Defiance edges Celina

CELINA - The two remaining unbeaten teams in Western Buckeye League wrestling battled for sole possession of first place on Thursday night in Celina.

As expected, it came down to the last match between Celina and Defiance.

In fact, it went past the wire and into the rulebook after both teams tied at 36-all when action was completed.

The tiebreaker came down to most matches won, with Defiance holding an 8-6 advantage to claim the tiebreaker point for a 37-36 win to improve to 6-0 in league duals as Celina drops to 5-1.

"You'd rather settle it on mat and not criteria," Celina coach James Miracle said. "It was the position we put ourselves in. We had some kids fight.

"We knew it was going to be close. In my head, I had it 33-31 and it ends up 36-36. We told the kids no penalty points (losing points for unsportsmanlike behavior) because that's the first criteria."

Defiance led 8-0 after two matches as Tristan Villarreal won by technical fall at 132 pounds and Hunter Grunden took a 11-9 win over Jakob Poor at 138. Aric Gallimore gave Celina its first win with a pin at 145. Defiance came back with Jacob Hatchett winning via pin at 152 to make the score 14-6 Defiance.

Celina stormed back with four straight pinfall victories. Ethan Ly pinned Alex Hoeffel at 160 in 87 seconds. Logan Muhlenkamp followed with a pin of Angelo Gonzalez at 170 in 3:15. Brother Luke Muhlenkamp needed just 31 seconds to pin Preston Foor. Corey Fortkamp topped Luke Muhlenkamp's fast pin with his own in just 25 seconds over Keaton Linebrink at 195 pounds. Defiance's Gordo Vega stopped the Celina streak by pinning Cayden Thomson in 27 seconds and Jonah Schlegel won a 7-3 decision over Seth Huston at 285.

Defiance cut the Celina lead further to 30-27 with Gavino Martinez scoring an 18-8 major decision over Brycen Miracle. Celina got six points when Defiance voided out at 113 and Landon Engle moved up to 120 to face Juan Perez. Engle fought hard and denied Perez a pin, but the 18-1 technical fall put Defiance within four points of Celina going into the final match at 126.

Lupe Martinez roared out to an early lead against Sam Warner with Warner coming close to being pinned. Down 12-0 with time winding down in the third period, Warner scored a two-point reversal and furiously tried to turn Martinez for back-points to cut the deficit to under eight points, as a win by eight points or more meant a four-point major decision which would tie the contest, whereas anything seven points or under would have been worth just three, giving Celina the win. As hard as he could, Warner could not tally any more points, giving Defiance the tying points and the win.

"You look at some of the (unselfishness) of some of our kids. Landon move up to 120 and took a beating to save a point against a state-ranked kid," Miracle said. "There's no other kid that wouldn't have been pinned by (Perez).

"We knew we had to go for broke (in the final match). Should have tried going neutral (start position) in the third period, but Sam never showed much with a takedown. We know his position was to reverse from the bottom and that's what he did, but couldn't get the near-fall."

Celina hosts the Lions Invitational on Saturday at the Fieldhouse.