GALLION – Work your stuff. Take your shot. do not be afraid.
That was Nick Allerding’s message to his Clear Fork Colts as they took a slim lead into the final round of the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference wrestling tournament.
After Saturday, maybe that should be their mantra.
Led by weight class winners Peyton Hoskins and Luke Schlosser, the Colts scored 241 points to hold off defending champion Ontario (236) and host Galion (222) in the eight-team field for their second conference crown in three years.
“(Coach) said to go out there and work on what we’ve been working on,” said Hoskins, the 126-pound champion. “Be on our offense, not on defense. But we’ve worked so hard this year on defense, we know that even if we get hit, we can defend it.”
The tour more than lived up to the billing.
Ontario had been on a roll in recent weeks, winning the 23-team Sally George Invitational in Marion Pleasant and making sweeps with Clear Fork and Galion on their rivals’ home mats. They also came into the MOAC meet boasting a two-time league champion and projected state champion in Jacob Ohl, one of the top 106 sophomores in the state in Ohl’s younger brother Aiden and freshman Sally George MVP on Mason Turnbaugh.
Then there’s Galion, which got a lot of love in the Division II state rankings early in the season thanks to a freshman in Gradey Harding (120) at one end of the lineup and two state-tournament-tested juniors in Landon Campbell (215 ) and Alex Griffith (285) anchoring the other side of the offense.
But right there all along, lurking on the outskirts, was Clear Fork with its band of workaholics.
Galion (four) and Ontario (three) had more champions Saturday than Clear Fork (two), and Ontario matched Clear Fork’s total of six finalists. But where the Colts excelled was placing someone in the top six in all one of the 14 weight classes.
They also had plenty of kids to make up for the absence of regular 138-pounder Champ DeLancy and the departure during Saturday’s action of returning champion Fred Proto. He tried to sit out after injuring a knee in practice during the week, but ultimately had to forfeit his last two matches at 190.
“There was trust,” Allerding said. “I thought if we got the lineup, I predicted we’d have a shot. You control what you can control, so we looked inside and tried to put together the best lineup we could and get guys to fight as well as they could, and then let the chips fall where they may .
“I didn’t know if we were going to continue, but it was a lot of fun.”
Ontario’s Dylan Floyd (175) and Bralen Boone (190) won titles to make things a little tense for Clear Fork in the end, but the work put in all day by the Colts held up.
Work as the second Hoskins digs out of a huge hole early in his title match. He eventually pulled even at 5-5 and then scored three break points with 23 seconds left for an 8-5 victory over Marion Harding’s No. 1 David Backus.
Work like Schlosser’s 59-second pin in his final. Yes, he was first, but beating Marion Pleasant’s Sam Mentzer was somewhat surprising considering Schlosser had lost to him 13-8 in his second match of the season.
“That (loss) really fueled me in practice,” Schlosser said. “This time I fought. Yes I beat him and left in the match where I lost to him. This time I kept my foot on the gas pedal.”
That helped take his coach’s talk with the team to heart.
“He said ‘take care of business,'” Schlosser said. “It’s great. No one thought we’d be in the top three. But we knew all week we could win this. We fought all these teams in duals and we went at them and beat most of them in tournament. We also beat Ashland (one of the best teams in north central Ohio) in a dual by over 20 points.”
Clear Fork’s two third-place finishers – Colton Wenger (106) and Damon Hoskins (120), Peyton’s brother – won their final matches before Peyton rallied for his big win over Backus.
“I saw (Backus) start to slow down and lose momentum,” he said. “I felt he was tired, so I started raising him. I put in work all season. My stamina is good and my conditioning is good. I knew I had better conditions than him, so I started pushing the pace.”
Honorable runners-up for Clear Fork were Jaxon Swank (126), Cody Jackson (150), Kaiden Schlosser (165), Luke’s cousin; and Eric Hicks (285). In fourth place were Hezekiah Molina (113), Blake Schlosser (157), Luke’s brother; and Proto, while fifth went to Landon Schlosser (144), another of Luke’s cousins, and Ross Wine (215).
