Camden McDanel was a points machine during his two-day stay earlier this week at the Brecksville Holiday Invitational.
The Teays Valley senior won all of his matches by either pin or technical fall on his way to claiming the 190-pound weight class championship and scoring 35 team points for the Vikings.
“Camden went through the field and he just dominated his weight class. He did what he was supposed to do, and it was impressive,” Teays Valley coach Todd Nace said.
McDanel won by technical falls of 17-2 against Olentangy Liberty Jacob Slack and 18-3 over Cincinnati LaSalle’s Kam Harden.
After pinning Mechanicsburg’s Ronnie Thomas in 2:15, McDanel won his semifinal match by pin over Lowell’s Carson Crace in 3:45.
The Nebraska signee capped his stay in northeast Ohio by pinning Davison’s Remey Cotton in 3:15.
“Camden beat a nationally-ranked top 20 kid from Michigan and just looked really good out there,” Nace said. “He wrestled his match and took care of business.”
Teays Valley senior Joey Thurston placed fifth at heavyweight.
Thurston won by a 7-3 decision over Marysville’s Elijah Perkin and pinned Centerville’s Jackson Mires in 2:42.
After pinning Lowell’s Juan Acosta in just 43 seconds, Thurston advanced to a semifinal match when he lost by 6-0 decision against Brownsburg’s Leighton Jones.
“Joey got off to a really good start during the tournament and wrestled pretty well,” Nace observed. “In his semifinal match, he had to wrestle (Jones), who is a big 6-foot-6 kid who is committed to Iowa for football. He competed well in that match, but that took a little out of Joey.”
After falling by a 10-4 decision to Olentangy Liberty’s Luke Fleet, Thurston bounced back to pin Dublin Coffman’s Kris Manu in 3:36 to finish fifth.
“We pinned (Fleet) earlier in the season, but Joey had to regroup there and then he came back and wrestled a nice fifth-place match,” Nace said. “I’m proud of the way he stayed with it, stepped back up and finished fifth in a very strong tournament.”
Overall, the Vikings finished 13th out of 45 teams and had five of the 11 grapplers they brought to the tournament advance to the second day of competition.
“We had a good first day overall as a team and we got a lot of our guys some quality mat time against good competition,” Nace said. “This has been a grinding month for us, especially for Gunner Havens, Camden McDanel and Joey Thurston who all wrestled up at the Ironman. As a team, we wrestled at Marysville, at Barnesville and Brecksville.
“We knew we had a very tough schedule in December and, honestly, we knew we would take a few lumps along the way, but it’s about seasoning our kids and getting them ready for the league tournament and the postseason. Now, we get a couple of weeks to get in the room and continue to work.”
The Vikings will host the inaugural Bob Thurston Duals on Jan. 14.
On the girls side, Teays Valley junior Ava Miller is now ranked second in the state at 105 pounds.
“Ava bumped up to 110 and has been wrestling well here in the early going of the season,” Nace said. “We’ll move her back down to 105 and she will continue to work and prepare for a tournament run.”
West Jefferson Invitational
Logan Elm turned in a fourth-place showing out of 18 schools during the two-day West Jefferson Invitational earlier this week with 174.5 points.
Amanda-Clearcreek was also in action and finished 11th with 88.5 points.
Logan Elm’s Dawsen Hudson won the 106-pound weight class. His path to the championship came with a pin over Grove City’s Denten Zinn, who finished second.
Gavin Hoover topped the 126-pound weight class for the Braves and his path included a 12-1 major decision win over runner-up Jacob Durr from Amanda-Clearcreek.
Amanda-Clearcreek’s Peyton Beavers won the 150-pound weight class, defeating Logan Elm’s Hunter Schoenborn in the championship match by 17-2 technical fall.
Blake Holzschuh (120), Bradyn Allen (144) and Austin Cordle (165) all finished fourth for the Braves.
Bodie Martin took second at 144 pounds for the Aces.
Greenfield Invitational
Circleville dominated the Southern Hills Community Bank Invitational at Greenfield, topping the eight-school field with 329.5 points.
Greenfield was a distant second at 145 points.
Andrew Siembida (106), Lucifer Donaldson (113), Carson VanGundy (120), Landen Zarbaugh (126), Jacob Johnson (132), Ayden Reedy (138), Tristan Scarberry (144) and Trent Fulgham (285) all won their respective weight classes for the Tigers and Hayden Luck was second at 165.
