Three wrestlers from Christian County will compete at the KHSAA State Championships next weekend with JaRi Campbell the top seed in his weight class.
Campbell avenged his 3-2 loss to Union County’s Utah Heady at last week’s region tournament with a reversal with six seconds left to earn a 2-1 win over Heady and win the 113-pound class.
That capped a day that saw Campbell go 4-0 and knock off the No. 13, No. 24, and No. 27 wrestler in his class.
Campbell, who entered the weekend at No. 3 in his class, will be bracketed as a No. 1 seed next weekend at the state championship at George Rogers Clark High School. He was state runner-up in the class last year.
Deameion Levell and Omarion Wimberly will be headed to state after finishing in fifth place in their respective classes.
Leavell entered the weekend ranked No. 12 in the 150-pound class by KentuckyWrestling.com. He scored an opening win over Berechiah Hatchett of Fern Creek but fell to No. 2 Malachi Harris of Louisville Trinity by a 3-2 decision in the second round.
He bounced back to score wins over No. 30 Bayden Wilkins of Meade County by fall and No. 8 Caeleb Jarvis of Fairdale by a 6-2 decision.
Leavell lost to No. 6 Max Speaker of St. Xavier by a 6-3 decision in the consolation semifinals and defeated No. 10 Gunnar Arnold of Ohio County 12-2 in the fifth-place match.
At 190, Wimberly defeated Erik Gavitt of Greenwood in his opener but dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 3 Wade Mettling of Oldham County in the quarterfinals. Wimberly knocked off No. 15 Tavious Walker (7-0) of Apollo and No. 8 Kshaun Brown of Union County (3-1) before a loss to No. 5 James Stegman of St. Xavier in the consolation semifinals.
Wimberly, ranked No. 9 in the weight class, took fifth place with a win by fall over No. 7 Tucker Roth of Pleasure Ridge Park.
Campbell, Wimberly, and Leavell will wrestle at the state championships this weekend at George Rogers Clark High School.
No. 8 Ashton Smith was one win away from advancing to state in the 106-pound class. He defeated No. 21 Jacob Cowan of Trinity 13-2 in his opener but bowed out with losses to No. 1 Roman Valera of Central Hardin and No. 15 Joey Bratcher of Ohio County.
No. 19 Kevondre Young was a point away from a trip to state in the 120-pound class. He opened with a loss to No. 16 Payton Durbin of Meade County but defeated No. 21 Jake Huston of North Oldham 11-3 in the second round. He dropped a 3-2 decision to No. 10 Kelton Bailey of Western Hills in the consolation round.
At 126, Holden Schneider (No. 14) dropped his opener to No. 13 Brock Gross of LaRue County 4-2. In the consolation round, he came back to defeat No. 29 Cole Sanderfer of Atherton 13-3. His day ended with a loss to No. 19 Charles Smith of Central.
Kaleb Nenoff (132), Tay Martinez (138), and Zach Eads (157) each wrestled at state first round for the first time and went 0-2 on the day.
As a team, Christian County scored 60 points to finish in tenth place.
