Marysville’s Ethan Smegal (220) prepares to lift Kaden Tong of Olentangy Liberty during a Division I District tournament match. Smegal won the weight-class title and is one of four Monarchs who will compete during the state tournament at The Ohio State University.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Kevin Behrens)
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The Marysville High School wrestling team experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat during the Division I district tournament at Hilliard Darby High School on Saturday.
Any time athletes face elimination in sports, there is always more emotion that come with the territory.
The district meet certainly brings out those feelings during the “blood” round when grapplers need to win to advance to the state tournament or face the end of their season.
The Monarchs advanced four to next week’s Ohio High School Athletic Association state meet, but could have had five if Shaun Will would have been able to finish a takedown in the last seconds of his “go-to” match.
Walker Heard (152) and Ethan Smegal (220) brought home district titles as they had a relative easy time taking the top spot on the podium.
Lincoln Heard (138) and Logan Painter (195) both finished third in their respective weight divisions.
Will finished sixth.
In the semifinals, W. Heard pinned Ryan Tiell of Mt. Vernon in 3:19 and scored a major decision,16-8, over Franklin Heights’ Dane Fenice in the finals.
Smegal pinned Kaden Tong of Liberty in 3:34 and then beat Jacob Goldsmith from Westerville North 7-1 in the final.
L. Heard lost in the semi’s. 8-3, to Jacob Williams of Teas Valley.
L. Heard battled back and defeated Titan Johnson from Lancaster, 3-0.
The Monarch grappler downed Zach Williams of Delaware Hayes, 4-2, to take third place.
Painter had to battle through the consolation bracket.
He faced Jake Nelson of Groveport in the “blood” round, beating him 4-0.
Painter then finished off Jacob Mcloskly of Delaware Hayes, 3-2, to claim third place.
Dublin Coffman ran away with the team title by tallying 170 points.
Olentangy Liberty was the runnerup with 133, while Marysville came in third with 108.5.
Rounding out the top five were Lancaster-105 and Upper Arlington-103.5/
Individual results for MHS were follows:
-120: Josh Melms, 1-2;
-126: Tyler Winfield, 2-2;
-138: L. Heard, 4-1;
-145: Will, 2-2;
-160: Blayne Landon, 0-2;
-152: W. Heard 4-0;
-170: Zach Lowe, 2-2;
-195: Painter, 5-1;
-220-Smegal, 4-0.
Wednesday’s Journal-Tribune will have a complete preview of the local matchups for the state tournament that starts Thursday night at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.
“This time of the year is always bitter sweet,” said MHS head coach Shawn Andrews. “You are so happy for the guys on your team who reach the state tournament and you ache for the ones who come up short.
“We moved four guys on to the state tournament and continued last week’s momentum of finishing the final round on a positive as we went 4-0 in the matches of our wrestlers who are state qualifiers.
“With Lincoln’s state qualification, he and Walker become only the second set of brothers from Marysville to qualify for the state tournament in the same year,” said Andrews. “They join Adam and Ben Wimmers from 1998.”