Junior wins Highlands' 1st regional wrestling title as Ryle wins team championship
WALTON, Ky. – After becoming the first state placer in the history of Highlands High School wrestling, Rilen Pinkston felt he needed to become better on and off the mat.
Pinkston’s record speaks for itself, as the Highlands junior made more history for the program Saturday during the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Region 5 tournament at Walton-Verona.
Pinkston won the championship at 150 pounds, becoming the first regional champion in the history of the program. Pinkston ended the day with a perfect record of 29-0.
“It feels great to be able to do that for my team,” he said. “We've never had a regional champion before and it feels good. I have great coaches."
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Pinkston, the top seed at 150 and ranked fourth in the state by KentuckyWrestling.com, won by fall in the first period over 19th-ranked Pugh.
Pinkston is also the reigning Class 2A state champion in the pole vault, winning that championship last June. He has hopes of adding a wrestling state championship to add to his seventh-place medal last season.
He is devoted to accomplishing more in athletics and in his life in general, as he has more peace of mind through his religious faith.
“My faith has improved tremendously,” Pinkston said. “The way I live my life now is a lot different than last year. I had to get my priorities in check. My faith wasn't that strong last year. I didn't spend a lot of time with God as much as I should have, but I'm trying harder every day. I'm just trying to strengthen that relationship. That's probably the most important thing in my life right now.”
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Ryle won the team championship with 233 points, 18 ahead of second-place Walton-Verona and 23 ahead of third-place Campbell County.
Ryle had four regional champions and send 10 qualifiers to next weekend’s semi-state tournament, which is the first round of the state tournament. Ryle will host that field Feb. 18.
“It feels good," Ryle wrestler Rider Trumble said. “I was surprised that we won because going into this season, they didn't have our team ranked very high, but today we came out on top and beat a team that got second at their state duals.”
Trumble won the regional championship at 132 pounds over Timothy Sulfsted of Walton-Verona, winning by fall in the second period. Trumble, 32-3 overall, is ranked first in the state and will stay there after beating ninth-ranked Sulfsted.
Trumble didn’t feel extra pressure being the favorite.
“I feel a little bit more confident even though I’ve got a target on my back,” he said.
Landen Evans, a Ryle sophomore, won the 113 title over Campbell County’s Mason Orth by pin in the third period in one of the most anticipated finals. Evans, 38-3 overall, is ranked third in the state and Orth (42-5) is fourth.
Junior Caleb Duke won at 175. He is 32-4 overall and ranked seventh in the state. Travis Steiber, 27-10 overall, won at 190 where he is ranked 22nd.
Walton-Verona had four champions on its home floor.
Senior Hunter Isaacs won the championship at 138. Isaacs, a senior and 25-1 overall, is ranked first in the state. He is one of two ranked atop his class in the state along with Trumble.
“I was able to turn him at first. Then he stopped my chicken wing and slowed the match down,” Isaacs said. “Mainly getting the pins for those matches and getting team points.”
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Senior Mason Schweitzer won at 144 and is 33-5 overall. He is ranked second in the state.
“It was a good experience,” he said. “We had a pretty good shot coming in. A couple of matches didn't go our way, but collectively we wrestled well and it was nice to have all the support from all the home crowd.”
Sophomore T.J. Meyer won at 120 in another marquee finals matchup. Ranked second in the state, he defeated fifth-ranked Jonah McCloskey of Simon Kenton 7-2. Meyer is 34-2 and McCloskey 40-9.
Meyer and Schweitzer were the only repeat regional champions from last season, and Meyer is a three-time champion.
Sophomore Luke Hyden (28-10) won at 215 where he is ranked ninth in the state.
Eighth-grader Brennen East finished as runner-up at 106 after pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the day. Ranked 15th in the state, he beat fourth-ranked Clayton Badida of Conner in the semifinals. Badida finished third.
“(Ryle) is a well-coached program,” Walton-Verona head coach John Roth said. “We had our hands full, but our kids did well. We had some other underclassmen win some matches that we weren't sure about, and then some kids that hadn't been wrestling for a while, they came back on the team. Collectively, we all worked together and it worked out.”
Third-place Campbell County had two regional champions. Kyle Richmond (40-5) won at 157, defeating Ryle’s Colin Ross (16-7) 5-3. Richmond is ranked eighth in the state, and Ross was ranked ninth at 165. Richmond was one of two No. 2 seeds to win a regional title Saturday.
Campbell County junior Christopher Ferraro won the title at 126 and is 47-12 overall.
Holmes senior Emauryon Arnold won one of the night’s top matchups, winning the 285-pound title over Covington Catholic’s Willie Rodriguez in an 8-7 nailbiter. Arnold was the other No. 2 seed to win a title and is 47-5 overall. Rodriguez, ranked fourth in the state, is 47-10 and Arnold is ranked 12th. Arnold was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the meet.
