McClain sweeps home matches with Hillsboro, Paint Valley

GREENFIELD — The McClain Tigers were able to wrestle and battle on their home mat Thursday night, gaining a South Central Ohio League win against Hillsboro and winning against non-conference foe Paint Valley.

The two victories at McClain Gym saw MHS defeat the visiting Indians for the second straight season, this year by a 39-30 score. Against Paint Valley, the Tigers won 48-29.

"We took the lead from the very first match and led the whole way," McClain head coach Shane Paul said. "We had good controlling matches. We've both been out of school and we haven't practiced except for Monday, so sometimes you just don't know where your team will be at.

"That's two years in a row we've beaten Hillsboro, and that's big for us because we've never done that. We want to keep rolling for sure. I'm really happy with this being our first league win."

The win over HHS leaves the Tigers at 1-2 in the league, with those league losses coming against the Washington Blue Lions and Chillicothe Cavaliers.

In the match against the Indians, the Tigers gained victories with pins by Keegan Rawlins (113) in the second period and Dillon Faulconer (145) at 1:15.

HHS won with pins by Toby Warrington (132) at 2:55, Cody Whaley (138) at 1:20 and Curran Butler (170) at 1:15. At 106, Dawson Carter defeated Courtney Walker.

At 126 pounds, Tommy Johnson of MHS won by decision over Zack Klisz of HHS. The 120-pound match also went to McClain with Jamaine Barnhart winning via forfeit. Also for the Tigers in wins via forfeit were Jake Badgley (160) and Jarrett Milnes (285).

"Tommy's match had some injury timeouts, but he won," Paul said. "He gutted it out, and he won. He could have easily folded up, but he didn't."

The Tigers also had a decision win at 195 pounds by Gable Smith at 6-0.

In what may be the match of the night, the annual battle between McClain's Ethan Paul and Hillsboro's Jed Asmus at 182 pounds didn't disappoint.

Those two wrestlers wrestled all three rounds, with the match coming down to the final two minutes where Paul wrestled his way to a victory by a 7-5 score, with the final two points by Paul coming at the end of the match, breaking a 5-5 tied score.

"Ethan's match was huge," the MHS head coach said. "He came back after trailing and fortunately was able to get the win. That was a big comeback for us, and it sealed the victory for us."

HHS head coach James Jones also spoke about the match.

"Hats off to Shane (Paul), he's done a great job since he's been at McClain," HHS head coach Jones said. "He has his numbers up and has that program turned around.

"We were a match or two away. We had some close matches, and numbers hurt us. We had to give up some forfeits we didn't want to, and hopefully we'll get this turned around. We have to keep working hard and get back on track."

Hillsboro bounced back with a 42-16 win against Paint Valley.

"We wrestled well against Paint Valley," Jones said. "We matched up better with Paint Valley than we did against Greenfield. We were able to move kids around in the lineup.

"I'm happy with the effort, but we still have a long ways to go."

For the Indians in that match against PV, Warrington won via pin at 5:00 at 138 pounds. Whaley followed at 145 pounds with a pin fall win at 1:03.

Hester had a forfeit win at 152, as did Butler at 170 pounds. Skylar Murphy won his match at 195 pounds for the Indians against PV with a pin at 3:34.

Evan Risley of HHS at 285 had a pin victory in the first round, as did Carter at 106 within 36 seconds with a pin. Chad Bieler won with a forfeit at 113.

The final meeting of the night saw MHS defeat the Bearcats, 48-29.

For MHS in that match, Dillon Faulconer won by pin at 2:45 in the 145-pound class, while Badgley (160) and Michael Aeh (170) won with forfeits.

Smith also gained a second win of the evening, winning with a pin in 56 seconds at 195 pounds. Milnes (285) won with a 50-second pin, while Walker won with a forfeit at 113 pounds. Rawlins also won with a pin in the second round at 120 pounds.

For PV on the night in both matches, Caleb Johnson (182) won with a pin at 1:58 against McClain and won via majority decision against HHS. Also with two wins were Evans (126) and Tesi (120).