 117.5

4. John Marshall B 106

5. Magnolia 84

6. Tyler Consolidated 82

7. Philip Barbour 69

8. Clay Battelle 53.5

9. Bishop Donahue 15

Team dual meet record 10-3

Individual records

103 Cohen Hovermale 24-4

112 Loguen McKee 19-7

125 Derek Hovermale 23-3

130 Brad Reed 27-2

135 Richard Marshall 17-7

140 Damen Capper 25-1

145 Zac Risinger 16-14

152 Andrew Truax 1-24

160 Tory Bennett 27-2

189 CJ Gosey 7-16

285 Hobert Delph 22-7