SISSONVILLE — For the third consecutive time in as many seasons, the Point Pleasant wrestling team had little trouble in bringing the Cardinal Conference title home after posting dominate wins over Herbert Hoover, Poca and Sissonville on Wednesday night at the league championships held at Sissonville High School in Kanawha County.

The Black Knights — who had amassed 18 individual league champions over the previous two meets — had nine weight-class winners and five runners-up at the annual event, which helped PPHS beat the field by a combined 198-21 margin.

The Red, Black and White posted a 57-9 victory over runner-up Herbert Hoover (2-1), then defeated third-place Poca (1-2) by a 69-6 margin. Point also beat Sissonville (0-3) by a 72-6 decision.

Of Point Pleasant’s nine divisional champions, five grapplers were Cardinal Conference repeat winners. Caleb Duong (112 pounds), Matt Cornell (119), Rusty Maness (135), Josh Hereford (140) and Brock McClung (189) all went 3-0 in their title quests. All five wrestlers also won league titles in different weight classes last season.

Noah Searls (103), Russell Kidwell (160), Austin McBeath (171) and Jerrod Long (285) also captured their respective first league titles with the Point Pleasant program.

Two defending champions — Matt McCormick (145) and Donovan Powell (152) — both came up short in their repeat efforts after placing second in new weight classes. McCormick lost an 11-9 decision to Cody Hilty of Poca, while Powell lost a 10-4 decision to Ricky Farmer of HHHS.

Steven Porter (125), Joey Stewart (130) and Casey Hogg (215) also finished second in their respective weight classes with 2-1 records.

Porter lost a 7-6 decision to Dylan VanMeter of Herbert Hoover, while Stewart was pinned by Sissonville’s Ronnie Burdette. Hogg lost for the second straight year to Patrick Nary of Herbert Hoover by a 2-1 decision in overtime.

All four teams had at least one league champion. Point Pleasant won 10 individual titles at last year’s Cardinal Conference meet while posting a combined 199-18 margin of victory.