Horning Memorial Wrestling Invite This Saturday!

On Saturday, January 21 the Mason High School Athletic Department and the James V. Horning Memorial Foundation will host the Eighth Annual James V. Horning Memorial Varsity Wrestling Invitational. During this event’s seven year history, eleven individual state champions, ten state runner-ups, seventy-nine state placers, and 200 state qualifiers have competed.

This year’s tournament boasts ten teams from the Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus areas.  Mason, Marysville, and Olentangy high schools come into the tournament with very strong teams.  Each of these schools are currently ranked in top ten by Ohio’s wrestling coaches. Mason has won this event the past two years.  They are led by a trio of seniors, Jake Suess, Kyle McIntyre, and Eion Walden. McIntyre and Walden should both earn their 100th career victories on Saturday.

“Our kids have really been working hard,” Mason Coach Craig Murnan commented. “Wrestling Graham (ranked #7 in the nation) followed by a very tough Mentor Dual Tournament was a great challenge for our team. I expect this tournament to be another challenge. As long as we stay healthy this week I’m sure our kids will wrestle hard for this event. The memory of James means a lot to them and I know it will motivate them. With Marysville and Olentangy along with a lot of other tough individuals from the other teams, I expect this to be a great day of wrestling. It’s going to be fun to watch.”

Marysville High School from the Columbus Area placed 5th in the Ohio State Dual tournament and returns two state placers from last year. Noah Forrider and Tyler Miller both finished sixth last year. David Sparks and Kyle Thirkield are also state qualifiers from a year ago who will compete for Coach Shawn Andrews’ Marysville squad.

Olentangy’s Trevor Fiorruci, a three-time Horning Champion and three-time state placer will attempt to become only the second wrestler in this history of this tournament to become a four-time champion.  Ryan Fields of Lakota West High School first accomplished this feat in 2008.  Olentangy returns three other state qualifiers from a year ago and will certainly be another team to watch.

Kettering Fairmont, Centerville, Pickerington North, Dublin Coffman, Milford, Lakota West, and Beavercreek will also compete this year.

Wrestling is set to begin on five mats at Mason Middle School’s Arena at 10:15 am with the final round to begin at 6:00pm.