PINNING IT — Creek’s Ian Starkey earns a pin during Saturday’s Doan Ford Invite. - Kim North

BARNESVILLE — Colt Carpenter endured an injury-riddled junior season for the Barnesville football team, deadline with nagging ankle and knee pain. However, the junior has made the most of the early season on the wrestling mat.

Saturday afternoon during the 57th annual Doan Ford Invitational at Barnesville High School, Carpenter lived up to his top seed at 144 pounds with a 7-1 victory over Claymont’s second-seeded Nile Abbuhl.

“It’s amazing,” Carpenter said of being voted the Most Outstanding Wrestler by tournament coaches. “I finally wrestled how I should.”

Despite Carpenter and three other Shamrocks standing atop the awards podium, they finished second in the team race to Claymont, 232.5 to 210.5. The two teams finished third and fourth, respectively, last year.

“Colt is a really good wrestler. He’s been off a little in the early season due to some minor injuries suffered during football, but that’s the best he has wrestled all season,” Barnesville head coach Jayson Stephen said. “That was a very good kid he wrestled, but he stayed solid and looked good out there.”

Other Barnesville titlists were junior Easton Stephen (106), freshman Jaxon Aberegg (120) and senior Hines Ford (190). Stephen joined older brothers Griffen and Reese as Doan Ford titlists.

The top-seeded Stephen opened the finals with 3-2 nod over Washington’s Antonio Edwards, while Aberegg, the No. 3 seed, decisioned Maysville’s top-seeded Ziggy Sandobal, 4-1; and Ford, the No. 1 seed, won by medical default when New Philadelphia’s sixth-seeded Myles Tyson injured his ankle in the second period and couldn’t continue. Ford led 11-0 at the time.

“We’re still a work-in-progress,” Coach Stephen said. “But the young kids are working hard and when they lose a match, it really doesn’t faze them. They learn from it and move on.”

Three other Ohio Valley wrestlers ruled their weight classes. Indian Creek’s duo of Ian Starkey (157) and Luke McMillion (285), and Harrison Central’s Knox McKibben (215) all prevailed.

Starkey, the No. 2 seed, posted a wild, 15-12, decision over Adena’s fourth-seeded Grady Hayden, while McMillion became a two-time champion with the only pin of the finals when he flattened Westland’s Lannon Houston in 3:30.

“Luke moved up from 190 last year. He decided he wanted to eat a little this season and be a heavyweight,” Indian Creek head coach Brandon Pendleton said. “He’s a big boy with a big frame. He carries his weight well. To win this tournament two years in a row is fantastic.”

“Ian is that all-around athlete,” Pendleton added. “He plays football, wrestles and plays baseball. This is a kind of full circle moment for Ian. In his first tournament here as a freshman, he had to wrestle (nationally ranked) Bo Bassett. This kind of caps his career here.”

McKibben earned a 9-0 major decision over Barnesville’s Christien Hannahs. They were seeded 1 and 2, accordingly.

Claymont finished with five champions. They were Nash Edwards (113), Daniel McGarr (132), DreVonn Searcy (138), Luke Henry (150) and Kamden Stout (165).

Maysville’s Carter Abella (126) and Teays Valley’s Andrew Liddell (175) rounded out the individual champions. Abella repeated his 2024 title.