Published: November 30, 2008 10:43 pm      

COLUMN - Get the mats out: County wrestling is back again

FAIRMONT — It’s about that time.

No, this has nothing to do with wearing extra layers, snow tires or, for the more adventurous folks in and around Marion County, ice fishing augers.

Aside from the tumbling temperatures — which, must be said, never have stopped this sports writer from wearing his favorite pair of flip flops — the turn of the calendar to December also brings the start of wrestling season.

The 2008-09 campaign, which gets under way Wednesday night when Fairmont Senior hits the road for a quad meet, at first glance doesn’t seem too different from last year.

Simply put, each team in the county has a lot of talent coming back.

East Fairmont headlines the list, maybe not in quantity but surely in terms of quality.

How so? Well, there’s this not-so-little factoid: The Bees return all four of their state champion wrestlers from last year’s third-place team finish.

Drew Jenkins (52-2 last season), Eric Morris (50-4) and Mason Bailey (31-2) won titles as juniors, while Hunter Wood (42-3) captured his first gold medal as a sophomore a year ago.

The three seniors may need some time to get going at full tilt. Jenkins carried a fairly heavy load as a running back on the football team. Morris and Bailey also played for the Bees and battled injuries for much of the season. In addition, East lost brothers Morgan and Pat Murphy, who combined to go 82-15 last season, to graduation.

North Marion is in a similar spot after losing state runner-up Erick Hinerman (38-3), but welcomes back the bulk of a deep, talented lineup that features seven seniors.

Matt Tennant (32-13) reached the Class AAA finals as a junior before losing to Nitro’s Seth Easter. He’ll join state medalists Chad Efaw (37-13) and Ryan Hinerman (38-11), not to mention Storm Barker, Trent Fancher and Tyler Tennant, on a Huskies’ squad looking to build on last season’s positive momentum.

The Huskies finished in seventh at last year’s state meet in Huntington. Parkersburg won the overall team title, followed by Wheeling Park

Fairmont Senior has its top wrestler — Joe Shaw, who went 31-10 and won a fifth-place medal as a junior — back along with strength in numbers. In all, 19 athletes on the Polar Bears’ 26-wrestler roster are underclassmen.

Whoever you’re rooting for, there’s a possibility for big things, and it’s just hours — and one puff of a referee’s whistle — from finally getting started.

E-mail Nick Cammuso at ncammuso@timeswv.com.