The New Martinsville School wrestling team spent another weekend traveling the state of West Virginia looking for the best competition they could find. They found it this time at the Hayes Hornet Invitational in St. Albans.

Even though the Blue Eagles crowned more champions than any of the other 12 teams there, they settled for third place behind big school powerhouses Barboursville and Winfield.

Bringing home championship hardware were Kyler Cecil at 78 lbs., Riley Nice at 102 lbs., Clay Adams at 123 lbs., and Caleb Nice, 155 lbs.

Adding to the team scoring was finalist John Albertson at 190 lbs. who was a runner-up; third place Jack Booth (95 lbs.); and fourth places by Kaleb Simpkins (110 lbs.), Hunter Partridge (128 lbs.), and Joel Hatfield (171 lbs.).

Said long time wrestling Coach John Holliday, “Everyone really wrestled well in what was a very tough tournament. To get that many champions was gratifying and frustrating at the same time. We only had nine wrestlers out of 15 weight classes, so it was difficult to score points at the rate the big schools could.

“On Friday night,” he continued, “we did not lose a match in the first two championship rounds and even then we were starting the second day in third place. The larger schools fill those weights and outscore us there. But every single one of our wrestlers placed and contributed to the score.”

The team traveled to Parkersburg and Charleston for the last two matches to find good competition, also.

This week, the Eagles will be at home against state-ranked Point Pleasant and Buckhannon Upshur, along with Ohio power Union Local. The quad match will be at noon on Saturday, Jan. 12.