Shadyside (175.5) and St. Clairsville (214.5) were unable to contend with Division I juggernaut Teays Valley (415) in the chase for team hardware at the Best Value Inn Wrestling Tournament, but the two local Division III squads managed to produce two champions each Tuesday night.

Shadyside's Bryan Crozier got the Tigers' show started in the 119 pound bracket. With the smallest weight class in the tournament, the Tigers' senior had little quantity, but much quality to battle through.

"Bryan only had one pool where most guys had two pools of wrestlers, but his pool was solid," Tigers' mat mentor Scott Kinemond said. "I was really impressed with how he wrestled and held himself with the boy from Marietta. We need to win those close matches and Bryan performed to his capability."

Also finding himself in a familiar spot was returning OVAC champion Johnny Merryman.

Known for being a stud on his fet, the Tigers' 160 pounder found himself against another high caliber grappler in the finals with John Glenn's Zach Van Way, a returning state qualifier.

Down 1-0, Merryman scored a quickly awarded takedown as VanWay slipped away in a scuffle to put the score in a 2-2 deadlock. In the last period Merryman went down and earned an escape to go up one, 3-2.

"We were on the offensive side like we should always be," Kinemond said about Merryman's match. "(Van Way) was our best competition. He kept us from finishing shots because he has very good hips."

Merryman's repertoire of matches earned him this year's Delande Most Valuable Wrestler award voted by the head coaches of each team. The Delande award was named after a trio of St. Clairsville brothers Don class of '79, Dave class of '82 and Darren class of '87 who were all state qualifiers in the Red Devils' mat program.

Taking a break from the Black and Orange, coach Jay Michael managed to grin sitting center mat twice in a row as bash brothers Seth Callarik (130) and Dominic Prezzia (135) made it to the finals.

Callarik saw the likes of Travis Luft of Teays Valley while Prezzia toed the line with Oak Glen's Joel Paolo. As the competition got tough, Callarik and Prezzia continued to toughen up winning both contests.

"Seth got tough in this match," Michael said as Callarik led by five points late in the match. "We harp to score until the referee blows the whistle and up 8-3 Seth forced the kid to his back."

As Callarik wrapped up Luft's silver care package back to Ashville, Prezzia was ready for a familiar Golden Bears' grappler.

"Dom and Paolo train together a lot in the summer and they knew what to expect from one another," Michael said. "(Dom) made 10 shots to Paolo's none, but Paolo is a tough defensive wrestler and wins a lot of matches.

"It was a fan friendly match with a lot of action and close finishes on shots. On the mat those two are pretty close to even. Today we just came out on top," Michael said as Prezzia won the match 3-1.

Callarik and Prezzia was the only one-two consecutive punch combinations in the finals from any of the teams competing.

"When you get to any tournament you will see a tough kid in the championship. Then go look up or down a weight class and you'll see another tough kid because it's their practice partner," Michael said. "It is not different for our two. They drill together and bang heads while making each other better."

Other local grapplers on the championship mat was red-hot Kurtis Jefferis of Barnesville. The chiseled Shamrocks' junior had his way with Dover's Travis Siegenthaler winning by a score of 10-3.