Will Gageby, Kollin Sullivan & Brady Wilt finish in 5th place
by Jamie Harris
This past weekend at the Marshall Health Arena in Huntington, the Class A/AA WV State Wrestling Championships were on the line and the Berkeley Springs Indians were looking to add more names to the all-state wrestlers and state champion lists.
On Thursday night, February 29, in the championship first round the Indians got wins from Jacob Morgan (132), Will Gageby (144), Aiden Cain (150), Kollin Sullivan (165) and Brady Wilt (215). Taking losses and dropping to the consolation round were Eligah Parsell (113), Daniel Clark (126), Trent Fox (138), Michael Holiday (175) and Remi Sites (285).
On Friday morning, March 1, the tournament picked right back up with the championship quarterfinals and first round of consolations. In the championship quarterfinals three Indians picking up huge wins to advance to Friday night’s semifinals. Jacob Morgan (132), Will Gageby (144) and Brady Wilt (215).
Wilt actually knocked off the #1 ranked undefeated and returning state champion from Greenbriar West 5-1 in the quarterfinals.
In the consolation first round the Tribe got wins from Parsell, Clark, Fox, Holiday and Sites. In the second round of consolations the Indians got wins from Parsell, Sullivan, Holiday and Sites.
The championship semifinals and third round consolations got underway Friday night and the Indians were able to get one wrestler into Saturday’ s championship finals. Sophomore Jacob Morgan picked up a huge 1-0 win over Oak Glen’s Hayden Lamb. Gageby and Wilt both dropped their matches and moved to the consolation semifinals.
In the consolation third round and needing to win to earn all-state honors the Indians was able to see Sullivan pick up the win and advance to Saturday’s placement rounds.
On Saturday morning, March 2, the consolation semifinals started the day off and all three Indian wrestlers Gageby, Sullivan and Wilt lost to drop down to the fifth and sixth place matches. All three bounced back there and won their respective matches to finish in fifth place.
Saturday night finally came and Jacob Morgan faced #1 seed Blake Ringer from East Fairmont. Ringer took Morgan down quickly and secured the pin at the 50 second mark to earn his first state title. Morgan finished the season as the state runner up and his first wrestling all-state honors.
Saturday also happened to be the WV Girl’ s State Wrestling Championships. The Lady Indians did not have any place winners at the end of the night. However, all four — Bailee Diehl, Lilly Morgan, Delilah Rhoten and Willow Rhoten — earned wins through the course of the day.