Eyler, Kaufman, Zupancic lead WHMS wrestlers to second

With performances like these, the West Holmes Knights wrestling program appears to be in great shape for the future.The West Holmes Middle School wrestling team had a good performance Saturday, Dec. 21, with three champions and six other wrestlers claiming top-four places, propelling the Knights to a team runner-up finish in the H & H Lumber Redbird Junior High School Invitational Tournament at Loudonville High School.Eighth-grade wrestlers Ashton Eyler (134 pounds) and Thane Kaufman (92 pounds) earned their second Loudonville Invite titles, while Tyler Zupancic (Seventh Grade, 80 pounds) earned his first middle school tournament crown.Also making it to the championship bout of their respective weight class were Josh Baldridge (7th/116) and Skylar Cline (8th/122). However, each came up short of earning gold and settled for silver.“It was great to have five kids make the championship match,” Knights middle school wrestling head coach Andy Toye said following the tournament. “It would’ve been even better to have all five win, but it didn’t happen. To have nine kids medal was really good.”Harley Batdorf (8th/86) and Logan Balder (7th/245) were bronze medalist’s for the Knights, as was Caden Austin (7th/80) who wrestled as a “B” team wrestler and did not earn team points.Also coming through as a fourth-place finisher for WHMS was Douglas Moore (8th/128).Bellville Clear Fork won the team title over the Knights by an 11 point margin, 274-263. Ashland Crestview, the team leader entering the final round, placed third with 228 points, followed by West Salem Northwestern (224) and Doylestown Chippewa (223) rounding out the top five in the 10-team tournament.“I’m really kind of shocked we held on to second in the team standings,” said Toye. “I was thinking we would have to win every match in the final round to stay in second and have a shot at Crestview. Clear Fork had a great last round, we did pretty good and Crestview stumbled. That was the outcome right there.”Eyler had a great day, finishing his pool 4-0, including three falls and a tech fall to reach the championship bout where he fashioned a dominating 15-0 tech fall victory at 2:53 to earn the title and an undefeated mark.With limited numbers of wrestlers in their weight classes, both Kaufman and Zupancic rolled through their round-robin matches on the way to the championships. Kaufman was 2-0 with both wins by fall while Zupancic finished 3-0 with three fall wins.“All three wrestled great today,” Toye said when asked about his champions. “Thane only had two matches, but he took care of business. Same thing with Tyler. They maybe didn’t get all the matches we were hoping for, but they wrestled hard in the ones they did have.“Ashton had a fantastic tournament,” continued Toye. “He was dominating today, and I thought he had a real good chance to earn the Most Valuable Wrestler award. That was a goal for him, but he didn’t get the vote of the coaches.”Eyler’s disappointment of not winning the MVW award was tempered somewhat when coach Toye tabbed his team tri-captain as the West Holmes Middle School Wrestling ‘Hammer of the Week.’