MANSFIELD — Due to Ashland’s continued dominance on the mats, no other Ohio Cardinal Conference team had a chance to win the team title during the league meet.
But the Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets, sparked by two individual weight-class champions, finished in the top half of the seven-team conference.
Led by senior Ashton Spurgeon (37-2), winning at 195 pounds, and junior Max VanFossen (30-9), taking first at 160, the Yellow Jackets finished third as team.
Ashland, with six individual title winners, won its third straight OCC title with 235.5 points. West Holmes was second with 137 and Mount Vernon was third with 132.5.
“The kids did pretty much what we expected them to do,” Mount Vernon coach John Frye said. “We had a couple of heart-break losses, but overall we performed well.”
It’s the second time for the Yellow Jackets to compete in the OCC. The winner looked familiar to Frye.
“It was about the same as last year. Ashland blew everybody away and did the same thing this year,” he said.
The annual event could be better sectional preparation with a few more wrestlers, according to Frye.
“It would be nicer if the weight classes were a little more full,” he said. “A lot of weight classes only had four wrestlers.”
Two other Mount Vernon wrestlers finished third. Sophomore Jacob Burrell (21-14) was third at 106 pounds and sophomore Wyatt Gregory (21-14) was third at 138 pounds.
Five other Yellow Jacket wrestlers finished fourth — Jacob Dehart, Triston Bowens, Connor Dailey, Jaxon Gregory and Noah Coker.
