Showing out: OHSAA State Wrestling Meet will have strong MOAC flavor

MANSFIELD – They were the three best teams in one of the most competitive leagues in Ohio.

So it should come as no surprise that Ontario, Clear Fork and Galion have made sure that the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference will be well represented at this weekend’s state wrestling tournament in Columbus.

Between them, those three area schools have produced nine state qualifiers. Add the three qualifiers from Sparta Highland and two from Marion Pleasant and the MOAC will have 14 boys in action when the tourney kicks off at 1 p.m. Friday inside the Schottenstein Center.

After being dethroned in the MOAC tourney by Clear Fork, Ontario bounced back to win the Division II Clyde sectional by seven points over the Colts and then finished third behind only state powers Columbus DeSales and Wauseon in a 44-team district field at Norwalk.

When the smoke cleared, Wes Turnbaugh’s Warriors boasted an area-high four state qualifiers, led by 2022 state runner-up and junior 120-pounder Jacob Ohl.

Could the state meet give us an All-MOAC championship match?

If Ohl, who has been ranked No. 1 all season, reaches the finals against Galion’s Gradey Harding, the third-highest rated freshman in the weight class, it will be the seventh time they’ve squared off this season.

Ohl won the first four meetings, but in the MOAC finals he had to retire while leading 4-3 in the second period because of knee and rib injuries. He defaulted to Harding in the sectional finals rather than risk further injury, but opted to wrestle last Saturday when they both advanced to the district finals.

The sixth time was a charm for Harding as he scored the decisive takedown in overtime for a 3-1 sudden victory.

“After Gradey got beat pretty bad in a dual against Ontario (losing 9-3 to give Ohl a 4-0 lead in their rivalry), we were like, man, we’ve got to recover from this one,” Galion coach Brent Tyrrell said. “So we went back and talked about a game plan and he executed it very well in the league meet.”

Harding was much more aggressive in the MOAC tourney and was trying to finish a takedown that would have given him a 5-4 lead in the second period when Ohl’s left knee gave out. He had already taken injury time earlier in the period after hurting his ribs.

“That match was starting to go Gradey’s way when (Ohl) got hurt,” Tyrrell said. “When they met again at districts, he stuck to that gameplan.

“He’s a great competitor, man. He’s a great kid. I love Jacob Ohl as well. They’re buddies; they’ve wrestled many, many times, and they’re probably going to have many more matches in their lifetime. It sucks that it has to be your buddy that you beat, but that’s the name of the game.”

Injuries are part of the game, too, unfortunately, and it’s hard to tell how much Ohl will be impacted on the biggest stage in Columbus.

“Jacob wrestled a little conservative (in the district finals); he didn’t go all out like he has in the past,” Turnbaugh said. “It hurt him a little bit, but we’re right where we want to be. The positive is the loss was not (at state). That still gives us another week to train hard.

“Yeah, we wanted that district title for an easier route the first couple of matches at state, but at the same time Jacob’s good enough.”

After his fourth straight loss to Ohl was the most lopsided yet, Harding could have suffered a crisis of confidence. But, apparently, that is not in his DNA.

“I’ve never seen anybody work like him,” Tyrrell said. “He’s consistently in the weight room with me at 5:30 (a.m.). He goes to regular practice and then, two or three nights a week he goes to another practice to get extra work and extra looks. He loves it. He’s got a mat in his basement, so he’ll do work there as well.”

Harding and Aiden Ohl, Jacob’s freshman brother, were the area’s only district champs at Norwalk. The younger Ohl beat Wauseon’s Zavian LaFountain 4-1 in the 106 finals to run his record to 43-1. His only loss was 6-5 to Medina Buckeye’s eventual champ Blake Bartos in the semifinals of the J.C. Gorman Invitational. It was a controversial outcome, with Ohl being hit with two cautions and stalling.

“Ontario has never had a freshman state placer, so Aiden is definitely right there,” Turnbaugh said. “He’s wrestling at a top caliber right now. He’s not wrestling like a freshman.”

Ontario’s other two first-time qualifiers are sophomore Mason Turnbaugh, the coach’s son (third at districts, 138) and freshman Julian McGinty (fourth, 144). Turnbaugh is in the same half-bracket as Highland freshman Cael Gilmore, son of Highland coach and former Galion star Adam Gilmore and grandson of former Madison star Tim Gilmore.

Until reaching the varsity level, Gilmore couldn’t beat Turnbaugh. But in the last three weeks, he’s beaten him in the MOAC finals and then 10-8 in overtime in the district quarterfinals. Turnbaugh had an 8-4 lead in the third period, but with eight seconds left Gilmore hit a reversal and added two backpoints to send the match to OT.

“Mason didn’t have enough left in the tank to get right back into it in the OT,” Wes Turnbaugh said. “But I’m proud of him.”

Clear Fork, which has now won the MOAC twice in the last three years under Nick Allerding and his staff, has three state qualifiers for the first time since 2011. The school record is four, set in 1992.

Advancing from the Norwalk district for the Colts were junior captains Luke Schlosser (second at 165) and Peyton Hoskins (third at 126) and senior Eric Hicks (fourth at 285).

“I’m happy for the kids and what they represent in the program,” Allerding said. “The kids have bought into what we’re doing at Clear Fork. Jaxon (Swank), our state alternate (at 132), has kind of been the heart and soul of the team, along with the rest of the senior class.”

Schlosser was already a captain as a sophomore, which tells you what his team thinks of him.

“He’s a special athlete, always in the mix (for a title),” Allerding said. “And it’s pretty cool for Peyton to be in a wrestling family (with two older brothers who competed for Lexington and a younger brother as a teammate, not to mention their father, a former high school coach), and to be the first to jump over the hurdle to get to state.”

The biggest surprise is Hicks. He went into districts with a 31-16 record, lost his first match and then reeled off four straight wins to secure his state berth. Two of the wins were over opponents he lost to last year and he also came from behind to pin Madison’s Jaxin Stancombe.

“He didn’t do anything we didn’t think he could do,” Allerding said. “What he did was put it all together at the right time. He learned from his losses, to the point where he wasn’t making the same mistakes that cost him matches.

“That kid is a great story. He was a little rough around the edges when coming in as a freshman. For as many kids as you see go the wrong way and life gets the better of them, he’s one who went the other way for us.”

Hicks’ loss in the third place match at Norwalk was his fifth this season to Galion’s fifth-ranked Alex Griffith, whose run to a third straight state berth was remarkable in itself.

Like Hicks, Griffith lost his first match before rebounding with five straight wins. In the match that locked up his state berth, he avenged his loss by ultimate tiebreaker to Napoleon’s Issac Lehman in the opening round with a 1-0 victory and then pinned Hicks in 30 seconds for third.

Griffith, 39-8, is the first Galion wrestler to make it to state as a freshman, sophomore and junior.

“He was down in the dumps after his loss and I was like, dude, you’ve got to get over it. It’s over with,” Tyrrell said. “You’ve never been in this situation. How are you going to respond to adversity? He did a really good job.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Showing out: OHSAA State Wrestling Meet will have strong MOAC flavor