COLUMBUS — It was the pin heard ’round the Schottenstein Center and it sent Crestview’s Caleb Cunningham into the state championship match.
Cunningham emphatically slammed Dalton’s Cohen Riggenbach onto his back in the third period of their 285-pound state semifinal match Saturday evening.
It was Cunningham’s third pin in three state matches and easily the loudest, the sound of Riggenbach hitting the mat reverberating around the cavernous facility.
“I’m just going to keep on the attack,” Cunningham said when asked about building-shaking stick. “Just keep doing what I do.”
Mapleton 144-pounder Brock Durbin seems to be following a similar philosophy.
The senior and three-time state placer advanced to the champioinship match for a second straight year with a workmanlike 12-0 win over Union Local’s Gunnar Gossett in the semifinals.
“I used last year’s loss (in the 126-pound championship match) as motivation to get better every day,” said Durbin, who survived a 2-1 nailbiter in the quarterfinals earlier Saturday. “Where champions are made is when they don’t want to work out and they still do it.”
Ashland 106-pounder Mason Bauer reached the Division I semifinals before dropping a 4-0 decision to Perrysburg’s Ayden Dodd. Bauer will wrestle in the consolation semifinals Sunday and can finish no worse than sixth in his state tournament debut.
Crestview’s Naomi Gearheart bounced back from a heartbreaking 7-6 loss in the quarterfinals to win a pair of consolation matches Saturday. The freshman 155-pounder will wrestle in the consolation semifinals Sunday morning.
Gearheart was winning 6-2 late in her quarterfinal match before being taken down and surrendering three back points.
“She showed a lot of composure to come back the way she did,” Crestview assistant Steve Haverdill said. “Especially for a freshman.”
Gearheart took the loss in stride.
“I was definitely very disappointed, but I was still in (the tournament) so I thought, ‘Why not make it worth it?’ ” Gearheart said. “I think I did my best to get that out of my mind and try to think about what’s going to happen rather than what happened.”