In the first action on the mats in the new calendar year the Onaga Buffalos and Jeff West Tigers each put together strong performances competing at the Herington Invitational with 14 total teams in the competition.

Buffalos took home fifth place behind a pair of individual tournament champions, a second, third and fourth place finish, too. While Jeff West placed sixth as a team and were led by an individual champion on day, while taking home second, third and two fourth place finishes also.

Centralia Panther, Andrew Beck who wrestles with Onaga in a co-op program won again another tournament and continued his strong season by going 4-0 on the day with a bye and winning the 152lbs weight class. Beck won via technical fall in the quarterfinals, then notched the win in the semifinals with a pinfall win in 53 seconds and won the championship bout by decision, 13-4.

Beck was joined by his teammate, Dustin Blow who also notched a first place performance for Onaga going 3-0 winning the 195lbs weight class. Blow won his quarterfinal match in just 55 seconds by pinfall, then won the semifinals via a 3-1 decision and won the championship by 12-4 and injury.

Kyle Ames, took home second place for the Buffalos with a 2-1 record at 182lbs on the day falling in the championship bout by a close 6-4 decision, after notching a tech fall and major decision win earlier on the day.  Third place was earned by Jonathan Fairbanks at 113lbs who went 3-1 winning his final three matchups of the day including a pinfall win in 1:57 in the third place match. Caleb Frederick rounded out the top performances for the Buffalos on the day with a fourth place at 170lbs as he went 4-2 with three pinfall wins, including a 47 second pin win in his first match of the day, but had to forfeit third place match.

The Jeff West Tigers were led yet again this season by defending State Champ, Justin Scott who won another tournament title by going 3-0 at 285lbs. Scott won his quarterfinal match in just 22 seconds by pinfall and followed that up by winning the semifinals by 22 seconds again. Justin finished his day with a 35 second win in the Championship bout to win 285lbs title on the day.

Tucker Schreiner posted a second place performance at 120lbs going 3-1, by winning in the first round by tech fall, in the quarterfinals won by decision (8-0), then posted a win in the semifinals with a pin (5:38) but suffered a 5-0 decision loss in the championship. Third place was earned by RJ Edwards at 220lbs by going 3-1 with three pinfall wins on the day. Both Nich Reeb (138lbs) and Nate Holloman (126lbs) earned fourth place finishes as Reeb went 3-2 and Holloman finished 2-2 in action.

It was a strong showing by both Onaga and Jeff West as they hit the mat for the first time in 2014 and performed well at the Hertington Invitational.