Marysville High School’s varsity wrestling team placed 13th during the annual Southwest Ohio Wrestling Coaches Association tournament that was conducted at Harrison High School.
The 49-team event was held Saturday and Sunday.
Harrison won the event with 199 points, followed by Fairfield-198.5, Cincinnati Elder-168, Hamilton Ross-165.5 and Centerville-159.5 to round out the top five teams.
The Monarchs tallied 88.5 points during the tournament.
Walker Heard, MHS’ 160-pounder, was the top placer for the team. He won five of his six matches for a runner-up finish.
Logan Painter (195) placed fourth with a 4-2 mark, Tyler Winfield went 4-2 at 126 for seventh-place and Lincoln Heard (145) posted a 5-3 record for an eighth-place finish.
Other MHS grapplers finished as follows:
-113: Nathan Thompson, 2-2;
-120: Josh Melms, 0-2;
-152: Joey Robinson, 2-2;
-170: Blayne Landon, 1-2;
-182: Zach Lowe, 2-2;
-220: Joey Palmer, 1-2.
The Monarchs, who responded to the stiff competition by winning 26 of their 46 matches, filled only 10 of the 14 weight classes as a number of athletes were out with either injuries or illness, according to head coach Shawn Andrews.
“We put our schedule together every season with the goal of making our competition tougher as the year progresses,” said Andrews. “We achieved that this weekend and I think it was an eye-opener for a lot of the guys.
“We’re still struggling to get guys into the proper weight classes and filling out a complete lineup,” he said. “I think our varsity inexperience also showed a bit this weekend.”
The Monarch varsity will return to action Dec. 28-29 at the Brecksville Holiday Tournament.