Coach Ken Maisel and the UHS wrestling team held their annual senior night on Thursday when they hosted Morgantown High and Buckhannon-Upshur for a night of round-robin style matches.
UHS seniors Shaheed Heyward, Colin McBee, Turner McKenzie, Grant Oxley, Mason Pauley, Hezekiah Taylor, Corbin Turney, and Elijah Wellings-Osha were all recognized prior to the beginning of the matches for their dedication to the Hawks wrestling program. Turney was celebrating his 18th birthday on his senior night. Maisel highlights his senior group as a mixture of both old and new faces.
“They are a great group of guys,” said the Hawks coach. “Some of them like Elijah have only been with us for four years. Some of them like Mason Pauley has been with me since they were five years old.”
Despite only being on the team for two years, senior Hezekiah Taylor says he has learned a lot.
“I like our team, everyone is very hard working,” Taylor said. “We got a heck of a lot better this year and it’s obvious.”
Four-year team member Elijah Wellings-Osha reached an impressive milestone on Thursday, earning his 100th career victory in his high school wrestling career. Even more impressive than that is Osha’s story of how he became a wrestler.
“My freshman year I was playing soccer and walked off the field,” he recalled. “Coach found me and asked if I wanted to wrestle. I had never wrestled before high school.”
Maisel chuckled as he recalled the memory Osha mentioned.
“He’s a great story,” Maisel said of his 170 lb. wrestler. “Like he said they were out at the soccer field and I said ‘hey, you should think about wrestling’ and now he’s a state title contender.”
Winning a state title is exactly what Osha has on his radar. I asked him what his goals were for the rest of the season and his answer was very simple.
“I plan on winning states,” Osha said seriously. “That’s my goal.”
He isn’t the only wrestler with a shot at states as UHS boast a roster with a state tournament contender at almost every weight class. Two-year senior Colin McBee credits the team unity as a part of their success.
“I’ve only been wrestling for two years, but I’m really glad coach Maisel convinced me to come out,” McBee said. “This is a great group of people and it’s always been fun. Hopefully we can come out with some wins going forward.”
The Hawks wrestling team will look to continue their season with another three-team meeting with Ripley and Parkersburg on the 22nd. Then will look ahead to next weekend as they travel to Huntington for the WSAZ wrestling tournament, one of the biggest tournament’s in the entire state for the season.
Full match results from all three matches will be posted below:
MATCH 1 UHS vs. BUHS
Matches won:
UHS 10 (4 pinfalls)
BUHS 4 (0 pinfalls)
UHS def. BUHS 51-14
MATCH 2 MHS vs. BUHS
Matches won:
MHS 5 (2 pinfalls)
BUHS 8 (5 pinfalls)
BUHS def. MHS 45-30
MATCH 3 UHS vs. MHS
Matches won:
UHS 12 (8 pinfalls)
MHS 2 (1 pinfall)
UHS def. MHS 69-9
