Knights send 5 to OAC Junior High State Tournament

The West Holmes Middle School wrestling team had five wrestlers earn top six finishes Sunday, Feb. 14 at the 2016 Ohio Athletic Committee Junior High State Tournament district qualifier held at Steubenville High School.Seventh-grader Jack Welsh was a runner up at 74 pounds, with a sparkling 3-1 record. Sixth-grader Dylan Strouse, also wrestling at 74 pounds, earned a fifth with a 4-2 record. Cael Woods, an experienced eighth-grader wrestling at 92 pounds, took home a runner-up spot with a 3-1 mark. Walker Uhl, another eighth-grader wrestling at 104 pounds, finished fourth by going 3-2. Finally, seventh-grader Stephen Baldridge went 3-2 in fashioning a fifth-place finish at 154 pounds. That group will now battle for state championship honors at the OAC state championship tournament, which will be held Saturday and Sunday, March 12 and 13 at the Covelli Center in Youngstown. Just missing out on state berths with a seventh place finish was Tyler Masters, an eighth-grader at 96 pounds who went a solid 4-2. He will be a state alternate from the Steubenville district. Finishing eighth were Nick Morris (eighth-grade, 126 pounds, 4-3) and Cruz Alexander (eighth-grade, 138 pounds, 4-3) who will both be second state alternates. Also competing were Kendel Weber (eighth-grade, 84 pounds, 1-2), Gavin Harter (eighth-grade, 96 pounds, 0-2), Hunter Bowling (eight-grade, 108 pounds, 1-2), Jarek Snow (eighth-grade, 120 pounds, 2-2) and Brayden Myers (seventh Grade, 146 pounds, 1-2).