Xenia junior Ronnie Butler (right) locks up his opponent from Miamisburg in the semifinals of the 215 weight class. Butler won via pin and went on be champion of the division.
Photos by Steven Wright | Greene County News
Jayse Clark (top), a Xenia junior, won the 126-pound division at the Xenia Invitational Tournament on Saturday. The three-day event was held at Phil Anderson Gymnasium and featured youth wrestlers through high school.
Greeneview sophomore Jarett Daniels (right) checks the time remaining in his pool play match against a Hilliard Darby wrestler. Daniels won at 113 pounds.
Greeneview senior Jett Daniels (left) looks on at the official and he tries to get a pin against a wrestler from Benjamin Logan. Daniels won the 190-pound division.
Greeneview junior Kyan Hendricks (bottom) got turned upside down in the semifinal match at 138. He would recover seconds later to pull off a pin and advance to the finals where he finished as runner-up.
Mitchell Jones (top), a Greeneview senior, had a bit of a tough time seeing during one of his matches at 175. He was unhindered by the temporary lack of vision on his way to a second-place finish.
Xenia sophomore Cecil Piner (right) went 3-1 in his pool at 175 with two pins and an 8-6 win in this match against a grappler from West Carrollton.
XENIA — The Xenia Invitational Tournament kicked off the 2023-24 wrestling season locally with a three-day wrestling marathon at Phil Anderson Gymasnium.
Xenia as the host, along with Greeneview, competed at the 14-team event for high school squads on Saturday.
Greeneview came in third scoring 163 team points, while Xenia was fifth at 133.5. Benjamin Logan was tournament champion with three first-place finishers. Lakota East came in second with one champion.
Four Greene County wrestlers came out as champions of their respective divisions.
A pair of juniors won for hometown Xenia. Jayse Clark pinned four of his five opponents to come out on top at 126 pounds. After getting quick pins on his way to the finals, Ronnie Butler outlasted a wrestler from Lakota East 3-2 to win at 215.
Jarett Daniels only needed to get through pool play to win the 113-pound division for the Rams. He was joined by Jett Daniels, the champion at 190, who overcame a tough competitor from Ben Logan just to win his pool and make the semifinals.
All four wrestlers were the top-seeds in their weight classes.
Mitchell Jones was the runner-up at 175 for the Rams, as was Kyan Hendricks at 138. T. J. Pierce got fourth at 144, as did Jacoby Baldwin at 150.
Xenia also had Otis Boyette come in second at 157, as well as Devin Dodge at 150.
The competition was set up with the majority of weight classes having wresters winning their individual pools square off for first-place overall, and runners-up in each pool going for third.
Fairborn was scheduled to participate before canceling all weekend activities Thursday due to closing the high school for reported illnesses.
Middle School competition held Friday
Warner Middle School brought home second-place in the Middle School Pool Tournament.
Xenia had four winners and three other placers in the competition. Kaine Lewis and Marqus Keller won as seventh graders, and eighth graders Aidan Hawley and Etsevan Barajas also prevailed.
Max Greene and Carson Ashley both wrestled their way to second-place finishers, and Micah Fleming got third-place in his weight class.
Baker Middle School came in seventh-place overall.
Hudson Blakley won via pin as a seventh grader. Also placing in the top-four in their divisions were Marcus Watts, Zoraia Ostrowska, Wyatt Johnson, Garrett Johnson, Vinny Martinez, Jesse Howard and Jordan Cowen.
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.
