ASHLAND – There’s a chance the Ashland wrestling team is about to be in the market for a new banner.
The one featuring AHS state placers that currently hangs from the wall in the squad’s practice room is big enough to hold 27 names.
The Arrows, who are closing out one of the most history-making seasons ever for the program, have just two blank spots left.
If all goes right at the state championships Friday through Sunday in Columbus, two just won’t do.
For the first time ever, Ashland has five state qualifiers at the Division I level, including seniors Talon Boyd and Budda Martin, and juniors Mason Bauer, Guardian Miller and Max Ohl.
For the first time, four of them – Martin, Bauer, Miller and Ohl – are returning from a year earlier.
If the Arrows hit their lofty expectations at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center, they will have their highest state finish as a team in program history as well.
Anything inside the Top 10 would do that. And, most impressively, it would come as part of a Division I field that features four of the best teams in the nation – St. Edward (ranked 11th), Massillon Perry (17th), Perrysburg (19th) and Brecksville (26th).
“We created a lot of separation from the competition (as a team this year),” third-year head coach Tommy Bauer said. “The goal is to get guys to the state tournament, but the four (returners) are talking about wanting to be state champs. That’s their goal, and if they don’t get it, they didn’t achieve their goal.
“If we stay in great position, fight hard, be physical and really believe in ourselves, I think these kids can win state championships. I think we have a chance to get all five on the podium if we have our best weekend.”
It certainly would be fitting if Ashland did put together its best team finish. The squad has spent the bulk of this winter dialing up its dominance to milestone-making levels.
In the midst of three-peating in their Ohio Cardinal Conference and sectional championships, the Arrows scored the most team points in the 23-year history of the OCC tournament (425.5).
A week later, they posted their most district qualifiers ever in a single season (13).
Ashland’s ninth league title even set a new standard for the OCC (breaking a tie with Lexington).
If we stay in great position, fight hard, be physical and really believe in ourselves, I think these kids can win state championships.
Ashland head coach Tommy bauer
Only twice has AHS had three state placers in the same year (in Division II in 2016 and 2017). But based on their DubStat rankings, all four of their state returners are podium-level talents.
Bauer (48-2 at 138) and Miller (45-4 at 150) are both ranked third, while Martin (45-6 at 215) and Ohl (42-9 at 120) both are eighth.
“We’ve had that experience of being there, so we’re not just going there to only get on the podium – we’re looking to win it or place higher than last year,” said Bauer, himself already a fifth- and third-place finisher in Columbus.
“(Finishing Top 10 as a team) would definitely be nice, too, but that happens one match at a time. We can’t look at that until it’s all done.”
“If everyone wrestles their best and does their own job, (a Top 10 finish) will take care of itself,” added Miller, a fourth-place medal-winner last season.
Boyd (42-12 at 165) is the newest addition to the fold, and it couldn’t be more fitting that he’s joined the Ashland state parade.
With his qualification out of last week’s Wadsworth District, the senior made it so that all five of the Arrows’ team captains this year survived to Columbus.
It was appropriate, too, because he joined the other four this season as a 100-match winner for his career.
Never in Ashland-area history has one team had five different wrestlers hit that milestone in the same season.
“(Boyd) has been committed these last three years,” Ohl said of his teammate. “I don’t think he’s ever missed an open mat or anything.”
“It means a lot to me,” Boyd said. “(Coaches Bauer and Wade Miller) have done a lot for me and they really boosted my confidence and my technique. So it feels great to be where I’m at right now.”
Combined, Ashland’s five state qualifiers have a 222-33 record this season.
What’s more astounding is they’ve got a total of 630 wins for their careers as well.
Bauer (146) and Miller (138) are on pace to break the school record in that category next year. Martin, meanwhile, enters this weekend with 126 and both Ohl and Boyd have 110.
It’s a pile of mat success rarely seen coming from one group of wrestlers all at the same time. They want to seize this moment.
“We’re the five captains, so I feel like the (simultaneous 100-wins milestones) add a sense of brotherhood to that as well,” Ohl said.
While the group heads into the weekend carrying massive expectations, these Arrows are all coming at it from different levels of state experience.
Boyd is the first-time qualifier; Ohl is seeking his first state win; Martin hopes to build on a 1-2 mark in Columbus from a year ago; Miller lost his opener in 2025 before ripping off four straight wins to nab fourth place; and Bauer is trying to become the school’s second-ever three-time placer.
“It’s always just looked big down at state,” Boyd said. “Last year when I went down to watch all them wrestle, I just said to myself that I had to be there next year to wrestle on the big stage.”
In his state-clinching match last week, Boyd beat Walsh Jesuit’s Caden Mariola – an opponent to whom he lost earlier this season.
Ohl had a similar big moment in his “go-to” match at districts, hitting a key six-point move to help catapult himself to Columbus.
He said he feels he’s in a better position to make waves after a quick exit last March.
“Last year I definitely was pretty happy just to make it down there, but then I went 0-2,” the junior 120-pounder said. “This year I definitely hope to make something happen.”
Coach Bauer feels the 215-pound Martin is a guy who could put any opponent in a bad spot, simply based on his brute strength.
“Being really strong does help a lot and he benefits from that … sometimes too much because he can run a lot of points off the mat,” Bauer said. “But when he’s in control and he’s got that action starting in the middle of the mat, he’s tough to stop.”
Martin feels one thing that has helped him take another step forward this year has been reining in his tenacity – if only slightly.
“I’m just going out there to wrestle,” he said. “… I’m not as violent as I was last year; I’m actually more controlled.
“I don’t think I’ve really slammed anyone yet this year,” Martin added with a laugh.
Miller is a wrestler who doesn’t do too much slamming, either. He’s actually turned himself into the best takedown artist in the history of Ashland wrestling.
Last year the junior set the program record for single-season takedowns (226), and if he could get 14 more this weekend he would re-set that standard at 227.
“Freshman year I had a couple injuries going into state and then I went 0-2, so that whole experience was rough,” Miller said. “Last year, losing (the opener) and then coming back through was definitely a big part of the experience. I think that has prepared me for this year.”
Then there’s Bauer, who comes into this week with pins in 35 of his 48 wins this winter.
His lone two losses as a junior have come in overtime to projected Division II state champ and Wyoming commit Blake Bartos, and projected runner-up Urijah Lopez.
If the bracket works out, Bauer could see Lopez in the championship semifinals, then would likely get St. Edward senior Karson Brown in the title match. Brown is a Pittsburgh commit and the only Division I wrestler in action this week who could win his fourth state championship.
He’s also the only wrestler Bauer lost to in Columbus a year ago.
No matter how things play out, the junior already is one of the most successful state performers in AHS history.
“You walk through the hallway (at the Schottenstein Center) and you see the pictures of all the four-time champs,” he said. “It’s a pretty cool experience; it never changes, but it always feels pretty cool.”
Himself a state-placing Arrow when he took sixth in 2001, coach Bauer said this feels like a group that truly could have one of the biggest state tournaments this area has ever seen.
“It just makes the weekend even more exciting to know that you could be wrestling from Friday through Sunday night (in the championship finals),” he said. “You just hope that the guys are prepared to do that, and they are.”