The 4th annual McClain Tiger Invitational proved to be the strongest field yet, with 12 teams competing from as far away as Youngstown.
The Tigers ran away from the field with a strong performance all day. The Tigers won their first tournament under the helm of their 8th year head coach Shane Paul. Youngstown Liberty captured the second place trophy. Cincinnati Winton Woods finished in third place. The defending tournament champions Mason finished in fourth place, and the team tied with McClain atop the Frontier Athletic Conference standings, the Jackson Ironmen, rounded out the top five schools.
McClain had three weight class champions for the tournament. Keegan Rawlins (152) ran through the tournament, finishing the tournament with a pin over State Qualifier Henry Danishek of Dayton Christian in the finals. Keegan went 5-0 on the day, and passed a career wins mark by winning his 125th match in round three with a technical fall 15-0 over Matthew Le of Mason. Keegan currently stands at 127 career wins. His next career plateau will be to surpass the all time career wins leader at McClain, Jake Badgley. Jake won 135 matches, also during Paul’s tenure.
The Tiger’s second weight class champion, Ethan Taylor (195), looked very physical all day. Ethan went 5-0 on the day, with a 12-6 victory over Levi Morrison of Springfield Greenon in the final round.
Winning the first tournament he has competed in at the varsity level, freshman Kade Rawlins (220) went 4-0 on the day. In the finals, Kade faced off against undefeated senior Chris Edmonds of Youngstown Liberty High School. Edmonds came into the match a perfect 17-0 on the year. Kade wore down the senior and shut him out for a very controlling 4-0 victory.
McClain had two more finalists on the day that finished as runners up. Freshman Lucas Jansen (106) finished at 4-1 on the day, losing a hard fought battle against senior Jordan McFadden of Liberty. The final score was 7-4. Phil Waters (170) was also runner up, also losing a close decision to a Liberty wrestler, Mouad Elouaddi by a final score of 3-2.
Grabbing third place medals for the Tigers were: Dawson Jansen (126) going 3-2, Quinton Smith (132) finishing at 4-1, Thomas Retherford (145) going 3-1 on the day, and Nathan Franz (160) finishing the tournament with three wins and two losses.
Placing fourth, one spot out of medaling was, Kai Borrelli (285). Kai went 2-3 for the tournament. Kyler Trefz (182) went 3-2 and finished in fifth place. Rounding out the placers was Jacob Barton (138), wrestling as a non point scorer, finished in sixth place. Jake Krafthefer (138) finished at 0-2. Zane Bode (160), Justin Kegley (182), and Ryan Slone (182), all wrestled as non point scorers and finished 0-4, 1-1, and 0-2 respectively.
Up next for the Tigers is a tri match at Miami Trace High School on January 4th at 6pm. Middletown Bishop Fenwick will join the two FAC teams making it a tri match.
Submitted by Shane Paul the head wrestling coach for McClain High School.
