COLUMBUS — Eleven north central Ohio wrestlers earned podium finishes on Sunday at the state wrestling championships in the Schottenstein Center.
Crestview’s Hayden Kuhn led the charge with a third-place finish at 144 pounds in Division III. Kuhn beat Tuslaw’s Maxwell Cooper in the consolation semifinals before holding off Pleasant’s Daxton Chase in overtime in the consolation finals. Kuhn, who beat Chase in the finals of the J.C. Gorman Invitational in early-January, is Crestview’s first-ever three-time state placer.
“I’ve worked really hard my whole career just trying to be the best I can, so it means a lot to be the first three-time state placer,” said Kuhn (42-4), who has committed to wrestle at Division II Ashland University next year. “I knew I had to come back (after Saturday’s semifinal loss) and go get third to prove how mentally tough I was and how much heart I have. My goals was to finish with a win this year.”
Crestview coach Steve Haverdill has never questioned Kuhn’s mental or physical fortitude.
“When you think about the sport of wrestling, it’s a grueling sport. It’s very physical. It’s very demanding,” Haverdill said. “You’ve got to have all those attributes to be successful and he’s got all of those attributes and more.”
Clear Fork’s Luke Schlosser and the Mansfield Senior duo of Leo Hess and Mekhi Bradley finished fourth in their Division II weight classes.
A junior, Schlosser beat Parma Padua’s Devin Shaw-Mason in the 165-pound consolation semifinals before falling to Wauseon’s Zaidan Kessler 5-4 in the consolation championship. He became Clear Fork’s first state placer since Brandon O’Neill was the Division II runner-up at 170 pounds in 2012.
“I came to Clear Fork my eighth-grade year from East Knox. I loved it here,” said Schlosser, who 3-2 in Columbus to run his season record to 49-8. “It’s just an honor to bring something like this back to The Valley.”
A senior 175-pounder, Hess beat Cincinnati Reading’s Dickie Enger in the consolation semifinals before falling to Medina Buckeye’s Eddie Neitenbach in the third-place match.
Neitenbach, a two-time Gorman MVP, opened a cut under Hess’ eye in the first period. The mat-side trainer was able to stop the bleeding so Hess could continue.
“It took me out of my zone a little bit,” Hess said. “It was just hard wrestling. It was a little blurry.”
It was Hess who inadvertently elbowed Bradley above the right eye in warm-ups on Friday. The cut required stitches.
“I just can’t catch a break. I needed some bubble-wrap,” Bradley joked. “Wrestling is a different sport. It’s not for everybody.”
Bradley beat Dayton Carroll’s Jimmy Bechter 9-2 in the consolation semifinals before falling 2-1 in the ultimate tie-breaker to Alliance’s Aidan Mozden in the consolation finals. He was seventh at state last year.
“Fourth is nothing to complain about,” Bradley said. “I wish I could have taken three more (steps up the podium). It’s still a pretty good spot.”
Sunday’s finals brought an end to the high school careers of both Hess and Bradley.
“We’ve been around each other and pushing each other for years,” Hess said. “It goes way back to biddy (wrestling).”
Madison’s Hunter Hutcheson capped his career with a win, beating Chardon Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin’s Bryce Wheatley 16-8 in the fifth-place match. Hutcheson was overwhelmed by emotion as he walked off the Value City Arena floor. He placed fourth at 190 last year.
“It was bittersweet and I’m trying to find the sweet. I was aiming a lot higher,” said Hutcheson, who finished the year 39-7 despite having surgery on a torn meniscus between football and wrestling. “I got cleared two days before our first tournament. … It took me a while to get back to where I felt comfortable again.
“We had a big break after Top Gun (in mid-January) and it was during that break that I gained my step back. … I started feeling like myself again.”
Ontario 106-pounder Aiden Ohl and Galion 120-pounder Gradey Harding matched Hutcheson with fifth-place finishes in Division II. Ohl beat Carrollton’s Landon Jenkins 2-0, while Harding won his fifth-place match by injury default.
“I probably could have done a little better in my consolation semifinal match. I was just tired,” Ohl said of a 5-0 loss to Columbus Watterson’s Neal Krysty earlier Sunday morning. “I could have wrestled a lot better in that one. I could have wrestled for third or fourth, but I’m happy with fifth as a freshman.”
Like Ohl, Harding became his program’s first-ever freshman state placer.
“It feels pretty good,” said Harding, who was 41-9 in his freshman campaign. “I wish I could have done a little better, but I’ve always got a couple more years. I’ll give it all I’ve got next year.”
Ohl’s older brother, Jacob, finished eighth at 120 pounds after injury-defaulting in the seventh-place match. Jacoh Ohl has battled injuries for the past month.
“Jacob is probably 30 percent, maybe 40,” said Monty Ohl, Jacob and Aiden’s father and an Ontario assistant coach. “He gave it what he had.”
Like Jacob Ohl, Crestview’s Caleb Cunningham was wrestling at less than 100 percent. Cunningham, who wore a bulky brace on his injured shoulder and has torn ankle ligaments, placed eighth at 215 pounds in Division III.
“I don’t know (what percent I am). I couldn’t even give you a number right now,” Cunningham said when asked about his health.
“He’s probably at 65 percent,” Haverdill said of his talented junior, who finished with a 21-9 record. “He’s a long way from where he would like to be with his health and for him to be on the podium at 65 percent, it says a lot.”
Plymouth’s Colton Sparks capped arguably the greatest career in program history with a pin of Loudonville’s Caleb Gregory in the Division III 190-pound seventh-place match. Sparks finished with a record of 49-4, breaking Seth Bailey’s single-season victories record of 48 in his final high school match.
Sparks had 157 career wins with 124 career pins, including 37 this season. Unofficially, Sparks ranks17th in state history with 124 career falls.
“I’ve always tried to wrestle to end the matches as quickly as possible to avoid the risk of getting caught or getting hurt,” Sparks said.
Sparks is Plymouth’s second-ever state placer. He joins Mike Messer, who was a Class A runner-up at 175 pounds in 1978.
“He pretty much broke every record here at Plymouth, being a four-time district placer, a two-time state qualifier and a state placer his senior year,” longtime Plymouth coach Jeremiah Balkin said. “He was the first All-Ohio wrestler since 1978. I don’t think there will be any argument that he is the best wrestler in school history.”
