Colonels win seventh in state duals meet

BUCKNER – On a day when they finished right where they were supposed to according to their ranking, the Oldham County High School wrestling team was oh-so-close to moving up.
The Colonels, ranked No. 7 in the state, took eighth place in the 16-team state wrestling duals tournament Saturday in Lexington.
“According to the rankings that’s right where we should be, but we really could have and should have been much better,” OCHS coach Aaron Riordan said. We lost to Larue County  40-30 and they won it and we had a close loss to St. X that kept us back.”
The loss to St. X kept the Colonels from competing in the match for fifth place against Johnson Central, a team the Colonels defeated early in the season.
“We had our opportunities to seal the deal and put it away and just didn’t do it,” Riordan said. “It was our young guys not really grasping the philosophy they’ve got win big. to dominate their opponent instead of just winning to advance.”
The Colonels had a highlight win over Northern Kentucky power Cambell County, marking the second time this season they have defeated the highly regarded Camels.
“They are a really tough team,” Riordan said.”They had a very different lineup and as much as they had improved I think we  had improved just as much. It was a very good measuring stick for us.”
The Colonels had several wrestlers post big days including seniors Grant Johnson at 152 pounds and Brian Hall at 119.
“They both wrestled exceptionally well,” Riordan said.
Posting undefeated 5-0 records on the day were Tyler Kaelin at 125, Daniel Brennerman at 130, freshman Conner Wilkerson at 103 and eighth-grader John Shirkey at 112.
OCHS will compete in the North Oldham Invitational at 10 a.m. this Saturday before heading into the regional meet Feb. 12 at Eastern. The Colonels will be the favorite to take their second regional title in the last  three years with defending champion Eastern as the other main contender.

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