GREENFIELD — The McClain wrestling team hosted their first wrestling matches of the year on Thursday. Logan Elm was the non-league team, and Washington was the Frontier Athletic Conference team joining the Tigers.
Last year, McClain and Logan Elm both reached the OHSAA Regional State Final Four. Those teams never got to wrestle each other as they both were defeated in the semi finals. Logan Elm head coach Jake Daniels requested to be the third team to join in the FAC dual match to make it a tri match.
In round one, McClain and Logan Elm would get to wrestle each other with LE taking off to an early 18-0 lead, and stretched it out to 24-4 before MHS got on a roll. The lead would eventually change hands three times before McClain put them away with a 46-30 final score. Winning matches against Logan Elm was Lucas Jansen (120), Dawson Jansen (132), Jacob Krafthefer (138), Quinton Smith (145), Thomas Retherford (152), Tanner Tite (170), Phil Waters (182), and Kade Rawlins (220). Winning a jv match was Jacob Krafthefer (145).
In round two, Logan Elm defeated Washington 43-21, and got a quality split at 1-1 on the night.
Round three saw the second week of league duals commence with WHS jumping out to a 17-0 lead before McClain got started. The lead in this match would change hands five times in what was a very exciting match coming down to the wire. Kade Rawlins bumped up to wrestle Mason Mustain at (285) and defeated Mustain 3-0 in a very good match. Mustain weighed in overweight by less than a pound and was thus forced to wrestle (285) instead of (220). Mustain is currently ranked 10th in the state at 220 pounds. Following this (285) match, WHS received a forfeit at (106), but it left them one point short as the Tigers earned a hard fought 39-38 victory.
Aside from Rawlins, also winning for the Tigers were: Dawson Jansen (132), Jacob Krafthefer (138), Quinton Smith (145), Tanner Tite (170) being down 6-0 in the third period stayed in the fight and won by pin, Phil Waters (182), and Justin Kegley (220).
McClain remains undefeated on the year at 4-0 and sit atop the FAC at 2-0 tied with Miami Trace, who finished top 8 in the state last year. Washington is now 0-2 in the FAC, losing to Jackson and now McClain.
Up next for the Tigers is their home holiday tournament, The Southern Hills Community Bank Invitational, which will be next Saturday the 29th. This will be a very competitive tournament, with the Tigers fighting to defend their title against runner up Youngstown Liberty, nine time Kentucky state champion Campbell County, Covington Catholic also from Kentucky, and several other very solid teams, including Jackson from the FAC . There will be 13 teams in all. Wrestling will begin at 9 a.m.
Shane Paul the head wrestling coach for McClain High School submitted this story.
