ASHLAND, Ohio — His conference championship was slipping away, so Tyler Newlan went to his go-to move.
Newlan, the Richland Bank Athlete of the Week, scored a reversal just before time expired in the third period for a stunning 10-9 decision over Wooster’s Jake Burns in the 285-pound championship match at Saturday’s Ohio Cardinal Conference meet at Madison.
Burns had taken a 9-8 lead on a reversal with less than 10 seconds to go and seemed to be in control of Newlan before the Ashland senior rolled out of trouble and back on top of Burns.
“I went to my favorite move, the Peterson (roll),” said Newlan, who lost to Mansfield Senior’s Brandon Myers in the OCC finals last year. “It worked for me the entire match.”
The victory capped a dominant performance by the Arrows, who repeated as OCC champs. Ashland had seven individual champs.
But none were as unlikely as Newlan.
“Ty-Ty’s last match was crazy,” Ashland coach Sean Seder said. “(Burns’) reversal and (Newlan’s) reversal in 10 seconds, it sent everyone out with a lot of energy.”
The Arrows have been riding a wave of momentum ever since cruising to the team title at the 55th Gorman Invitational in early January. Ashland won a regional championship in the dual team tournament last week and will be in action at the dual team state tournament.
The Arrows are the No. 6 seed and will face No. 3 Carrollton on Sunday at Ohio State’s St. John Arena.
“We try not to (compare championships) just because they are both big,” Seder said. “This past week the state duals were our biggest goal. When that was done, the OCC was our biggest goal.”
Seder was at least mildly concerned the Arrows wouldn’t come out focused for the OCC meet after last Wednesday’s regional championship. Ashland put those fears to rest early, sending eight wrestlers to the finals Saturday. Austin McNamara (106 pounds), Matt Taylor (126), Landon Plank (138), Sid Ohl (152), Devin Goschinksi (182) and Josh Bever (195) joined Newlan as individual OCC champs.
“Thursday I was a little worried because it’s tough to come off a real big high like that then all of a sudden refocus because the next big goal is two days away,” Seder said. “Thursday was an iffy practice, but we had a pretty good one (Friday).
“It would be kind of a bitter pill if we didn’t win OCC but made it to the state duals. We wanted to make sure we completed it.”
Like Ashland, Carrollton will be making its state dual team tournament debut this weekend.
“We’ve still got work to do,” Seder said. “This next week is going to be a really good work week for us.
“We’re hoping that we’ll peak at state.”
