Mar 10, 2025
photo by: Jay W. Bennett
Wheeling Park senior Jameson Maynard (right), won his 151st career match via a 10-8 decision against Bridgeport’s Eli Knight during the Class AAA 190-pound state title match Saturday night inside Marshall Health Network Arena.
HUNTINGTON — Suffice it to say first-year Wheeling Park head mat coach Danny Doyle is more than proud of his Patriots, despite a sixth-place showing in the Class AAA team race following the completion of the 78th annual West Virginia state wrestling tournament here Saturday night inside Marshall Health Network Arena.
In fact, with the way the season started out the Patriot boss who took over the helm following six years as an assistant was rather ecstatic.
Wheeling Park sent three to the finals and watched 190-pound senior Jameson Maynard secure his first career crown as the Patriots finished with 113 points, which trailed two-time champ University (225.5) as well as runner-up Parkersburg (195), Woodrow Wilson (173.5), Fairmont Senior (135) and Parkersburg South (116).
“We started out the season decimated with injuries,” admitted the coach. “We were a shell of ourselves at the beginning of the year.”
Maynard, who placed fifth at 165 as a sophomore before taking runner-up honors last winter at 175, got the first takedown with 35 seconds left in the first, but entered the third period even at four with Bridgeport sophomore Eli Knight.
The Indian, who was down to start the third, nearly recorded an escape to go ahead, but Maynard was able to turn him for a quartet of near fall points to take an 8-4 cushion with 1:10 remaining. Just 15 seconds later, the Patriot allowed a reversal before getting one of his with 26 ticks left for a 10-6 advantage, which turned into a 10-8 state title decision after Knight reversed him one final time with five seconds remaining.
During Friday night’s semifinal victory, the Patriot reached the 150-win plateau.
“Oh, 10,000 times better, I’ll tell you what,” quipped Maynard when asked to compare win No. 150 to victory No. 151. “It feels so good and I worked so hard for this. I’m glad it’s finally come to fruition. I knew he was a fighter. After I got that first takedown he got a quick escape so I knew I wasn’t comfortable with that two-point lead.
“I just kept battling and got a crucial tilt in there and without that I don’t think I win the match. Props to him for being an incredible teammate to his friends and an incredible competitor. I’m sure he’ll have two under his belt when it’s all said and done. It feels good. I’ve been the underdog the last two years and to get it done being an underdog feels incredible and I couldn’t be more happy right now.”
Prior to Maynard’s match, 150-pound classmate Jack Lowe had the tall order of trying to solve two-time state champion Jimmie Bailes of Woodrow Wilson, but the Flying Eagle notched a 15-2 major decision to add to his previous crowns at 113 from 2022 and at 138 this past winter.
Coach Doyle was just glad to have 215-pound junior Malaki Washington on the mats and available to compete after he came back from an August meniscus tear, had surgery and got back into the lineup. However, George Washington senior Kyle Beverly took the lead for good at 0:35 of the first via a takedown and capped his senior campaign with a 9-2 decision.
“My first tournament back was OVACs and I thought I was prepared and I thought I was ready,” admitted Washington prior to getting on the podium. “I felt good. I felt strong and I came in there and I did under perform, but I had five practices in before the tournament.
“I wrestled a little bit more and I thought I was really ready for this tournament, but I did come in under weight by a lot. I weighed in at 183. Next year I’m coming back for it all. I’m hungry. That’s it.”
Obviously, Doyle is glad to have the services of Washington for one more season.
“He’s just really out there grinding every single day,” coach Doyle said of Washington. “He’s giving up weight, but he goes out there and competes and he doesn’t ever use that as an excuse. We’re just happy that we were able to have him back this year in the lineup. He was actually ahead of schedule on his return just by working hard through his rehab and he was able to get himself back on track and in our lineup for OVACs.”
Wheeling Park, which received a third-place effort from 165-pounder Isaac Sands, kept getting healthier as the season progressed.
“It was like every single month throughout the season. We got Jameson back,” said coach Doyle. “We got Malaki back. We’d get somebody else back. We got Hunter Means back. It was like slowly, but surely, we started getting healthier and as we were getting healthier we got Noah White (5th, 175) back in December as well after a surgery.
“It was like every time we got somebody back the rest of the team got confidence in that, too, so we just were able to build off of that continually. Getting people back in the lineup and continuing to get better. From the beginning of the year we placed sixth overall this year and I think that’s a great testament to how hard that these guys worked all year.”
Lowe completed his career as a four-time state placer. He was runner-up as a freshman at 126, third at 132 as a junior and placed fourth at 144 in 2024.
“Jack’s awesome. Jack makes coaching easy,” added coach Doyle. “I tell him all the time he makes coaching easy. He’s not somebody that I ever have to worry about. He comes in the room every single day and he works hard.
“Every time he steps on that mat we know that he’s going to give it his all. Just Wheeling Park, and myself, we’re lucky that we were able to have him for four years.”
John Marshall’s Zander Wood (4th, 138) and Carter Adkins (6th, 132) found the podium for the Monarchs.
The WPHS girls had a third-place effort from 235-pound sophomore Terionna Gibbons, who beat Parkersburg’s Nevaeh Mason 4-1 in their consolation final, while 165-pound freshman Kymber Heldreth took fourth after losing by fall in 2:21 to Princeton sophomore Leanna Reed.
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