Photo By Kim North Martins Ferry’s Colton Nixon has Cameron’s Braxton Birch in a headlock during their 126-pound championship match during the 31st annual St. Clairsville/Whiteside’s wrestling tournament Saturday at the ECO Center. Birch won by technical fall, 19-3.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Despite having a little more than a week-and-a-half of practice, Cameron was perfect in the championship finals of the 31st St. Clairsville/Whiteside’s wrestling tournament Saturday inside the refurbished ECO Center.

The Dragons, who advanced to the W.Va. Class A state football championship game just two weeks ago, went 4-for-4 in the final round of the 30-team event and finished fourth in the team race with 280 points, one more than Dublin Jerrome of suburban Columbus.

“The kids wrestled well today,” Cameron first-year head coach Chad Burge said. “They’re working hard to get into shape. They are hungry. It’s been a delayed season. We’ve got a lot of work to do yet, but we’re getting there.”

Winning titles were senior Slaton Pettit (150) and sophomores Braxton Birch (126) and Eli Tedrow (157) and freshman Talen Brown (144). Pettit and Brown were two-way starters on the football field.

Pettit didn’t take long in his championship bout as he pinned Dublin Jerrome’s DJ Milanovich in a mere 17 seconds. He also recorded a 17-second fall in the quarterfinals and pinned his opponent in 3:21 in the semis. He was second at 138 last year at the W.Va. Class A/AA state meet and is a three-time OVAC Ron Mauck placer.

Birch scored at will against Martins Ferry freshman Colton Nixon in a 19-3 technical fall. He led 3-0 after one period before scoring seven points in the second and nine more in the third. Birch was a state runner up last season at 120 for Wheeling Central and took third at the OVAC Ron Mauck.

Brown made it back-to-back pins when he took down John Beltz of Alliance in 2:42. He was leading 4-0 when the pin occurred.

Tedrow capped the perfect round with a 7-1 decision over Madison Plains’ Aiden Proctor. Tedrow scored four points in the second period and never looked back. He was also second in the state while competing as a Maroon Knight last year.

Despite only having one wrestler in the championship finals, Martins Ferry’s young squad finished third in the team race with 291.5 points. Hubbard won the title with 327. Alliance was second at 318.5.

“We led early and then took a hit when we got into the bracket portion, but for a young, inexperienced team, they come out and compete every weekend. That’s all we can ask,” Martins Ferry head coach Chad Ware said. “They continue to improve each week and we hope they continue throughout the season.”

Ware had high praise for Nixon, despite his loss.

“A couple of weeks ago he was our best wrestler. His ceiling is super high,” the coach said. “He’s only going to get better, especially if keeps wrestling kids like that.”

Brooke had a pair of finalists in Senior Joseph Rea (113) and sophomore Landon Burdine (132). However, both came up short in their bids for titles. Rea fell 12-6 to undefeated Logan Bella (21-0) of Hubbard. Burdine was pinned by Green’s Joel Brink.

“All-in-all as a team, we wrestled well,” Brooke head coach Doug Sizemore said. “We’ve got a lot of young kids who got a lot of good matches in today. We had a lot of kids place in the top 15 of their weight classes, which is the top half of the bracket.

“We had the two finalists. We would’ve liked to have had two champions, but I’m proud of the effort.”

Wheeling Park Duals

TRIADELPHIA — Apple Creek Waynedale completed a dominant run through the Wheeling Park Duals with a 55-21 victory over Claymont in the championship finals Saturday inside the fieldhouse at The Highlands Sports Complex.

Steubenville placed fourth and John Marshall eighth.