Photo by Kim North Barnesville’s Ayden King (in white) has control of University’s Brody Kehler during their 165-pound championship bout during the 55th annual Barnesville Doan Ford Invitational Saturday night at Barnesville High School. King won by technical fall, 23-5.

BARNESVILLE — University High continued its wrestling dominance in western Belmont County Saturday by winning the 55th annual Barnesville Doan Ford Invitational. The Hawks piled up 304 points and claimed five individual titles, along with the Most Outstanding Wrestler Award.

University was back-to-back champion of the Union Local Rick Link Invitational in 2022 and 2023, but opted not to participate this season and headed a little further west on I-70.

“We’ve got some good kids,” University head coach Ken Maisel said. “They go hard and try to score points. We talk about it at practice every day. We’re not training to train, we’re training to dominate. You just can’t do it in the (wrestling) room, you’ve got to be able to do it when it counts.”

Maisel pointed out that the Hawks were without the services of Carter Pauley, an OVAC runner up last winter.

Teays Valley had two champions and took runner up status with 195 points, while Claymont, without a titleist, was third with 170.5. Fourth-place Barnesville, the 2023 champ, finished with 161.5, while Columbus Bishop Watterson, with three champions, was fifth at 141.

Only two local grapplers won their weight class, both doing so with technical falls.

Barnesville’s Ayden King (165) repeated at his weight class with a 23-5 triumph over University freshman Brody Kehler. Indian Creek’s Luke McMillion (190) prevailed over Brendan Peters of Washington, W.Va., 19-3.

King, who finished fifth at the prestigious Ironman at Walsh Jesuit in Cuyahoga, dominated from the start with two takedowns for a 6-1 lead. He led 15-2 after two periods. He recorded four pins to reach the finals.

“This is nothing new to Ayden. He knows where he has been and what he has to do to get back there,” Barnesville head coach Jayson Stephen said. “He just needs to stay healthy and keep improving.

McMillion took control early, leading 6-2 after one period and 16-3 at the end of two. He also won last week in Cambridge.

“He wrestled a great tournament,” Indian Creek head coach Brandon Pendleton said of McMillion. “He did a good job in the offseason of maintaining his weight and getting down to the weight class right before the season started. It’s paying off for him big time.”

University’s champions included Pepper Martin (113), Rider Ludrosky (157), Emerson Murphy (175), Jackson Pate (215) and Brock Kehler (285). Martin and Ludrosky registered major decisions, while Pate and Kehler had pins in less than a minute. Murphy posted a decision.

Martin scored early and often in a 16-7 triumph over Teays Valley’s John Todhunter. Ludrosky took down Maysville’s Kaleb Monlux, 14-4 and Murphy doubled up Union Local’s Brody Perzanowski, 12-6. Pate and Kehler closed the runaway victory with lightning-quick falls of 56- and 44-seconds of Dalton’s Kaden Russell and Harrison Central’s Landen Thomas, respectively.

“Even though we were able to win, there’s still a lot we have to work on,” Maisel noted.

Kehler, a West Virginia University recruit and three-time W.Va. state champion, was voted the MOW by tournament coaches. He won all four matches with pins in under 44 seconds.

In addition to Perzanowski and Thomas, a pair of others — Barnesville’s Easton Stephen (106) and Wheeling Park’s Jack Lowe (150) — also finished second in their respective weight divisions.

Also winning championships were the Bishop Watterson middleweight trio of Tommy Rowlands(138), Mitchell Younger (144) and James Lindsay (150); Teays Valley’s lightweight tandem of Trevor Bridges (106) and Josh Zimmer (120); Maysville’s Carter Abella (126) and Vinton County’s Travis Bucklew (132), who was also a repeat champ.