The most anticipated match of the tournament ended in anger. The 120 finals marked the fifth time Jacob Ohl and Harding have met this season in a matchup of two of Ohio’s top lightweights.
Ohl had won the first four meetings and was leading 4-3 in the second period on Saturday when his left knee gave out. He had taken some injury time earlier in the period when he hurt his ribs and there seemed to be some questions about whether he would continue. But there was no turning back when he hurt his knee. He had to be taken off the mat and go to the hospital for X-rays with his postseason in serious doubt.
Winning by injury default wasn’t exactly how Harding wanted to win a MOAC title, especially since he and Ohl are good friends.
“I don’t know for sure what happened.” he said. “It’s difficult, a strange situation.”
Harding was having a good game when it came to the unfortunate stoppage. After falling behind 3-0, he earned an escape and then rolled around Ohl for a draw takedown. Ohl got back on top with an escape, but Harding was trying to finish a takedown and take the lead when Ohl’s knee gave out.
“We’re both very hard workers and there were a lot of positives to come out of the game for me,” Harding said. “I’ve just kept working hard (after their first four dates didn’t go their way.) There’s nothing else you can do.”
It was only Ohl’s second loss of the season and both have been to injury. He didn’t lose last season until the Division II state finals.
While he was denied a third MOAC title, his younger brother had little trouble winning his first, with Aiden posting a 9-0 win over Highland’s Konner Blaney.
After his shutout, you’d think Ohl would be pleased with his defense, but no.
“I’m probably happier with my offense,” he said. “My defense was not that good. A good offense makes a good defense. I need to work a little more on my defense.”
He will know exactly when he is living up to the standards he has set for himself.
“When I can start stopping the attacks (in Jacob’s practice), then I’ll know it’s good,” he said. “But that hasn’t happened yet.”
Ontario went 3-3 in the championship matches, with Jacob Ohl, Turnbaugh (138) and Grason Bias (215) placing for runner-up honors. Turnbaugh fell 6-2 to Highland standout freshman Cael Gilmore, son of Scots coach Adam Gilmore and grandson of former Madison star Tim Gilmore. Bias lost by pin (3:38) to Galion’s three-time MOAC champion Landon Campbell.
When they met a week ago, Bias did a pretty good job of stopping before going down 9-1. But with each passing week, Campbell moves closer to 2022 state medalist form after missing much of this season with a strained elbow.
“I’ve been staying after practice every day with (Brodyn) Butcher, trying to shake off all the fatigue,” said Campbell, ranked fourth in the state. “I was not tired in this match. Now that it’s near the end of the season, I need to work more on the situational stuff.
“I feel like, strength-wise, I’m about 95 percent. I’m definitely better than I was a week ago.”
Campbell credited the support of his brother Carson, who reached the tournament after winning a Knox-Morrow Athletic Conference title Saturday afternoon as a freshman at Northmor.
“It’s really good that we were both able to win titles,” Landon said. “I couldn’t be the brother if I didn’t win, so I had to try to make one.”
If Landon wins a fourth MOAC title next year, those are family bragging rights that could be hard to top.
“If I win four, I’ll be Galion’s first four-time MOAC champion,” he said, “so that’s been my goal since I was a freshman.”
Galion went 4-0 in championship games Saturday. Sophomore Butcher scored an 11-2 decision over Pleasant’s Brandon Mulvaine at 157 and Alex Griffith repeated with a 3:50 pin over the aforementioned Hicks.
Butcher didn’t look like a #2 seed in dominating his match.
“Planting doesn’t really matter,” he said. “This is how you fight. If you fight well, feel good, no matter where you are seeded, if you are determined to win, you can win.
“I had to keep my hips back so (Mulvaine) couldn’t spin me. He’s a funky guy. I quickly understood. He kept trying to grab my arms and spin me around, but I just stayed on the basics. Stay strong, stay strong.”
