Clinton County teams are always in the thick of things at the SBAAC Wrestling Championship tournament.

And this year should be no different.

“I think Clinton-Massie will be a tough team to beat,” WHS head coach Kelly Tolliver said. “It should make for an entertaining day.”

Competition begins 10 a.m. Saturday at Western Brown High School with Wilmington, Clinton-Massie, East Clinton and Blanchester athletes taking the mat against their league rivals.

In the last four league tournaments, a county school has won six of the eight divisional championships.

Clinton-Massie won the American Division title last season while Bethel-Tate and Clermont Northeastern were National champions. Blanchester had won the previous three National Division crowns.

The end of a run won’t be used as motivation for the Wildcats.

“We don’t think about the past,” BHS coach Ryan Shafer said. “We haven’t even talked about last year. We look forward to what’s ahead. I individually plan for each wrestler and what we can do to give our wrestlers the best possible plan to win.”

Shafer said his squad has been improving each event and expects that to continue this weekend.

“Everybody has a chance to place and give us points which will help us place pretty high in this tournament,” he said.

Clinton-Massie also was the overall champion, the most coveted of SBAAC titles, with a tournament best 179 points. Wilmington was next with 169.5 points.

“Although we graduated nine seniors off last year’s league title team, we always expect to reload a team that will be ‘in the hunt’ for a league title every year,” Massie coach Spencer Running said. “We just want our wrestlers to preform to their best ability and our program will be proud regardless of the results.”

Wilmington’s Carson Hibbs and Josh Snell are Individual returning champions.

Running said Cody Lisle (106), Gatlin Newkirk (120), Cole Moorman (126) and Brodie Green (150) are frontrunners to be in the finals of their respective weight classes.

However, “we like anyone can get hot and be there to win a title,” Running added.

In a quest for the overall title, those third- and fourth-place finishers are equally important in getting a team to the top.

The middle weights seem to offer numerous high-quality battles for championships if things go as expected. One of the best, Running said, is a rematch at 138 pounds from 2022 where Nathan Kulbe of Batavia decisioned Thane McCoy of Wilmington 13-3.

East Clinton has gone through a “tough week of injuries and sickness and we will probably not have everyone in the lineup on Saturday,” head coach Doug Stehlin said.

Cooper Rack is back this year after missing last year’s tournament with an injury, Stehlin said. Rack was second as a freshman and fourth as a sophomore in the SBAAC.

“His top goal is to make it to state this year but this is part of the journey and I know he would like to make a name for himself in the SBAAC,” said Stehlin.

Paul McKnight is a WHS wrestler who, like Rack, missed last season with an injury. “I’m excited to get to see Paul wrestle,” Tolliver said.

Wilmington has steamrolled much of its competition this season and looks to get back on top in the SBAAC this weekend.

“Coach (Gary) Van Pelt has reminded this team constantly, it’s all the guys fighting back for third that win tournaments,” said Tolliver. “This Hurricane team has shown this season that they take that to heart.”

With all 11 of the SBAAC wrestling schools thrown in to the same pot, rather than two different tournaments based purely on divisions, the quality of competition is keen especially in the later rounds.

And that only makes everyone better.

“Props to all of the coaches in this league,” said Running. “Hopefully we can continue to grow this league into one of the top leagues in Southwest Ohio for wrestling.”

Said Tolliver, “Good luck to all the teams.”

Reach Mark Huber at 937-556-5765, via email [email protected] or on Twitter @wnjsports