Make room on the podium: Eleven area wrestlers earn medals at state meet

COLUMBUS – Some of the medals awarded at this year’s state wrestling tournament have a historic tinge to them.

Hayden Kuhn became Crestview’s first three-time state placer. Ontario’s Aiden Ohl and Galion’s Gradey Harding became the first freshmen from their schools to reach the podium. And Colton Sparks became only the second medalist for Plymouth and first in 44 years.

Area wrestlers went 5-9 in Saturday’s quarterfinals, but the good news is that 10 of the 14 quarterfinalists locked up state medals either by winning in that round or battling back through the consolations.

The 11th medalist is Sparks, Plymouth’s senior 190-pounder. He made it to the podium the hard way, losing in overtime in Friday’s opening round but coming back to win his first two consolation matches by pin to clinch a state medal.

He’s the first to place for the Big Red since 1979 state runner-up Mike Messer.

How long ago was that?

“That was the year after I was born,” joked Jeremiah Balkin, in his 23rd year as Plymouth’s head coach. “(Assistant coach Nick) Roll and I have been waiting a long time. We’ve had some opportunities, not as many as we’d like. We knew Colton had all the intangibles to make it and place. And he demonstrated that on the mat.”

Fittingly, the win that secured Sparks’ state medal was his 123rd career pin, best all-time in Richland County and among the top 50 in state history. His medal-clinching win made him 48-3 this season with 36 pins.

“I wasn’t ready for it,” he said of his first round loss. “They told me what (my opponent) was going to do and I wasn’t ready. I was slow; I was trying to be less aggressive, which is not the way I wrestle.”

So Sparks took a nap and then refocused for his first consolation match Friday night.

“He’s the ‘nap king,’” Balkan said, laughing. “Before a match he’ll be napping and I’m like, OK, Colton’s ready to go.”

Area wrestlers went 0-5 in Saturday night’s semis, but all five – Kuhn in Division III, along with Ohl, Harding, Clear Fork’s Luke Schlosser and Mansfield Senior’s Mekhi Bradley in DII – locked up no worse than sixth place.

It was more hard luck for Kuhn. The senior 144-pounder was eight seconds away from reaching the finals in 2022 and was on the verge of executing a takedown this time when the clock ran out in a 3-2 loss to Legacy Christian’s Boede Campbell.

“If he’s wrestling his game, we’re not talking disappointment, we’re talking excitement,” Crestview coach Steve Haverdill said, “but that’s the crazy thing about this sport.

“(Being the first three-time placer) goes back to his work ethic since he was a little kid, his desire and the work he puts in during the off-season. He does everything the right way. When you talk about the prototypical wrestler, that’s the kid you want to start with.”

Harding got pinned in the 120 semis by Vandalia Butler’s Noah Moreland, a senior with a 55-3 record and three years of extra varsity experience on Harding.

“He’s not going to take any solace in (his freshman first) right now,” Galion assistant Matt Tyrrell said, “because he knows on any given day he can win this tournament.”

Schlosser lost 13-4 in the 165 semis to St. Paris Graham’s Gunner Gramblett, a 2022 state runner-up.

“I didn’t start till middle school, but I kept working at it, late nights in the practice room,” Schlosser said. “I play summer baseball in the summer (and spring), but if there’s open mats in the summer, I’ll try to get in some wrestling and squeeze everything in (including football).”

Schlosser becomes the first placer for Nick Allerding, the eighth-year coach who has led Clear Fork to Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference titles two of the last three years.

“He’s a true multi-sport athlete, a special athlete,” Allerding said.

Ohl, like Schlosser, lost to a projected champ, falling 4-0 to three-time placer Javaan Yarbrough of Copley, just the second loss of his freshman campaign.

“It’s big; it’s crazy,” Ohl said of his freshman first. “But at this point I wasn’t just looking to be a placer. I wanted to be on that wall (at the school) and be a champ. Maybe next year.”

Bradley, the Tygers’ senior 215-pounder, lost 4-3 to Indian Creek’s Elijah Llewellyn in the semis but became his school’s first two-time placer since former runner-up Jesse Palser in 2014-15. He and fellow senior Leo Hess (175) gave Mansfield Senior’s its first multiple placers since Palser and Traevon Dickerson in 2014.

“I feel like I could have done more,” Bradley said. “(Llewellyn) blocked me from the positions I wanted to be in.”

