Brock Blankenhorn, Rylan Firebaugh and Gabe Harmon all took top honors to lead the Mount Vernon wrestling team to a second-place finish at the Newark Catholic Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 23, in Newark.
Blakenhorn won the 106-pound weight division over teammate Dylan Hartman, Firebaugh (126 pounds) beat out Newark Catholic’s Caden Canning and Harmon (220) defeated Tony Thivener of Hartley.
The Yellow Jackets finished tied with Bishop Hartley with 230 points, but the Hawks took top honors because of a Mount Vernon deducted team point.
Colton Spurgeon (120), Conner Lang (132) and Jesse Foster (195) finished second; and Gabe Shannon (138) and Nate Stradley (285) were third to pace the Yellow Jackets.
Don Wasserbeck Classic
Donnell Marshall took first place in the 145-pound weight division to lead Centerburg at North Union’s Don Wasserbeck Classic on Saturday, Jan. 23, in Richwood.
The Trojans finished with 94 points as a team to finish eighth out of 12 teams, behind Marion Pleasant (269 points).
Fredericktown’s Brock Stute finished second in the 132-pound division. Stute led the Freddies to a 10th-place finish with 61 points.
Ross Boyd (285 pounds) was second, Charlie Sargent (220) finished third and Caylan LeMaster (152) finished fourth to lead the Trojans.
Fredericktown also got solid performances from Gene Fitzpatrick (182), who placed fifth; and from Mason Hoeflich (160), Damian McLeod (220) and Lucas Herbst (285), who all placed sixth in their respective weight classes.
Joshua Hephner Memorial
Cody Matthews placed second in the 152-pound weight division to lead Highland at Austintown-Fitch’s Joshua Hephner Memorial on Saturday, Jan. 23, in Austintown.
Matthews lost a 9-5 decision to Mogardore’s Nick Skye in the championship round.
The Scots finished 10th out of 17 teams; behind Rootstown (239.5 points), who won the second day of the showcase after Louisville (288.5) took top honors on Friday, Jan. 22.
Triston Hinkle (195) finished third, and Caleb Wetzel (126) and Kaden Miller (132) were fourth to pace the Scots.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Clay Hilliard put together back-to-back solid games, helping Mount Vernon Nazarene split a pair of Crossroads League games over the weekend.
Hilliard’s basket with 18:09 remaining put the Cougars ahead for good in an 84-78 win at Grace on Saturday, Jan. 23, in Winona Lake, Indiana.
But MVNU couldn’t overcome a 15-2 start by top-ranked Indiana Wesleyan and fell 83-70 on Monday, Jan. 25, at Ariel Arena in Mount Vernon.
Hilliard’s basket against the Lancers started a 16-5 run for the Cougars that helped put the game out of reach. He finished with 23 points — behind only Jevon Knox, who led MVNU with 24 points, eight rebounds and a pair of blocks against Grace.
Gichairo Berika added 14 points and Kade Ruegsegger chipped in 11 points for the Cougars (4-8, 4-5), who led Grace by as many as 15 points in the second half.
Jake Wadding had 18 points, eight rebounds, five steals and three blocks to pace the Lancers (12-6, 5-4).
Hilliard, who scored with 7:53 remaining to help MVNU close the gap to four, scored 19 points and added three assists to lead the Cougars against Wildcats.
Ruegsegger had 13 points, Eric McLaughlin added 12 points, and Kyle Kegley went for 10 points and eight boards to back Hilliard against IWU.
Kyle Mangas went for 28 points, eight rebounds and eight assists; and Seth Maxwell had 27 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks to pace the Wildcats (22-1, 10-1).
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Taylor Gregory went for 25 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks and a pair of steals to lead MVNU to a 67-52 win over Grace in Crossroads League play on Saturday, Jan. 23, at Ariel Arena in Mount Vernon.
Maria Dobson had 15 points, six rebounds and six assists; and Rylee Pireu added 14 points and five boards for the Cougars (8-8, 5-4), who led 24-8 at the end of one quarter and cruised from there.
Kyannah Stull had 17 points and five steals to pace the Lancers (10-11, 1-10).
COLLEGE TRACK AND FIELD
Kyler Dickey set a personal record with a 16.21-meter throw to finish first place in the men’s shot put for the MVNU indoor track and field team at the Indiana Wesleyan Invitational on Friday, Jan. 22; the first day of a two-day event held in Marion, Indiana.
The Invite was not scored as a team competition.
Kasey Keith led the women’s team with a second-place finish in the shot put with a throw of 12.87 meters.
Macy Weaver ran a time of 11 minutes, 3.08 seconds to finish fourth in the 3,000-meter race to lead the Cougars on the second day, Saturday, Jan. 23.
