Hillsboro senior Scott Eastes McClain’s Kade Rawlins both claimed individual sectional championships Saturday at the Southeast Division II Sectional Wrestling Tournament held at Washington Senior High School.
Team scores were Miami Trace 276, Fairfield Union 183, Washington 179, Hillsboro 104.5, Circleville 92, McClain 90.5, Unioto 87, Waverly 71 and Logan Elm 50.
Eastes was the sectional champion at 160 pounds, avenging a loss from the Frontier Athletic Conference Tournament held two weeks before by beating Miami Trace’s Vincent Munro in the finals 5-4. Eastes’ semifinal match resulted in him pinning conference runner-up Ethan Burns of McClain in 2:59.
“Scottie wrestled a fantastic tournament and really put things together for his two matches. His finals match was the most complete wrestling match I have seen him put together in a long time. We are peaking at the right time and we are going to be carrying that momentum into districts this week” Hillsboro coach Greg Rhoads said.
McClain’s Rawlins, wrestling at 285 pounds, pinned Fairfield Union’s David Seymour in the semifinals in 1:53 then easily handled Logan Elm’s Collin Roar, 14-5, in the championship match.
Other district qualifiers for Hillsboro include: Sophomore Kaiden Boris who finished third at 113 pounds, freshman Isiah Nussbaum who finished fourth at 126 pounds, Junior Cameron Roberts who finished fourth at 170 pounds and freshman Gary Reno who took fourth at 182 pounds.
Hillsboro also has three alternates to the district tournament: Freshman Noah Vaughn who took fifth at 106 pounds, sophomore Ryan Mau who took fifth at 152 pounds and freshman Jordan Groves who took fifth at 220 pounds.
Also competing for the Indians on the day were sophomore Lane Wilson at 132 pounds (sixth place), freshman LeWayne Curtis at 138 pounds and senior Isaac Lewis at 145 pounds.
“Our guys went out and battled and are improving every day,” Rhoads said. “Senior Isaac Lewis had an unfortunate injury during the week that lead to him not being able to perform to his full abilities this week. That’s a kid that has been with our program for the last four years who gives everything he has. When he first came out, he had never wrestled before and the leaps and bounds he was able to take in a short amount of time is admirable. We want to wish him luck with the rest of his endeavors.”
McClain had three other wrestlers finish in the top four to qualify to move on to the district tournament. Lucas Jansen at 138 pounds and Justin Kegley at 195 pounds were both runners-up, while Ethan Burns took third at 160 pounds.
Tiger Ethan Hill will serve as an alternate after taking fifth at 182 pounds.
Information for this story was provided by Hillsboro wrestling coach Greg Rhoads.
