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Nobody has to sell Evan Ulrich on David Vincent. He’s known for a while that the freshman would have an immediate and significant impact on the Oak Hill wrestling program.
Others, however, needed some convincing. So Vincent tried.
And he feels it fell on deaf ears.
“We had a seeding meeting for Z’s (WSAZ Invitational) and I was telling all the coaches that we really need to keep Evan in the mix,” said Vincent, the Red Devils head coach. “His only two losses were (to top-seeded) Dallas Owens out of Spring Mills, and we had some common opponents where they split with.
“No one felt like he should be seeded higher than 10.”
That’s where Ulrich landed, nowhere near where Vincent felt he deserved. That left nothing else to do except prove he belonged.
He went about doing just that.
In the toughest tournament in West Virginia, Ulrich took out four seeded wrestlers — three of them seeded higher than him — and won the 132-pound championship. He became the first Oak Hill freshman to win a WSAZ championship.
Ulrich’s list of victims started with a pin of No. 11 Maxwell Griffin of Roselle Park, N.J., in the round of 16. Then came the eye opener in the quarterfinals when he rolled over No. 1 seed Ben Barrett of Huntington by 13-2 major decision.
There was no letdown after that. He defeated No. 6 Devin Hensley of Chapmanville 7-4 in the semifinals, then wrapped up the championship with an 8-4 win over Braxton Birch of Cameron.
To hear Ulrich talk about it, what he accomplished was either no big deal or just part of the plan.
“A lot, I guess?” he searched after last week’s Senior Night dual against Greenbrier East. “Honestly, to do what I’ve done, pretty much those are my expectations. Not much else. I just tried to go in there and win that tournament.”
The win carried even more significance than just winning the tournament. Ulrich’s parents figured out that it was his 500th on-mat victory — he’s been wrestling since he was 7 years old.
And last Friday it paid off even more. Ulrich leapt from No. 5 all the way to No. 2 in the Division 1 state rankings.
“All that was awesome. It was really good,” Vincent said. “And having that success as a freshman is big.”
And nothing unforeseen. Ulrich’s rise is similar to that of Soloman Truman’s last year, when the then-freshman was the Class AAA state runner-up at 157 pounds.
“Last year, having Truman in the lineup, we were like, man, we’ve got something here,” Vincent said. “We thought maybe he can go deep in the state tournament and we knew he'd have a successful year, but how successful we just didn't know. I feel even more confident with Evan this year. I know what he can do, and he's going to shock a few people in the state.”
Ulrich is actually part of a theme for the Red Devils, who have stormed into the conversation with the state’s No. 10 ranking in Division 1 and are doing so with a vastly young team. Their only seniors are 150-pounder Bryson Lego and Kirclyn Coleman, the reigning 120-pound girls state champion.
Oak Hill has two other freshmen in the state rankings — Kohlson Coleman (ninth, 157) and Riley Biggs (eighth, 190). Tanner Johns (113) is also having a solid year.
Also ranked are sophomores Tyler Gilkerson (tenth, 138) and A.J. Robinson (sixth, 215). Junior Landon Dunlap is sixth at 175.
“We’re young, very young, and we’ve got a ton of talent coming up from the middle school,” Vincent said. “It’s going to be a fun couple of years.”
Ulrich was more comfortable talking about what he feels is a promising team than he is himself.
“Honestly, that feels better than winning Z’s, because it's like, we're doing it with a group of people. It's really fun, because it's like this is not the last year we're going to be good. We’re going to be good next year and the year after that,” Ulrich said. “It’s not like, well, we have a good senior class, and next year we don't really know how that's going to turn out. It's looking great. I’m honestly more excited about that than my win.”
Oak Hill will host the Coalfield Invitational on Saturday. Wrestling on two mats will begin at 10 a.m. Joining the host Red Devils will be Greenbrier East, Midland Trail, Meadow Bridge, Independence, Greenbrier West, Shady Spring, Nicholas County, Webster County, Richwood, PikeView, Princeton, Liberty and Bluefield.
