tournament Saturday at Indian Lake High School. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
Benjamin Logan’s wrestling team turned in an impressive day at the Central Buckeye Conference meet on Saturday at Indian Lake as the Raiders finished second overall and second in the Mad River division.
Graham won the meet and was first in the Mad River division with 235 points. The Raiders had 206.5 points to take second in both the overall standings and in the Mad River division.
Jonathan Alder was third overall and first in the Kenton Trail division with 168 points. The host Lakers were fourth overall and third in the Mad River division with 151 points. Bellefontaine finished 10th overall and fifth in the Kenton Trail division with 54 points.
Ben Logan was powered by two individual champions: Ethan Carpenter at 150 pounds and Kendall Plikerd at 157 pounds. Carpenter recorded a 5-2 decision over Layne Settle of Urbana in his championship bout, while Plikerd edged Kenton Ridge’s Braydon Cox 3-2 in his title match.
Owen Weeks was a runner-up at 132 pounds for the Raiders. He lost 6-3 to Micah Krieger of Graham in the finals. Finishing in third place for the Raiders were Cooper Buck (106), Carter Buck (120), Evan Carpenter (138), Hayden Hites (165), Kameron Larson (175) and Owen Jordan (190). Jordan Pender (144) was fourth for the Raiders, with fifth-place finishes going to Kyle Kibler (126) and Daniel Koehler (215).
Leading Indian Lake with second-place finishes were Czar Dickson (144) and Owen Pummel (190). Dickson was defeated by Graham’s Brogan Tucker (24-9 tech fall) and Pummel was edged by Graham’s Chett Mannier (6-5) in the finals. Taking third for the Lakers were Noah Shirk (132), Adrian Crumley (215) and Dylan Valerio (285).
Finishing in fourth for Indian Lake were Ke’Shawn Blackwell (120), Gavin Henry (126) and Draden Stevenson (138), while a fifth-place effort was turned in by Jackson Young (165).
Ryan Culp (175) added a sixth-place finish for the Lakers.
Bellefontaine was fueled by senior Zane Tevis, who placed second at 138 pounds. Tevis was defeated by Tecumseh’s Brayden Phillips (12-3 major decision) in the finals.
Jared Young took third at 113 pounds for the Chiefs. Zavier May (150) added a sixth place finish for Bellefontaine.
“For who we had, we wrestled fairly well,” said BHS head coach Aaron
LaBatt. “We had some sickness and injuries this past week, so we weren’t at full strength. The guys who did step on the mat fought and I think it was a good warm up for sectionals next week.
“Zane got back to wrestling at a high level. He took advantage of some opportunities and wrestled tough in the finals. Jared had a real solid day. His only loss was to the eventual champion, and even in that match he wrestled well.”
The Chiefs, Lakers and Raiders will now enter postseason tournament action Saturday. Bellefontaine and Ben Logan will wrestle in the Division II sectional at Graham, while the Lakers will compete in Division III action at Covington.