Marysville’s Walker Heard has the upper hand against Dublin Coffman’s Antonio Gonalez during the Division I regional duals tournament on Saturday at MHS. Heard won the match, but the Monarchs fell to the Shamrocks, 40-16, in the team score.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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As was expected, the top two seeds competed for the Region 5, Division I regional wrestling championship on Saturday at Marysville High School.
The top-seeded Shamrocks of Dublin Coffman and No. 2 Monarchs of Marysville earned their ways to the title bout during competition that decided who would represent the region at the state duals meet next weekend at The Ohio State University.
Coffman had earned its way to the title bout with a 56-15 semifinal triumph over Delaware Hayes.
The Monarchs did the same by downing Upper Arlington, 36-20.
Marysville, which claimed the regional crown a year ago, was not able to defend its title as Coffman won, 40-16.
Despite the loss, MHS coach Shawn Andrews saw some things he liked.
“I felt we wrestled Coffman tougher this time,” he said. “I saw some fight out of guys like Jack Golla, Erryl Will, Tracen Cooper and Blayne Landon.”
The Monarchs had already competed against the Shamrocks a couple weeks ago during an Ohio Capital Conference Central Division match.
Coffman won that competition, 43-15.
MHS got into a big hole early by dropping its first five matches on Saturday against Coffman.
Madison Sharp (106) was pinned with 1:10 left in the second period by Rupert Moore, who held an 8-2 lead before putting the MHS grappler to the mat.
Corey Crawford followed at 113 with a 9-6 triumph over MHS’ Nathan Thompson.
The Rocks’ lead grew to 15-0 when James Bauman (120) scored a pinfall over Josh Melms with 1:15 remaining during the second period.
Marysville’s Tyler Winfield dropped a hard-fought, 6-4 verdict to Davante Cooper at 126 and Ismael Ayoub downed Tracen Cooper by a 12-2 major decision in the 132 bout.
Winfield had dropped a match to Ayoub earlier in the season, thus came the weight switch on Saturday.
Those victories pushed the Shamrocks out to a 22-0 advantage.
The Monarchs, however, clawed their way back with five consecutive victories.
Golla got the goose egg off the scoreboard for Marysville with a 3-1 victory at 138 over Niko Gonzalez.
Will topped Jacob Hamed by a 4-2 count at 145.
The Monarchs broke into double figures on the scoreboard at 22-10 when Walker Heard scored a 16-3 major decision over Antonio Gonzalez.
Landon won his 160-pound bout by a 7-5 verdict over Leo Alvarez.
Marysville, however, saw the three team points it would have received from the triumph taken off the scoreboard.
Landon was whistled for a flagrant misconduct penalty at the end of the match, thus wiping off the team points.
“The official said that Blayne was still applying pressure to his opponent’s throat after the match had concluded,” said Andrews.
Landon was ejected and will have to sit out a couple of matches, per Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) mandates.
“We’ll look at the film and we may appeal the ejection to the OHSAA,” said Andrews. “If we can’t, we’ll take our medicine.”
The Monarchs got back in the scoring column when Zach Lowe (170) edged Nick Copley, 5-4.
Marysville’s point total remained at 13 for the next two bouts.
Grant Marshall (182) was pinned with 1:18 left in the opening period by Lennox Wolak and Logan Painter’s (195) shoulders were anchored to the mat by Seth Shumate with 35.5 seconds remaining in the first set.
Those pinfalls put the Rocks up by a 34-13 margin and left Monarch Nation knowing that a return trip to OSU’s St. John Arena next weekend was out of the cards.
MHS’ Ethan Smegal scored a 9-2 victory at 220 over Riley Ucker.
The Shamrocks, though, wrapped up their team victory with a forfeit win by Eric Feng in the heavyweight class.
The Monarchs opened the day with a first-round bye.
They then topped Gahanna, 51-12, during the quarterfinals.
Results from that match were as follows:
-106: Carter Pearson (G) dec. Sharp (M), 9-5;
-113: Cristian Salazar (G) pinned Thompson (M), 2:37;
-120: Charles Williams (G) beat Melms (M) by a 15-2 major decision;
-126: Harley Crouso (M) won by forfeit;
-132: Winfield (M) pinned Patrick Christie (G), 1:48;
-138: Golla (M) pinned Torian Rachel (G), 3:15;
-145: Dylan Kankiewicz (G) dec. Lincoln Heard (M), 7-6;
-152: W. Heard (M) won by forfeit;
-160: Landon (M) pinned Paulo Dragin (G), 1:55;
-170: Lowe (M) beat Luke Garbark (G), 15-8;
-182: Nate Garbark (G) pinned Dexter Coffey (M), 3:59;
-195: Painter (M) pinned Justice Richardson (G), 2:48;
-220: Joseph Palmer (M) won by forfeit;
-285: Smegal (M) pinned Chris Embry (G), 2:41.
Marysville’s semifinal results against Upper Arlington were as follows:
-106: Frankie Mulligan (UA) pinned Sharp (M), 1:00;
-113: Thompson (M) dec. Jake Thomas (UA), 10-7;
-120: Melms (M) dec. Connor McClure (UA), 13-4 (major decision);
-126: Mitch Herren (UA) pinned Crouso (M), 2:13;
-132: Jesse Bowers (UA) edged Winfield (M), 9-8;
-138: Joey Orlando (UA) downed Golla (M), 6-3;
-145: Will (M) beat Mason McHugh (UA), 14-10;
-152: W. Heard (M) pinned Miles Pearson (UA), 2:30;
-160: Landon (M) dec. Sebastian Chambers (UA), 15-0, technical fall;
-170: David Soghomonyan (UA) dec. Marshall (M), 10-6;
-182: Lowe (M) beat Gavin Shafer (UA), 7-6;
-195: Painter (M) beat Holden Freeman (UA), 8-2;
-220: Palmer (M) dec. Jake Badgeley (UA), 9-2;
-285: Smegal (M) won by forfeit.
“We knew Upper Arlington was going to be closer than it was the last time (a 46-17 MHS victory),” said Andrews. “Gahanna also got on us early, but we battled back.”
The Monarch coach said his squad must continue to focus on consistency.
“There were some matches today in which we lost focus,” said Andrews. “We have to continue to work on our match awareness and we still need to finish some matches.”