Hovermale wins championship at Jason Eades Memorial Tournament

The Berkeley Springs High School wrestling team traveled to Point Pleasant on Friday, December 22, for the two day Jason Eades Memorial Tournament. The Indians finished fifth in the 15-team field, with freshman Derek Hovermale claiming the only individual title for Berkeley Springs.

Hovermale (103) went a perfect 8-0 over the two days, avenging one of his two losses on the season by pinning Michael Prince of Shady Springs in the finals.

"Derek had a good tournament," said Berkeley Springs coach Darrell Bennett. "I thought most of our kids wrestled pretty well. We lost a couple of tough ones in the finals, but we were only able to field eight of the 14 weight classes and still managed to finish fifth as a team, which was pretty good."

The two losses in the finals Bennett was referring to came in the 160 and 189 pound classes. Tyson Bennett (160) lost to Logan Martin from Ripley 4-2, while Cody Reed (189) fell 6-4 to J.D. Ramsey of Cabell Midland.

"Both wrestled quality opponents," Bennett said of his son Tyson and Reed. "Both Martin and Ramsey placed in the top four of their respective weight classes at last year's Class AAA State Championships. I thought overall we did pretty well."

Richard Marshall placed fourth at 112, A.J. Blankenship was fifth at 125 and Brad Reed sixth at 119.

Caleb Smalley (171) and Zac Younker (215) did not place.

The Indians will travel to Kingwood for a quadrangular match this Friday, January 5, before heading to Cameron the following day for the Cameron Tri-State Invitational.

Team scores

1. Cabell Midland     104

2. Point Pleasant     71

3. Calhoun County     70

4. Ripley     68

5. Berkeley Springs     62

5. Riverside     62

7. Independence     58

7. Greenbrier West     58

9. Nitro     49

10. St. Albans     34

11. Shady Springs     29

12. Woodrow Wilson     28

13. Spring Valley     26

14. Cabell Midland-B     12

15. Wahama     0