After being postponed once, the Hillsboro, McClain, and Paint Valley wrestling tri-match came to fruition on the second attempt Wednesday night at McClain High School, according to McClain mat coach Shane Paul.
In round one, Hillsboro trailed after 11 matches, but was able to pick up two forfeits and a pin in the final three matches to secure another league victory, this time, over the host Tigers. The final was 42-29.
In round two, Hillsboro picked up another victory, this time over Paint Valley. Hillsboro left with a sweep on the night in Greenfield.
In round three, it would be decided who would split on the night and who would go 0-2. In a match that changed leads three times and was tied twice, the Tigers took the look halfway through the matchup and won by a final score of 36-24. McClain improves their record and now has hit double digits in victories this year. The team is now 10-13 overall and 2-5 in the SCOL.
“We wanted to wrestle tough tonight after coming off of a poor performance against Goshen the last time out,” said Paul. “We did that. We wrestled tough, we were right there with Hillsboro. James [Jones] has the Hillsboro team going in the right direction. They will continue to improve and we will too. Keegan Rawlins is our best wrestler, and we always look for tough matchups for him. He has been wrestling recently at 138, but he wanted to wrestle a tough matchup against Wilkin of Hillsboro at 145, so he went back up to 145 for that matchup. It was a good match, Wilkin is a good wrestler. Also worth mentioning is Quinton Smith, our 113 pounder. Quinton became our second wrestler this year to top 30 wins. He is currently 30-7 and a tough freshman.”
Individually, Smith, Dawson Immel (120), Rawlins, Phil Waters (152), and Ethan Taylor (182) won both their matches.
Splitting even on the night were Matthew Milnes (126), and Samantha Immel (160). Kai Borrelli (220) had two matches but fell short of victory.
Up next for the Tigers is the Washington Court House Invitational that will be held on Saturday, Feb. 11, starting at 10 a.m. Keegan Rawlins is three wins short of the 100 career win mark and will be looking to secure that benchmark and secure another tournament title. He has won all three tournaments McClain has entered so far this year.