Simon Kenton freshman Braden Blevins defeated WV’s Brennen East in the 106 final and is 51-9 overall. Blevins is ranked third in the state.
Scott senior Aiden Zinser defeated Dixie Heights’ Kaden Lamier 7-4 to win the 165-pound title. Zinser, 34-2 overall, is ranked second in the state and Lamier (39-6), eighth.
In Region 6, Grant County had two semi-state qualifiers. Ethan Davis (25-2) finished second at 120 and Jason Franks (22-10) was fourth at 132.
Region 5 wrestling results
Team scores: 1. Ryle 233, 2. Walton-Verona 215, 3. Campbell County 210, 4. Simon Kenton 162, 5. Conner 139, 6. Covington Catholic 97, 7. Highlands 96, 8. Holmes 88, 9. Scott 78.5, 10. Cooper 72, 11. Dixie Heights 62, 12. Boone County 46, 13. Newport 22.
Semi-state qualifiers: Ryle 10, Campbell County 10, Walton-Verona 8, Conner 6, Simon Kenton 5, Covington Catholic 4, Holmes 3, Scott 3, Cooper 3, Highlands 2, Dixie Heights 2.
The championship match score is listed. The top four qualify for next week’s semi-state tournament at Ryle.
106: Braden Blevins (SK) d. Brennen East (WV) Fall 1:34, 3. Clayton Badida (Conner), 4. Luke Cornwell (Ryle), 5. Justin Kidd (Dixie), 6. Ein Gipson (Holmes).
113: Landen Evans (Ryle) d. Mason Orth (Campbell) fall 4:54, 3. Aiden Marquis (Conner), 4. Michael Smith (Scott), 5. Benjamin Woosley (SK), 6. Jason Ford (CovCath).
120: T.J. Meyer (WV) d. Jonah McCloskey (SK) 7-2, 3. Jeremiah Wilbers (Campbell), 4. Jagger Irvin (Ryle), 5. Austin McCombs (Conner), 6. Peyton Ross (CovCath).
126: Christopher Ferraro (Campbell) d. Maalik Washington (Conner) 8-2, 3. Seth Page (Ryle), 4. Xavier Montanez (Dixie), 5. Ian Lawrence (SK), 6. Antonio Rodriguez (CovCath).
132: Rider Trumble (Ryle) d. Timothy Sulfsted (WV) fall 3:55, 3. Deacon Heisler (Campbell), 4. Reese Hill (Holmes), 5. T.J. Hicks (Highlands), 6. Riley Gilbert (SK).
138: Hunter Isaacs (WV) d. Keegan Bishop (CovCath) 9-1, 3. Cordion Abernathy (Conner), 4. Eli Depperschmidt (Campbell), 5. Nick Long (Boone), 6. Callen Schmidt (Ryle).
144: Mason Schweitzer (WV) d. James Haas (Ryle) 7-1, 3. Robert Cameron (Holmes), 4. William Gallagher (Highlands), 5. Jake Porter (Newport), 6. Demitre Beltran (Cooper).
150: Rilen Pinkston (Highlands) d. Gaven Pugh (SK) fall 1:21, 3. Drew Johnson (Cooper), 4. Hunter Schimming (Ryle), 5. Charles Woodring (Scott), 6. Liam Bird (WV).
157: Kyle Richmond (Campbell) d. Colin Ross (Ryle) 5-3, 3. Ben Turner (Cooper), 4. Aidan Dierker (CovCath), 5. Louis Ba (Conner), 6. Tyler Kennedy (WV).
165: Aiden Zinser (Scott) d. Kaden Lameier (Dixie) 7-4, 3. Bryce Dennemann (Campbell), 4. Lucas Hughes (Cooper), 5. Zach Russ (Highlands), 6. Alex Floyd (Holmes).
175: Caleb Duke (Ryle) d. Charlie Alford (Campbell) 7-1, 3. Benjamin Walton (WV), 4. Harrison Smith (CovCath), 5. Jonah Vittitow (Boone), 6. Will Robinson (Dixie).
190: Travis Steiber (Ryle) d. Cody Mershon (Campbell) fall 1:51, 3. Hayden Walters (SK), 4. Noah Kenton (Conner), 5. Andrew Leibfarth (Boone), 6. Caleb Hollingsworth (Highlands).
215: Luke Hyden (WV) d. Emmanuel Mills (Scott), 3. Brayton Haaser (Conner), 4. Joshua Brophy (SK), 5. Brayden Allender (Campbell), 6. Justin Temple (Newport).
285: Emauryon Arnold (Holmes) d. Willie Rodriguez (CovCath) 8-7, 3. Ben Teipe (WV), 4. Ethan Waid (SK), 5. Teagan Haretuku (Highlands), 6. Jayden Pointer (Boone).
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ryle wins KHSAA Region 5 team wrestling championship
