Fort Hill’s Carter Hess captured the 285-pound Maryland Class 2A/1A state championship, and Keyser’s Jackson Swingle won the West Virginia A-AA 106 title to headline the list of state wrestling participants.
On the girls side, Hampshire’s Kaylie Hall took home her third consecutive West Virginia state championship at 165, and East Hardy’s Nahkita Bauserman was the 185 champ.
Both Hess and Swingle end long championship droughts for their respective schools.
Hess is the first Fort Hill individual wrestling champion since Dave Phillips took home the 189-pound state title in 1990. He is also just one of five Sentinels to ever achieve the feat, joining Paul Thomas (98 pounds, 1986), Butch Haller (155, 1981) and Howard Blank (155, 1980).
Hess, the Class 2A/1A West Region champ, finishes the year with a 33-0 record. He defeated North Harford’s Clay Lawrence, a surprise finalist at just a 9-3 mark on the year, in the title bout.
Hess downed Lawrence by a 4-2 decision. Hess, a football signee to Division 1 Fordham, defeated another future college football player for the crown, as Lawrence is an offensive line signee to St. Francis.
Hess won his first three matches by pin and beat Simeon Bryant (37-7) of Owings Mills with a fall in 2:16 to reach the championship bout.
Swingle is the 10th individual wrestling state champion from Keyser High School and the first since Sean Biser brought the 1988 Class AAA crown back to Mineral County.
Swingle won his first three matches by pin and all in less than a minute. His 48-second fall of Independence’s J.J. Scarafino put him into the championship match, where he toppled Fairmont Senior’s Bryce Nichols with a 9-2 decision.
Other champions from Keyser include Bill Dawson (103 pounds, 1962; 112, 1963), Richard Dawson (133, 1961), Rick Dolly (unlisted, 1987), Melvin Evans (unlisted, 1962), Leon Ravenscroft (103, 1965; 112, 1966) and Ron Stedenwald (123, 1956).
Frankfort and Northern also had state runner-up finishes.
The Falcons’ Caleb Flanagan recorded three consecutive pins at 113 to reach the championship bout. He finished second after a 6-1 decision loss to Carter Price of Point Pleasant.
On the other side of the Potomac River, Northern’s Matthew Beitzel also took second in Maryland’s 113-pound division.
Beitzel (41-4), the West Regional champ, garnered pins in his first two bouts and defeated Kane Desch of C. Milton Wright by a 4-2 decision to advance to the championship.
There, he lost to Elijah Collick (42-2) of Stephen Decatur to finish in second place.
At 126, another Husky finished second in the state after Devon Opel (38-7) advanced to the championship match, where he suffered the same fate as he did in regionals, losing to unbeaten Tanner Halling (48-0) of Boonsboro for another runner-up finish following the 8-4 decision.
Opel won two of his first three matches by pin to get to the championship round, with a 4-2 decision over Queen Anne’s Tremaine Jackson (40-4) the lone exception.
Northern’s Caleb Brenneman (144) and Allegany’s Brandi Gochenauer (235) also had third-place finishes in the co-ed and girls brackets, respectively.
Brenneman (42-5) lost to James M. Bennett’s Braxton McAvey via a 9-5 decision in the second round, but Brenneman would get the last laugh.
The Northern standout won three consolation matches to force a rematch with McAvey for third place, which Brenneman won by decision, 8-4.
Gochenauer (10-2), who won the 235-pound West Region title, recorded two pins before a semifinal defeat to eventual state champion Emily Boling of Northern Calvert.
She defeated Ryleigh Porter of Colonel Richardson with a pin in 1:21 for third place.
Gochenauer wasn’t the only top girls finisher from the area.
Hall and Bauserman both only had to win two matches for the 165 and 185-pound West Virginia titles, respectively.
Hall had two pins over Tyler Consolidated’s Chloe Dutton and Emma McGinnis of Buckhannon-Upshur, lasting a combined 50 seconds, for the title. She garnered a 23-second pin in the championship bout.
Bauserman won the title with a pin in 4:37 over Brooke Bennett of Princeton.
Northern’s Mason Glotfelty (39-4) took fourth in the 132-pound Maryland bracket.
Goltfelty dropped to the consolation round after losing to South Carroll juggernaut and eventual state champion JoJo Gigliotti in the second round, but he rallied with three straight consolation wins, falling in the third-place bout to Kent Island’s Greg Couch by a 7-2 decision.
In West Virginia, Keyser’s Lane Metcalf placed fourth at 120. He won his first two matches before falling to Braxton Birch of Wheeling Central. Metcalf defeated Roane County’s Tyson Pena, 2-1, to get to the third-place bout, where he was beaten by a 3-1 decision by Greenbrier West’s Tucker Lilly for fourth.
Another Golden Tornado in Tanner Detrick placed fourth, this time at 144 pounds.
Detrick lost his second match, but he had a three-match winning streak in the consolation bracket. He pinned Will Gageby of Berkeley Springs in the consolation semis before losing to Point Pleasant’s Mars Coste by a 5-3 decision in the third-place match.
East Hardy had a pair of wrestlers place.
At 215, Garrett Van Meter advanced to the semifinals but was defeated by eventual state champion Isaac Martin of Wheeling Central by a 15-2 major decision. Van Meter forfeited his two consolation matches to get sixth.
Sean O’Callaghan lost his opener in the 285-pound bracket to Keyser’s Jake Anderson, but he won three straight bouts before falling in the consolation semis.
O’Callaghan defeated Herbert Hoover’s Mighty Lopez with a pin in 2:32 for fifth place.
Mountain Ridge’s Garrett Michaels (37-6), the West Region champ at 157, won his first match via a pin but dropped to the consolation bracket one round later.
After a pin in his first consolation match, Michaels was eliminated by Tanner Cooper of Sparrow’s Point to finish 2-2 in the tournament.
Fort Hill’s Jaylan Atkinson (28-7) also finished the tournament 2-2. Atkinson dropped his first bout, won two straight and was then eliminated by eventual third-place finisher Trevor Sowers of Boonsboro.
Northern’s Nate Wilhelm and Southern’s Hayden Harvey finished with 1-2 records at 120 and 132 pounds, respectively.