By: Mike Reeves
In wrestling, you graded by whether or not you qualify to the state wrestling meet in Columbus. Well, the Indians from Wauseon sent 12 to the district meet in Norwalk and eight of those young men punched a ticket to the Schottenstein Center on the campus of OSU this Friday-Sunday.
Qualifying for the Indians were Collin Twigg (113) with a brilliant runner-up finish losing to Tyler Hisey (St. Mary’s). Larry Moreno (126) finished with a second-place finish falling to Cameron Dieter from BG in 4:35.
Senior Lawson Grime (138) had his best tournament of the year so far with a runner-up finish. He was a man on a mission pinning all his opponents to get to the finals before losing 4-2 in a Sudden Victory OT match to Bret Minnick from Columbian in a hard-fought battle.
At 144, Maddox Simcoe from Columbian pinned sophomore Benicio Torres in 1:11 to hand him his first loss in the tournament but the NWOAL Soccer Player of the Year proved he can excel on the squared circle too.
Junior Zaden Torres rung up a fourth-place place finish at 132 by falling 4-2 to Landon Engle Engle from Celina.
In the 157 pound third-place match, Connor Twigg cruised to a 6-1 victory over Jaden King from Celina proving he wasn’t going to be denied a trip to state in his last year of wrestling for the Indians.
Senior Connor Nagel dropped a third-place match to Garrett Donovan from St. Mary’s 3-0 with Zaiden Kessler (175) becoming the Indians last state qualifier.
The sophomore was injured in his semi-final bout against a nationally highly rated wrestler but finished strong pinning his way through the consolation matches and defeating Joshua Stanley from Clyde in 1:18.
The Indians will have seniors Johnny Martinez (120) and Manny Gante (150) as fifth-place alternates to the tourney should someone from their district at their weight get injured this week or not make weight at the state meet. #190 Jr.
Head coach Mike Ritter was pleased with eight qualifiers and thinks the team is peaking at just the right time for team placement at state.
“It’s what we talk about all season and it starts with a league title run then culminates at Columbus”, commented Ritter.
The Bryan Golden Bears brought two competitors to Norwalk starting with senior Aiden Fenter (132).
He finished his career by going 1-3 in his bracket while junior Zain Bell (285) won his first-round bout and then lost in the quarterfinals dropping him down into the consolation bracket where he pinned his opponent from Cleveland Central Catholic before losing 7-2 to Dominick Burch from BG and bringing his season to an end.
TEAM SCORES: (46 teams) 1. Buckeye 211.2; 2. Wauseon 192.0; 3. Columbian 133.0; 4. Ashland 124.5; 5. St. Marys 119.0; T32. Bryan 10.0
FIRST-PLACE
106: Jacob Ohl (Ontario) dec. Colyn Limbert (Buckeye) 3-2
113: Tyler Hisey (St. Marys Memorial) dec. Collin Twigg (Wauseon) 5-4
120: Trevor Hisey (St. Marys Memorial) tech. fall Riley Kleshinski (Ontario) tf16-1
126: Cameron Deiter (Bowling Green) pin Larry Moreno (Wauseon) 4:35
132: Donovan Paes (Streetsboro) maj. dec. Logan Cravatas (Buckeye) md10-1
138: Bret Minnick (Columbian) dec. Lawson Grime (Wauseon) 4-2 SV
144: Maddox Simcoe (Columbian) pin Benicio Torres (Wauseon) 1:11
150: Eddie Neitenbach (Buckeye) pin Nicholas Abounader (Benedictine) 3:33
157: Mike Kinzel (Bowling Green) dec. Jon Metzger (Ashland) 8-3
165: Max Ray (Columbian) dec. Trevor Badiu (Buckeye) 3-1
175: Brody Conley (Columbian) dec. Brady Welch (Ashland) 3-1
190: Hunter Hutcheson (Mad. Comprehensive) dec. Landon Campbell (Galion) 4-3
215: Evan Straub (Bellevue) dec. Mekhi Bradley (Mansfield Senior) 3-1 SV
285: Todd Allen (Buckeye) dec. Alex Griffith (Galion) 5-2 TB
THIRD-PLACE
106: Tate Hisey (St. Marys Memorial) maj. dec. Alex Gonzales (Napoleon) md10-0
113: Billy Smith (Perkins) pin Mason Ducat (Defiance) 2:37
120: Roman Parobek (Ashland) dec. Wyatt Nemitz (Perkins) 6-2
126: Rubyn Semedo (Cle. Cent. Cath.) dec. Liam Hatgas (Holy Name) 5-3
132: Landon Engle (Celina) dec. Zaden Torres (Wauseon) 4-2
138: Lance Overmyer (Clyde) maj. dec. Jacob Dolan (Benedictine) md11-0
144: Justin Smythe (Bellevue) dec. James Simms (Fostoria) 6-3
150: Conner Douglass (Elida) dec. Cohen Klimak (Streetsboro) 9-7 SV
157: Connor Twigg (Wauseon) dec. Jaden King (Celina) 6-1
165: Garret Donovan (St. Marys Memorial) dec. Connor Nagel (Wauseon) 3-0
175: Zaidan Kessler (Wauseon) pin Joshua Stanley (Clyde) 1:18
190: Angelo Gonzalez (Napoleon) dec. Caleb Chipgus (Buckeye) 4-0
215: Davian Greenlee (Buchtel) dec. Cayden Spotts (Ashland) 5-2
285: Brock Nunez (Bellevue) pin Cael Rostorfer (Wapakoneta) 1:07
FIFTH-PLACE
106: Anthony Rocco (Bay) dec. Joshua Cornell (Port Clinton) 9-3
113: Korbyn Jones (Ashland) def. Harrison Bohls (Napoleon) Default
120: Johnny Martinez (Wauseon) pin Roman Cordoba (Napoleon) 1:45
126: Jesse Badiu (Buckeye) pin Brycen Miracle (Celina) 2:22
132: Aydan Reyes (Galion) pin Zach Oprzadek (Perkins) 4:35
138: Mason Henley (Sandusky) dec. Nick Brunst (Buckeye) 4-1
144: Joshua Greenwood (Beachwood) dec. Nolan Martin (Buckeye) 5-4
150: Manny Gante (Wauseon) pin Corbin Mitchell (Wapakoneta) 1:45
157: Preston DiMarco (Buckeye) dec. Luke Schlosser (Clear Fork) 5-3
165: Leo Hess (Mansfield Senior) dec. Angelo Seitz (Ashland) 7-3
175: Jace Knous (Wapakoneta) dec. Brandon Hayner (Buckeye) 11-5
190: Jace Schaefer (St. Marys Memorial) dec. Aiden Gallant (Upper Sandusky) 2-0
215: Uzonna Nzekwe (Beachwood) pin Joe Maitland (Buckeye) 2:19
285: Dominick Burch (Bowling Green) pin Samari Smith (Port Clinton) 0:35