Bish, Patrizi win titles, 4 others advance from Rossford

By LONNIE McMILLAN

Sports editor

ROSSFORD — Mohawk’s Owen Patrizi and Kaden Bish were champions, while Carey’s Jordan Hertel and Fisher Montgomery and Riverdale’s Grady Phelps and Kydin Reed also are moving on to state from the Division III district wrestling tournament Saturday at Rossford.

No one from northwest Ohio could challenge Patrizi at 144 pounds as he rolled in all four matches. Bish, at 175, was almost as dominant as both earned return trips to state. So did Phelps, who was third at 138 pounds. Montgomery took third at 120, Hertel finished fourth at 157, and Reed was fourth at 190.

Patrizi had a pair of pins Friday to reach the semifinals and he clinched his state spot with ease, taking a 21-3 technical fall victory against Archbold’s Kayden Wellman. He wrapped up the day by beating Van Buren’s Brooks Hill with an 18-3 tech fall.

Similarly, Bish had two pins to open the tournament and then won a 19-3 technical fall to get into the championship match. After a scoreless first period, Delta’s Marcus Nigel got an escape in the second period, which was answered by Bish in the third. He then scored the match-winning takedown in the final 10 seconds.

“Whenever you have two guys in a finals, that’s always a positive for a program and the kids,” Mohawk coach Brad Rice said. “I would have liked to have a couple more make it down, but it’s districts. This isn’t easy.”

Despite rolling through his competition, Phelps had to settle for third place. After opening with an 18-3 technical fall victory Friday, Phelps was well in control against Ashland Crestview’s Brayden Parrigan when he was called for an illegal slam. When Parrigan could not recover in time, he was awarded the win.

“It was an unfortunate call,” Phelps said. “I don’t agree with it, but you’ve just got to fight back and score lots of points and win matches.”

That left Phelps to have to work his way through the consolation bracket, which he had no problem doing Saturday. He won an 18-2 tech fall, a 9-0 major decision and then clinched his return trip to state with a 16-1 technical fall against Tinora’s Brandon Gill. Set to face Phelps again for third place, Parrigan forfeited.

Reed’s path to state was simpler. He reached the semifinals with a pin and then a 20-5 tech fall win Friday night but lost a 15-0 technical fall to then unbeaten Malakii Pinkleton of Port Clinton.

With a place at state on the line in the consolation semifinals, Reed took quick control with an early takedown on his way to an 11-3 major decision victory against Liberty Center’s Deagan Schwaigger.

“It was a good feeling getting the first takedown,” Reed said. “It’s usually what you want in a match to set the tone for the rest of the match. I just did what I did and beat him, and I’m happy to be a state qualifier now for Riverdale.”

Reed settled for fourth place with an 8-0 major decision loss in the third-place match against Patrick Henry’s Trent Johnson.

Both Montgomery and Hertel had long roads to state qualifying after losing Friday night in the quarterfinals.

Montgomery was pinned in the final seconds of his quarterfinal match Friday. He opened the second day with a 6-0 win and then had a pin to set up a rematch with Bluffton’s Ronald Kaufman in the consolation semifinals. Kaufman won 3-1 a week earlier for the sectional championship.

This match was even more of a defensive battle that came down to the final seconds. Neither wrestler scored in the first period. Starting down, Kaufman could not manage an escape in the second, and with Montgomery beginning in the down position to start the third, he needed nearly the full two minutes to escape, finally doing so with nine seconds left for the only point of the match.

“When it got to that blood round of go or don’t go, Fisher avenged a loss from the sectional final last week, 1-0, got the escape, went right back in for a shot so he wouldn’t get a second stalling call, and that was a big win for him because he’s put in the work,” Carey coach Ryan Pratt said.

Montgomery wrapped up the day with a 6-2 win against Edison’s Brayden Barker to take third place.

Hertel’s closest match Saturday was his first one, a 4-0 win against Hopewell-Loudon’s Isaiah Hook. He followed up with a 19-12 win against Mohawk’s Troy Johnson and then clinched his state spot by winning an 18-3 tech fall against South Central’s Greyson Fisher.

Hertel was a win away from state as both a freshman and sophomore, losing in the consolation semifinals and finishing sixth.

“Coming out and getting a tech fall in the go-to match, he controlled that whole match,” Pratt said. “He had to fight back also, winning two consecutive matches before he got to that position. I’m very excited for him, coming out of here top four, going to Columbus, taking two kids.”

Port Clinton’s Jace Cornell pinned Hertel in 36 seconds in the third-place match.

