Price, Osborne suffer tight losses in finals (With Gallery) | Sports

Both were going for their first state championship.

Price (30-2) was in a rematch with Bartee, a senior Price beat 4-3 in the third-place match of the WSAZ Invitational.

Bartee got an escape in the second period and Price got one in the third to force sudden victory. It stayed tied after 60 seconds.

Bartee won the coin flip and chose bottom for the next period and escaped for a 2-1 lead. In the next 30-second period, Price got his chance at bottom but could not quite get free and Bartee won to become a four-time state champion.

“A heartbreaking loss for Judah,” Independence coach Jeremy Hart said. “Judah’s just the hardest-working kid. Just such a good kid. Your heart breaks for him.”

The Patriots finished in fourth overall and third among Class AA teams with 110 points. Fairmont and Class A state champion Cameron both finished with 116.5 points.

Point Pleasant won its fourth straight state title with 233 points.

Osborne, meanwhile, was unable to mount much offense in his match against Jackson. It was his third loss of the season to the Spring Mills junior.

Jackson got an escape point in the second period and made it hold up. Osborne came close to getting an escape and a reversal in the third period but couldn’t quite complete them.

“We felt like he needed to go out there and fight a little bit more, attack him a little bit more,” said Woodrow Wilson coach and Ethan’s dad Matt Osborne. “He played defense the whole time.”

Woodrow finished the tournament in sixth place with 110 points. With Osborne’s runner-up finish and J.J. Bailes’ 113-pound state championship, the Flying Eagles had multiple wrestlers in the finals for the first time since Keith Honaker (119), Mike Honaker (125) and John Bennett (152) all finished runner-up in 1989.

That team, too, finished sixth in the state (77 points) and was the last Woodrow team to win a regional championship before this year’s team did it last month.

Wheeling Park unseated seven-time champion Parkersburg South to win the Class AAA team state championship with 207.5 points. University was runner-up with 176.

Rounding out the top five were Spring Mills (155.5), Huntington (126) and Parkersburg South (116).

Greenbrier West finished runner-up in the Class A team race with 62 points and was 10^th overall.

Here is a complete list of area place finishers:

Class AA-A

106: Dillon Perdue, Independence, 1^st

113: Tucker Lilly, Greenbrier West, 4^th

120: Joshua Goode, Shady Spring, 3^rd

126: Clayton Robinson, Greenbrier West, 6^th

132: Moses Gray, Greenbrier West, 6^th

138: Caleyb Nichols, Independence, 6^th

145: Judah Price, Independence, 2^nd

170: Colten Caron, Independence, 1^st

Dalton Hanshaw, Nicholas County, 4^th

182: Conner Jones, Nicholas County, 3^rd; Cole Vandall, Greenbrier West, 4^th

220: Tyler Workman, Richwood, 6^th

285: Logan Isom, Independence, 3^rd

Class AAA

106: Garrett Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, 4^th

113: J.J. Bailes, Woodrow Wilson, 1^st

152: Ethan Osborne, Woodrow Wilson, 2^nd

195: Jay Jones, Woodrow Wilson, 3^rd

220: Thomas Mullins, Greenbrier East, 5^th

285: Jackson Evans, Woodrow Wilson, 3^rd; Colton Naylor, Oak Hill, 6^th

Email: [email protected]; follow on Twitter @GaryFauber