Marysville’s Tyler Winfield, right, attempts to pin an Mitch Herren of Upper Arlington in this file photo. The Monarchs will host the Division I sectional tournament on Saturday.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Kevin Behrens)
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High school wrestlers will begin their first step toward the individual state tournament this weekend.
Grapplers will begin the post-season journey when sectional tournaments are held at various locations.
Marysville High School will host a Division I sectional on Saturday, with action beginning at 10 a.m.
The Monarchs will actually host two sectionals.
“This is the product of having five Central District sectionals,” said MHS head coach Shawn Andrews.
“Whitehall hosted a fifth sectional last year,” he said. “They decided not to host one this year and we volunteered to host a second sectional.”
The sectionals will be divided into Marysville I and Marysville II.
The Monarchs will compete in Marysville I, along with Canal Winchester, Central Crossing, Dublin Coffman, Dresden Tri Valley, Mt. Vernon, Worthington Kilbourne, Westerville Central, Westerville South and Columbus Whetstone.
Marysville II will include Ashland, Columbus Briggs, Columbus West, Lima Senior, Mansfield Madison, Northland, Pickerington North, Reynoldsburg, St. Charles and Thomas Worthington.
Athletes who place in the top four of their weight class will qualify for the district.
Those in Marysville I will advance to the district the following weekend at Hilliard Darby.
Those who advance in Marysville II will travel to Mentor for their district.
Olentangy Liberty is the overall top seed for Division I Central District.
Upper Arlington is No. 2, followed by Dublin Coffman, Westerville North and Tri-Valley to round out the top five.
MHS is the No. 6 seed.
The tournament will be conducted under a double-elimination format.
“There are 16-man brackets, but we know that not all of the 10 teams in each sectional will fill all 16 brackets,” said Andrews.
Monarch athletes are in the same bracket as Dublin Coffman, a team that defeated MHS for the Ohio Capital Conference Central Division championship during the regular season.
Marysville also fell to the Shamrocks during the Division I regional duals tournament.
“Dublin Coffman will provide the most stiff competition, based on previous results,” said Andrews. “They will obviously be the biggest hurdle from a team standpoint.
“Winning a sectional team championship gives you some advantages seeding-wise at the district tournament,” he said. “However, our eyes are on getting all of our wrestlers in the top four of their weight classes.
“That will advance them on to the district tournament,” said Andrews. “We can’t focus just on Coffman.”
The Monarchs will be led by a trio of wrestlers who have placed at the district tournament in year’s past.
They are seniors Walker Heard (152), Logan Painter (195) and Ethan Smegal (220).
Lincoln Heard (138) also qualified for the district tournament a year ago.
Walker Heard will take a 36-5 record into the tournament.
Painter stands at 26-11 and Smegal has won 31 of his 36 matches.
Lincoln Heard is 18-17 for the season.
All eyes will be on the 160 finals were Blayne Landon of MHS and Aaron Morton of Westville South are projected to faceoff. Both are coming back from a two-point suspension for unsportmanslike conduct.
The remainder of the Monarchs’ lineup for the sectional (with records) is as follows:
-106: Madison Sharpe, 4-23;
-113: Nathan Thompson, 19-16;
-120: Josh Melms, 20-13;
-126: Tyler Winfield, 20-11;
-132: Tracen Cooper, 12-7;
-145: Erryl Will, 25-8;
-170: Zach Lowe, 19-12;
-182: Dexter Coffey, 4-19;
-285: Joseph Palmer, 18-10.
Andrews said the expectations for his team on Saturday are the same as they have been all season.
“We expect all of our wrestlers to compete against the other wrestlers in their weight divisions,” he said. “We have to focus on what we can control.
“I know this sounds like ‘coach-speak,’ but it’s true…. we just have to focus on one match at a time.”