Madison’s Hunter Hutcheson (190) and Ontario’s Jacob Ohl (120) became repeat medalists in DII, along with Northmor’s Cowin Becker (120) in DIII, while Crestview’s Caleb Cunningham (215) joined Kuhn to give the Cougars two placers in DIII.

Cunningham beats tremendous odds

Cunningham’s path to the podium was challenging because of a litany of injuries. Crestview’s junior 215-pounder bounced back from a loss in the quarters to win his medal-clinching first consolation match, but that’s not the real story.

What’s remarkable is that he has been dealing with a torn labrum since the middle of football season. Then he needed surgery for a broken right hand suffered in the regional semifinals and has been wearing a brace on his left ankle after hurting it last year while preparing to wrestle in the Fargo nationals.

“We think it might be torn ligaments,” Haverdill said, wryly, “but we’ll figure it out when he graduates.”

Just before hurting his ankle, Cunningham went 7-0 at the Cadet Nationals in Illinois and was a projected All-American at Fargo.

After finishing sixth at the J.C. Gorman Invitational in January, Cunningham didn’t compete again until repeating as a Firelands Conference champ.

“It makes me feel a little better that I’m hurt all year and came out and placed here,” he said. “I guess every time I go out there I just tell myself it’s another match.”

Jacob Ohl battles injuries to second medal

Jacob Ohl fought through his own physical ailments to earn his second medal. He was state runner-up last year at 106 and was ranked No. 1 all winter at 120, but suffered rib and knee injuries in the MOAC meet and never regained his mid-season form, losing 7-3 in the state quarters to Columbus Watterson freshman Joe Curry.

Ohl can take solace in knowing that his father, Monty, an Ontario assistant, was a title contender as an Ontario junior in 1989 before getting hurt, and then came back his senior year to win a championship.

The younger Ohl wouldn’t use his injuries as an alibi.

“I couldn’t do much with my knee at sectionals or districts, but it’s definitely feeling better now,” Ohl said. “I definitely feel I could have beaten (Curry) if I was wrestling my best, but I didn’t and can’t do anything about it now.”

Hess: From state alternate to state placer

Hess, a state alternate last year, moved from 190 to 175 just before the post-season began, but had to be sold on the move.

“He was like, ‘Ah, I can wrestle anyone, and he can,” interim Tyger coach Jacob Endicott said. “It would have been a harder way to the podium at 190 with all the bigger guys, but he would have been a qualifier. But I’ve been saying all year that if we made the move he’s a top four guy at 175.”

Endicott was elevated from assistant when Palser abruptly resigned as head coach on the first day of the Gorman. Hess finished his home tournament in seventh place at 190, but Endicott has been working with him on his confidence ever since.

“That was a big thing (in Saturday’s medal-sealing win),” Hess said. “Before the match he’s settling me down, getting me ready to go. (The Gorman) was just the first tournament (without Palser) and I was getting used to (Endicott) in my corner. But Jake knows how I wrestle, how I adjust. He’s wrestled and been around wrestling a long-time (a four-time district qualifier and three-time Firelands Conference champ for Plymouth) and he was able to help me out.”

Ashland’s Metzger ends ‘special’ career

Ashland’s Jon Metzger was not a repeat medalist, but it in no way tarnishes the fact that he was the school’s first four-time state qualifier. And that’s no small feat, especially for a three-sport athlete who has so much more on his plate.

“It’s a big thing, really cool,” Metzger said. “Obviously, it didn’t end the way I wanted, but there’s nothing I can do about it now. On to the next season (baseball).”

This was Metzger’s first year competing at the DI level. He was a fifth-place medalist in DII last year.“The biggest difference is the depth,” he said. “The top guys at DII and DIII can all compete against each other. But then you look at kids in DI. Somebody ranked 25th can place in the state tournament. There’s a bigger pool of kids, bigger schools. Obviously depth across the board is the  biggest thing.”

Metzger, a first team All-Ohio receiver and an All-Ohio prospect in baseball, is a Hillsdale (Mich.) College football commit and is already following a training schedule from the school.

“Jon’s character speaks for itself – grades (straight As), athleticism, all of that stuff,” coach Sean Seder said. “We don’t like to compare all the divisions, but what you a see a lot more in DI is the specialization, the one-sport athletes. Then you’ve got Jon, a 3-sport athlete, doing all three and kicking butt.

“To do it all four years, just to make it, you’re one of the top 16 kids. That’s pretty special.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Make room on the podium: Eleven area wrestlers earn medals at state meet