Eight years after starting program, Madison Central wins first wrestling region title

Eight years ago, Madison Central didn’t have a wrestling team. Saturday, the Indians won their first region title as they overtook Wayne County, 270-238.5, in the final 7^th Region tournament standings at Henry Clay.

Wes Watts, who won a region title as the head coach at Paul Laurence Dunbar in 2007, said a lot of kids in the Richmond area wanted to wrestle, so he helped build up a youth program in the city. Without that feeder development, Watts said, Saturday’s outcome would not have been possible.

“Most of these guys were all in middle school (when Watts arrived), so they’ve been at it four or five years,” Watts said. “The good thing with this group, we’ve only got three seniors, so they’ll be back even stronger next year.”

Madison Central will lose only two of its 11 state qualifiers to graduation — Gavin Williams (170-pound division) and Dylan Mays (160-pound), both of whom won their respective weights.

Mays’ match was probably the most intense of the 14 finals. Down 12-2 in the third period to Tates Creek’s Brady Gibson, Mays was able to get out from underneath Gibson, locked his arm around Gibson’s neck, flipped the Commodore on his back and held him down long enough to get the pin.

Watts said Mays calls that maneuver “The Assassin.”

“When I was on my back, the only thing I could think of was, ‘I gotta get off,’” said Mays, who had lost twice before to Gibson. “When I got on my feet, I knew I could do it. You just gotta have faith in yourself, even if you’re down in points. It doesn’t matter until the time runs out.”

Lexington sends 15 to state

Gibson was one of four state qualifiers from Tates Creek, which won the city championship last week. Commodores Coach Zach Damon wasn’t thrilled with how Gibson’s match finished from an officiating perspective but thinks his star will bounce back next weekend at the state tournament.

“In basketball you take a loss and it’s upsetting, but this is hand to hand and that loss, until you’ve actually wrestled and experienced it, it feels a lot different. … It’s grueling,” Damon said. “ … The two seed for him is not a big deal. I think he’s got it in him for sure to place at state if he wrestles the way he can wrestle.”

Henry Clay, which finished third in the team standings, led Lexington teams with five state qualifiers. Ray-Karl Irving, Christian Shelby and Tyler Storck all picked up their first individual regional titles for the Blue Devils; Hayden Sheroan and Nathan Ainslie also qualified from Henry Clay.

Shelby, seeded third in the 152-pound bracket, upset Madison Central’s Daniel Baker — ranked 10th in the state by KentuckyWrestling.com entering the week — in the finals. He won by pin and was jubilant following the victory, in part because he didn’t realize what he’d accomplished before hearing the official smack the mat.

“I looked up and there were like three seconds left and I thought (the ref) was calling us to break up because the period was close to ending,” Shelby said. “It was shocking.”

Lafayette’s Justin Torgerson and Kevin Vasquez won the 138-pound and 145-pound titles, respectively, and will represent the Generals at state along with Mason Boggs. Bryan Station also will send two wrestlers to state, Brandon Fields and Brandon Vera. Andres Calleja was the sole state qualifier from Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Top card

Cagen Wallace was one of two individual champions from Wayne County. The junior Cardinal, the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class, defeated Madison Central’s Zach Cowan in the 113-pound finals to improve to 52-0 on the year.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Eight years after starting program, Madison Central wins first wrestling region title."