There will be team awards and awards to the top six place finishers.
Continue reading...
Others, however, needed some convincing. So Vincent tried.
And he feels it fell on deaf ears.
“We had a seeding meeting for Z’s (WSAZ Invitational) and I was telling all the coaches that we really need to keep Evan in the mix,” said Vincent, the Red Devils head coach. “His only two losses were (to top-seeded) Dallas Owens out of Spring Mills, and we had some common opponents where they split with.
“No one felt like he should be seeded higher than 10.”
That’s where Ulrich landed, nowhere near where Vincent felt he deserved. That left nothing else to do except prove he belonged.
He went about doing just that.
In the toughest tournament in West Virginia, Ulrich took out four seeded wrestlers — three of them seeded higher than him — and won the 132-pound championship. He became the first Oak Hill freshman to win a WSAZ championship.
Ulrich’s list of victims started with a pin of No. 11 Maxwell Griffin of Roselle Park, N.J., in the round of 16. Then came the eye opener in the quarterfinals when he rolled over No. 1 seed Ben Barrett of Huntington by 13-2 major decision.
There was no letdown after that. He defeated No. 6 Devin Hensley of Chapmanville 7-4 in the semifinals, then wrapped up the championship with an 8-4 win over Braxton Birch of Cameron.
To hear Ulrich talk about it, what he accomplished was either no big deal or just part of the plan.
“A lot, I guess?” he searched after last week’s Senior Night dual against Greenbrier East. “Honestly, to do what I’ve done, pretty much those are my expectations. Not much else. I just tried to go in there and win that tournament.”
The win carried even more significance than just winning the tournament. Ulrich’s parents figured out that it was his 500th on-mat victory — he’s been wrestling since he was 7 years old.
And last Friday it paid off even more. Ulrich leapt from No. 5 all the way to No. 2 in the Division 1 state rankings.
“All that was awesome. It was really good,” Vincent said. “And having that success as a freshman is big.”
And nothing unforeseen. Ulrich’s rise is similar to that of Soloman Truman’s last year, when the then-freshman was the Class AAA state runner-up at 157 pounds.
“Last year, having Truman in the lineup, we were like, man, we’ve got something here,” Vincent said. “We thought maybe he can go deep in the state tournament and we knew he'd have a successful year, but how successful we just didn't know. I feel even more confident with Evan this year. I know what he can do, and he's going to shock a few people in the state.”
Ulrich is actually part of a theme for the Red Devils, who have stormed into the conversation with the state’s No. 10 ranking in Division 1 and are doing so with a vastly young team. Their only seniors are 150-pounder Bryson Lego and Kirclyn Coleman, the reigning 120-pound girls state champion.
Oak Hill has two other freshmen in the state rankings — Kohlson Coleman (ninth, 157) and Riley Biggs (eighth, 190). Tanner Johns (113) is also having a solid year.
Also ranked are sophomores Tyler Gilkerson (tenth, 138) and A.J. Robinson (sixth, 215). Junior Landon Dunlap is sixth at 175.
“We’re young, very young, and we’ve got a ton of talent coming up from the middle school,” Vincent said. “It’s going to be a fun couple of years.”
Ulrich was more comfortable talking about what he feels is a promising team than he is himself.
“Honestly, that feels better than winning Z’s, because it's like, we're doing it with a group of people. It's really fun, because it's like this is not the last year we're going to be good. We’re going to be good next year and the year after that,” Ulrich said. “It’s not like, well, we have a good senior class, and next year we don't really know how that's going to turn out. It's looking great. I’m honestly more excited about that than my win.”
Oak Hill will host the Coalfield Invitational on Saturday. Wrestling on two mats will begin at 10 a.m. Joining the host Red Devils will be Greenbrier East, Midland Trail, Meadow Bridge, Independence, Greenbrier West, Shady Spring, Nicholas County, Webster County, Richwood, PikeView, Princeton, Liberty and Bluefield.
There will be team awards and awards to the top six place finishers.
Continue reading...
