Caldwell County will send five wrestlers to the KHSAA State Wrestling Championships with three of them scoring top-three finishes at the semi-state round Saturday at J.M. Atherton High School in Louisville.
Logan Brown had the top finish of the day for the Tigers, finishing in second place in the 120-pound class. Brown, ranked No. 11 in the state by Kentuckywrestling.com, went 3-0 to begin his day with wins over No. 29 Mason Taylor of Ohio County, No. 9 Colton Motta of South Oldham, and No. 7 Nico Plumeri of Louisville Trinity.
Brown faced off against Union County’s Jayden Raney – the top-ranked wrestler in the state – in a rematch of the region championship match. Raney again got the best of Brown with a pin in the championship match.
As a No. 2 seed, Brown will face No. 7 seed Jeremiah Wilbers of Campbell County who is ranked 13th in the state.
Cofy Walls scored a third-place finish in the 132-pound class after a runner-up finish at the region. Walls, ranked sixth in his class, opened the day with wins over Male’s Korrey Mattingly (No. 14) and No. 9 Cole Harrod of Anderson County. He was sent to the consolation round with a 3-1 loss to top-ranked Breydon Whorton of LaRue County.
Walls battled back to defeat Mattingly a second time by a 9-4 decision and take third place with a 4-1 win over No. 7 Hunter Luttell of Fairdale.
No. 8 Cole Sherrill navigated through a tough 215-pound class to finish in third place. He opened with a 3-2 decision over No. 12 Drew Stearman of North Oldham.
In the quarterfinals, Sherrill squared off against the top-ranked wrestler in the state in John Hardin’s Austin Silva, who entered the match undefeated. Sherrill had an early lead on Silva before falling by pin late in the second round.
Sherrill battled back through the consolation bracket with four straight wins. He defeated No. 19 Joshua Lingle of Trinity 9-7, Connor Tilford of McCracken County by fall, Oldham County’s Trey Cranfill (No. 4) by forfeit, and defeated No. 5 Samuel Bertin of Fairdale in a 2-1 decision.
Colin Teutsch will head off to the championships with a sixth-place finish in the 126-pound class. Teutsch, No. 7 in his weight class in the state, opened with two straight wins over Nolan Link of Meade County 15-0 and No. 8 Xavier Gonzalez of Moore 14-7.
In the semifinals, Teustch got a rematch against Paducah Tilghman’s Jayven Williams (No. 6), who defeated him 5-4 in the region tournament. In the intense and sometimes chippy match, Williams scored a 6-2 win over Teutsch on Saturday.
In the consolation round, Teustch dropped matches to No. 18 Lauren Walton of Woodford County 3-2 and to No. 13 Brock Gross of LaRue County 9-3.
No. 13 Justin Klidzejs finished in eighth place in the 106-pound class and will advance to the state championships. He scored wins over No. 18 Justin Binder of Pleasure Ridge Park by fall and Patrick Durbin of Meade County by fall.
Timothy Nichols had a tough go at it in the 144-pound class. Nichols, ranked No. 8 in the class, opened with a 12-0 major decision over LaRue County’s Westin Brown (No.11). In the quarterfinals, Nichols lost to top-ranked Bryant Beane of Louisville Trinity 10-3.
In the consolation round, Nichols’ day came to an end with a 5-4 loss to (No. 9) Tyler Lattin of Meade County.
Andre Carter wrestled at semi-state in the 113-pound class and went 0-2. Carter entered the day ranked No. 22 in the state. He dropped matches to No. 21 Blake Luttrell of Fairdale and Kalob Wise of Moore.
Caldwell County finished in eighth place in the team standings with 73.5 points. Brown, Teutsch, Sherrill, Walls, and Klidzejs will wrestle at the state championships Saturday at George Rogers Clark High School.
