Hovermale, Bennett, Reed and Stotler claim PVC wrestling titles

Berkeley Springs High School may have finished the day 1-3 in dual meet action, but they managed four individual titles at the Potomac Valley Conference Wrestling Championships, held on Saturday, February 3 in Berkeley Springs.

"We had to forfeit too many weight classes to compete for the team title," said Berkeley Springs coach Darrell Bennett. "And, then A.J. (Blankenship) was injured and couldn't wrestle the final two matches of the day. It is just tough for us to be competitive in dual meets, but I am proud of the overall effort these kids gave."

Musselman went 4-0 on the day to claim the team title, in the round robin dual meet format. Keyser and Frankfort each finished the day with two wins and two losses, while Berkeley Springs and Petersburg each finished the day 1-3.

Highlighting the days' events for Berkeley Springs were the four individual champions.

Derek Hovermale finished the day 4-0 in the 103 pound weight class. Tyson Bennett also won all of his matches at 160 to claim the conference title, while his cousin Cody Reed won the 189 pound title with a record of 4-0. Both Hovermale and Bennett easily won all of their matches on Saturday, but Reed had his hands full with Jared Weatherholtz of Musselman. This was the fourth time the two had met this year, with Reed holding a 2-1 edge. Reed jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but was then penalized two points to make the score 3-2. The match remained close until the final buzzer sounded, with Reed prevailing 8-6. Jake Stotler was 3-1 at 285, but claimed the individual title on criteria.

Josh Connor finished the day with a perfect record of 4-0, but did not wrestle all of his matches in the same weight class and therefore was ineligible to win the individual title. Blankenship finished the meet 1-1, after losing his second match of the day by injury default. Blankenship was leading Drew Mongold of Petersburg, 11-5, with less than 30 seconds left in the match when the two shot takedowns at the same time and butted heads. Blankenship was knocked unconscious for a brief moment. When that occurs the injured wrestler is not allowed to continue and must get a doctor's release to wrestle anymore the same day. Richard Marshall wrestled three times, finishing the day with two wins against one loss, while Caleb Smalley was 0-4, including a tough 3-2 loss to Frankfort's Dallin Rust.

The Indian grapplers will wrap up the regular season this Friday, February 9, in a quadrangular meet at Martinsburg.

Here are Berkeley Springs' individual records heading into the final week of the regular season:

103 Derek Hovermale 36-3

112 Josh Connor 31-6

112 Richard Marshall 25-13

119 Brad Reed 29-12

125 AJ Blankenship 27-9

160 Tyson Bennett 39-3

171 Caleb Smalley 15-22

189 Cody Reed 43-2

285 Jake Stotler 17-7

Potomac Valley Conference Champions:

103 Derek Hovermale (BS)

112 Alec Peer (Frank)

119 Brandon Harris (Key)

125 Billy Barrett (MU)

130 Dustin Haislip (MU)

135 Zach Oats (Pet)

140 Josh Anderson (MU)

145 Blake Mongold (Key)

152 Jeremiah Shore (MU)

160 Tyson Bennett (BS)

171 Ryan LaRose (MU)

189 Cody Reed (BS)

215 Jeff Ford (MU)

285 Jake Stotler (BS)