The SBC wrestling crown is back in NR house where it belongs! Last night's match is the reason schools are required to have defibrillators at all times. The Lions battled through the championship and consolation brackets all day. When the finals started the Blanchester Wildcats were leading the tournament by a handful of points over your New Richmond Lions. Blanchester had 10 wrestlers in the finals and your Lions had 9.
The finals started off well for the Lions, Austin Skaggs dominated his opponent to capture first place. Brody Hooks followed up with a tough loss to finish second, Cody Gableman finished strong and placed third, Sam Anderson worked hard and fell a little short and finished second. Clay Loadman gave a gutsy performance but lost in overtime to finish fourth. Kevin Reid had a strong tournament and finished third. Now it gets a little more interesting, the Lions need victories from seniors Andrew Nealan and Brian Gelter to stay on pace for the title. In senior fashion, they come through with pins over Blanchester wrestlers. Brian and Andrew both finish first, congratulations to Brian for achieving his 100th win!
With an unlikely win by a Blanchester wrestler at 189 lbs., the Lions find themselves down by 1.5 points. The Lions are now pinning their hopes on a freshmen heavyweight, JR Forsee. JR knows what he needs to do and that his victory means another SBC title for the Lions. His opponent is a senior, #1 seed and returning district qualifier, oh my! JR grinds out the first two periods and finds himself down 7-4. The third period starts with both wrestlers in the neutral position. The referee blows the whistle to start the third period, JR battles for inside position and somehow locks his hands around the larger opponent. He has a good angle, drives into position, steps and throws his opponent to his back with about one minute remaining. JR squeezes with all his Lion pride, his opponent makes a last effort to fight off his back, the referee moves into position to look for the pin, the whistle blows and the referee smacks the mat in a stunning upset. JR pins to give the Lions a first place finish and he captures his first SBC title!
If you missed it, you may have missed the greatest team effort in New Richmond history. I would like to thank the parents, fans, bus drivers, custodians, school administrators and coaching staff for all your hard work and dedication to The New Richmond Wrestling program. Now let's get ready to capture a sectional title next week @ Goshen. We are NR!!
SBC Championship
Team scores: 1. New Richmond 165.5; 2. Blanchester 161; 3. Western Brown 134; 4. Batavia 109; 5. Goshen 102; 6. Bethel-Tate 84; 7. CNE 68; 8. Williamsburg 38; 9. East Clinton 13.
Finals
103 -Skaggs (NR) d. McCloskey (Bat) 12-1; 112 -Fox (WB) d. Hooks (NR) 14-2; 119 -Ward (Goshen) d. Ratcliff (BT) 19-2; 125 -Bauer (WB) pin Anderson (NR) 1:31; 130 -Davidson (BT) d. Cioca (Blan) 3-0; 135 -Panno (Blan) d. Walker (Goshen) 9-5; 140 -Reynolds (CNE) d. DiBello (WB) 10-4; 145 -Dillinger (WB) d. Osborne (Bat) 1:13; 152 -Howe (Blan) pin Estham (Bat) 1:13; 160 -Gresham (Goshen) d. Runyon (Blan) 19-4; 171 -Nealan (NR) pin Curry (Blan) 3:19; 189 -Shoemaker (Blan) d. Elam (Bat) 12-10; 215 -Gelter (NR) pin Boyd (Blan) 1:10; 285 -Forsee (NR) pin Lanigan (BT) 5:15.
Coach-of-the-year: Deron Shinkle, New Richmond
