Trenton Wins Two Titles, Gallatin Gets One In Brookfield

Trenton Fifth Out Of 17 Schools, Gallatin Ninth

It was as loaded a field as the Trenton High School wrestling team has seen this season at the Gary Haag Invitational in Brookfield on Saturday. Ranked wrestlers filled out most brackets and four of the top-six ranked teams in the state were in attendance.
In the end, the Bulldogs finished fifth in the stacked field of 17 schools, tallying 49 team points. Class 2 Blair Oaks and Marceline, ranked third in the state at the Class 1 level, tied for the top spot with 57 points while fifth-ranked Brookfield placed third with 55 points. Right ahead of Trenton with 54 points was Centralia, the top-ranked team in the state at the Class 1 level.
“We had some great matches at Brookfield,” Trenton head coach Charlie Bacon said. “I would say this was the toughest tournament we’ve been to this year. A lot of weights were a preview of what I believe will be the top four kids at many weight classes in the state tournament. We needed some really good competition and I felt like we wrestled really well as a whole today.”
Trenton had two wrestlers pick up individual titles as Coleman Griffin bested the field at 152 pounds and Sam Gibson won the 195-pound weight class.
Griffin’s title didn’t come easy as only one of his five matches ended with the Trenton grappler getting a pin. The third-ranked 152-pounder in the state reached his 5-0 finish with several wins by decision, the closest of which saw him grab a 5-3 win over Marceline’s Ryder Gooch. Griffin also got decision wins by scores of 13-6, 8-3 and 17-3.
For Gibson, three wins were all that were needed to win his title. After getting one win by an injury forfeit, Gibson pinned two opponents and defeated Class 2 Blair Oaks’ Camden Meeks by a 5-1 decision to win his championship.
Hunter McAtee and Caleb Johnson were placed in perhaps the two toughest brackets of the day. McAtee was a part of the 138-pound bracket that included all four of the top-ranked 138 pounders in the state at the Class 1 level. McAtee is ranked second in the state at the weight and that is where he finished, going 4-1, his lone loss coming to top-ranked Collin Arch of Centralia, who defeated McAtee by a 15-1 major decision.
McAtee won three bouts by fall and secured a 19-4 technical fall for his other win on the day. McAtee is now 21-2 overall on the season, his lone two losses coming against Arch.
For Johnson, an undefeated season came to an end as he was handed two losses on the day, finishing third at 220 pounds.
The 220-pound bracket featured three of the top-four wrestlers in the state at the Class 1 level and the third-ranked Class 2 220-pounder as well. Johnson finished 3-2 at the event. He secured two wins by fall and topped Palmyra’s Luke Triplet — ranked third in Class 1 — by a 3-2 decision in tiebreaker action. He would fall to Mexico’s Deacon Haag — Class 2, No. 3 — in another match that came down to a tiebreaker by a score of 4-2. His second loss came to Hamilton’s Fisher Nixdorf, ranked fourth in Class 1, by a one-point decision, 5-4.
Brayden Hughs finished second at 132 for Trenton, going 4-1. He won one match via medical forfeit and picked up decision victories of 7-6, 8-3 and 10-4. His lone loss came by a 5-2 decision.
Gavin Chambers came home in third place at 145 pounds, going 1-2 in just a four-grappler bracket. His lone win came by fall while his two losses came to state-ranked foes in Brookfield’s Colton Parn and Marceline’s Jace Bixman.
Kaden Owen was pinned in his opening match and was injured in the process, forcing him to forfeit his remaining three matches.
Mason Rongey was 1-3 at 126 pounds, finishing fourth and Gavin Cagle was 0-5 at 285 pounds.
Trenton had three varsity entrants in ‘B’ brackets at the tournament. Nate Brukeybile won the 170-pound ‘B’ bracket with a 2-0 record while Logan Wilson was 2-2 in the 182-pound ‘B’ bracket and Trakor Hignutt was 0-2 in the 106-pound ‘B’ bracket.
Junior varsity wrestlers in action for Trenton included Walter Olmstead, 0-4 at 126 B; Aiden Weyer, 2-2 at 145 B; Gaven Kelsall, 1-4 at 152 B; Michael Nyakoojo, 0-5 at 160 B; Jake Schmadeke, 1-3 at 182 B; and Kaleb McCallen, 1-3 at 285 B.
GALLATIN
The Gallatin Bulldogs came in ninth at the event, scoring 30 points with 11 wrestlers in action.
Logan Bottcher paced Gallatin, going 4-0 on the way to the 182-pound championship. Bottcher missed out on a couple of big match-ups as Hunter Nelson of Marceline, who is ranked fourth in the state at 182, wrestled down at 170 and Camden Meeks of Blair Oaks, the top-ranked Class 2 182-pounder wrestled up at 195.
Behind Bottcher, Rodell Sperry was second at 160. Sperry’s bracket was stacked and his lone loss came to Centralia’s Brayden Shelton. Shelton, ranked first in the state at the weight, pinned Sperry, ranked second. Shelton has handed Sperry, 21-2 overall, both of his losses this season.
Sperry picked up one win by fall, one win by medical forfeit and a 6-5 decision win over Brookfield’s Kendrell Carter, who is ranked ninth in the state at the weight.
Gabe Parker finished second as well, going 3-2 at 285. After opening with back-to-back wins by fall, Parker topped Hamilton’s Dawson Miller by a 2-1 decision to move to 3-0 at that point. Parker yielded to top-ranked heavyweight Seth Hasecamp of Centralia by an injury default and took a medical forfeit in his final match of the day.
Jagger Gray placed third at 170 pounds, going 3-2 on the day.
Andon Allen was 1-1 before being forced to forfeit his final three matches with an injury, leaving him with a 1-4 showing at 152.
Reggie Arnold was 0-5 at 138, Draygan Schweizer was 1-3 with a win by medical forfeit at 195 and Magnum Fenimore was 0-5 at 220.
Gallatin had some wrestlers in ‘B’ brackets as well. Luke Johnson was 1-3 at 126 B, Brantley Burns was 2-2 at 132 B and Tyler Tustison was 1-3 at 195 B.
UP NEXT
Trenton: The Black and Gold Bulldogs will dual with Chillicothe tonight (Tuesday) at 6 o’clock.
Gallatin: The Red and Black Bulldogs are at the Maysville triangular tonight (Tuesday), taking on the host Wolverines and Savannah at 6 o’clock.