Marysville High School wrestling seniors Walker Heard (160) and Logan Painter (195) competed in the annual Ironman Classic at Walsh Jesuit High School on Friday and Saturday.
“Once again, we were fortunate enough to have members of our team invited to the Walsh Ironman Tournament,” said Monarch head coach Shawn Andrews. “It is considered the toughest in-season tournament in the country with wrestlers from 92 schools representing 21 states.
“Both of our wrestlers made it to the second day of competition, but finished short of placing,” he said. “Walker finished his tournament with a 4-2 record and of his six matches, only one opponent was from Ohio. Walker lost in the round of 12, one match shy of placing.”
Heard began the tournament with a 9-2 decision over Malik Daghash of Lockport Twp., Illinois, and followed with an 8-1 verdict over Kayen Johnson of Ponderosa, Colorado.
The MHS senior dropped his first match of the tournament when he was pinned in 1:00 by Jace Luchau of Selma, California.
Heard bounced back with a 6-2 victory over Luca Finzi of Bethlehem Catholic.
The Marysville grappler claimed a 2-1 tie-breaker verdict over Dillon Walker of LaSalle (Ohio).
Heard’s final match was a 6-3 setback at the hands of Thayne Lawrence of Frazier High School.
“Walker had a good tournament, particularly his wrestling from the top position,” said Andrews. “Getting to compete against that level of competition will only help us to continue to prepare going forward.”
Painter won one of his three matches and advanced to the round of 16.
He was pinned in 33 seconds during his first match by Nathan Dugan of Lake Norman High School of North Carolina.
After a bye in the next round, Painter came back with a 4-1 victory over Brent Paulus of Louisville High School.
Painter’s final match of the tournament was a 7-2 loss to Jaiden Patterson of St. John Bosco High School of California.
“Logan was a state alternate last season,” said Andrews. “This type of competition helps to reveal the things we need to do in order to get better if Logan wants to be on the (state) podium at the end of the season.”
Additional MHS grapplers went together as a team and placed second at the Kilted Klassic at Sparta Highland High School.
Medina won the event with 306 points, followed by MHS-286.
Other scores were Olentangy-282, Findlay-233, Westerville South-190, Highland-179, Lexington-165, Woodmore-157, Sidney-154, Newark Catholic-136, Mansfield-131, Bloomfield-92, Thomas Worthington-73, South Central-43, East Knox-35 and Danville-12.
“It was a good experience for our team to get into an individual tournament after starting the year with a dual tournament,” said Andrews. “We were in the lead going into the finals, but Medina was able to pass us up in the last round.
“We say every year that we have to focus on odd numbers,” he said. “We finished with too many second and fourth-place finishes.
“This is a young team which is still learning,” said the coach. “Our coaching staff found plenty of things for us to work on, but in general we were pleased with the progress from week one to week two.”
The following Monarchs placed in the top six in their weight class:
-113: Nate Francis, sixth;
-120 Nathan Thompson, fourth;
-126: Josh Melms/Tyler Winfield, first/second place (match not wrestled);
-138 Jack Golla: second;
-145: Lincoln Heard, fourth;
-152: Joey Robinson, sixth;
-160: Blayne Landon, second;
-170: Parker Reese, second;
-182: Zach Lowe, fifth;
-220: Joey Palmer, second.
“We (the coaches) made the decision not to wrestle the 126 match that day,” said Andrews.