While six of the area 14 district qualifiers qualified for state, eight others fell short, including five of them from Mohawk and three from Carey.

All but one of the Warriors’ seven district qualifiers won at least once. Brant Kirian, a state qualifier a year ago, won twice, as did Troy Johnson.

Both of Kirian’s losses at 138 pounds were 7-5 decisions. After winning an 8-3 decision in the opening round, Kirian lost to Western Reserve’s Jaxson Davidson in the quarterfinals. Kirian came back with a pin in the second consolation round and then was edged by Genoa’s Michael Soto.

At 157, Johnson lost his opening match and then won two straight in the consolation round, first by 17-0 technical fall and then by medical forfeit. That put him up against Hertel, who built a big lead on him. Johnson scored a pair of late takedowns, but it was not nearly enough in a 19-12 loss.

“You’ve just got to wrestle every position, and unfortunately we were on the bad side of a few of those calls, and it didn’t go our way,” Rice said. “You can do everything right and still not make it to next week, and that’s part of life.”

At 132, Myer Kirian went 1-2 overall. A close match got away from him late Saturday in a 14-6 major decision loss to Evergreen’s AJ Gleckler. Pursell was eliminated with a 7-2 loss to Swanton’s Chase Godwin in the 150-pound consolation second round. Braxton Frisch dropped an 8-2 decision to Lake’s Delfino Garcia to be eliminated Friday.

It was the end of the road for seniors Brant Kirian, Pursell, Johnson and Frisch.

“This is a special senior class, not only with numbers, but quality,” Rice said. “You couldn’t ask for more seniors that literally spent pretty much year round thinking about the sport and thinking about the sport trying to get better, which makes it a little bit more emotional when you have a weekend like this weekend and not everything went your way.”

In addition to Hertel and Montgomery, Carey had Payne Stoops (126 pounds) reach the second day of the tournament, but he was pinned by Western Reserve’s Anthony Lierenz.

Fellow freshmen Waylon Hertel (144) and Hunter Baumbarger (175) were eliminated with two losses Friday.

“I had seven freshmen in the starting lineup this year,” Pratt said. “Those kids love it, they’re hungry, and they put in the extra work.”

With 71 points, Mohawk finished eighth among 50 teams with qualifiers. Riverdale was 18th with 38 points, and Carey took 20th place with 35.5. Archbold was the team champion 177-161 over Delta.

With the state tournament looming, Phelps said the approach is simple.

“Just wrestle smarter, score more points, dream big and have fun,” he said.

The tournament begins with Division III matches at 1 p.m. Friday at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center.

Team results (top 10 and local of 50)

1. Archbold 177, 2. Delta 161, 3. Liberty Center 104, 4. Woodmore 91, 5. Port Clinton 81, 6. Genoa 76.5, 7. Edison 71.5, 8. Mohawk 71, 9. Eastwood 67.5, 10. Seneca East 65.5, 18. Riverdale 38, 20. Carey 35.5.

Saturday’s individual results

120 — Montgomery (Carey) d. Warthling (Western Reserve) 6-0, Montgomery p. Bishop (Port Clinton) 1:53, Montgomery d. Kaufman (Bluffton) 1-0, Montgomery d. Barker (Edison) 6-2.

126 — Lierenz (Western Reserve) p. Stoops (Carey) 2:59.

132 — Gleckler (Evergreen) md. M. Kirian 14-6.

138 — Phelps (Riverdale) tf. Hernandez (Delta) 18-2, B. Kirian (Mohawk) p. Weirach (Archbold) 3:50, Phelps md. Slone (Willard) 9-0, Soto (Genoa) d. B. Kirian 7-5, Phelps tf. Gill (Tinora) 16-1, Phelps fft. Parrigan (Ashland Crestview).

144 — O. Patrizi (Mohawk) tf. Wellman (Archbold) 21-3, O. Patrizi tf. Hill (Van Buren) 18-3.

150 — Godwin (Swanton) d. Pursell (Mohawk) 7-2.

157 — Johnson (Mohawk) fft. Badenhop (Liberty Center), J. Hertel (Carey) d. Hook (Hopewell-Loudon) 4-0, J. Hertel d. Johnson 19-12, J. Hertel tf. Fisher (South Central) 18-3, Cornell (Port Clinton) p. Hertel 0:36.

175 — Bish (Mohawk) tf. Sarabia (Lake) 19-3, Bish d. Nagel (Delta) 4-1.

190 — Pinkleton (Port Clinton) tf. Reed (Riverdale) 15-0, Reed md. Schwaigger (Liberty Center) 11-3, Johnson (Patrick Henry) md. Reed 8-0.