North Union’s Tarren Riffle has control of his opponent in this file photo. Riffle placed second in the 113-pound weight class during the Central Buckeye Conference tournament.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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The North Union Wildcat matmen took second place in the Mad River Division of the Central Buckeye Conference on Saturday.
The Wildcats tallied 129.5 points, which was good for a fourth-place overall finish.
St. Paris Graham took top honors in the Mad River Division and the overall CBC tournament with a team score of 327.5.
London placed second with a 180 and host-school Bellefontaine took third with a 131.
The Jonathan Alder Pioneers struggled at the match, finishing 12th place with 20 team points.
Tarren Riffle (113) was the Wildcats’ best performing wrestler making his way to the championship round before falling to Trace Braun of Graham by pinfall in 39 seconds. He placed second.
Casey Clark, the Wildcats’ 106-pounder, was able to make some strides in the wrestlebacks to take third place. He pinned Chelsea Horsley of Bellefontaine in 4:42.
Skyler Cowgill of NU also placed third in the 170 class with a 5-2 decision over Luke Stalnaker of Jonathan Alder.
Finishing fourth for the Cats were Hayden Pacha, Chris Cox-Wilson and Zach Millard. Pacha, a 120-pounder, fell by pinfall in 4:54 to Caleb Kennington of Kenton Ridge. Cox-Wilson was pinned by Nolan Neves of Graham in 3:35 in the 182 weight class. Millard fell in 46 seconds to Josh Lange of Springfield Shawnee during the third-place heavyweight bout.
North Union’s fifth-place finishers were Kane Beltz and Dylan Thompson.
Beltz, who wrestles at 195, was able to pin Blake Rose of Benjamin Logan in 2:21, while Thompson (220) toppled Michael Boggs of Jonathan Alder in 1:58.
Austin Jamison (126) forfeited his fifth-place match to Daniel Westcott of Urbana to take sixth.
North Union and Jonathan Alder will now move on to post-season wrestling, starting with sectional meets.
NU will wrestle on Saturday at Madison Plains in Division III, while Alder heads to Licking Valley High School on the same day for a Division II sectional meet.