Going the distance

CELINA - The Western Buckeye League wrestling title is not won or lost on the first night of the season.

But St. Marys took a big step in its mission for a fourth straight league crown, dominating the middleweights and lighter heavyweights for a 44-24 win over Celina on Thursday night at Celina High School in the season lidlifter for both teams.

After the teams traded pinfall wins in the first two bouts of the night, St. Marys scored five wins in the next seven bouts, all of which went the full six minutes, before getting another pinfall win at 285 pounds.

"It's been one heckuva long night," said St. Marys coach Larry Gruber, a nod to the varsity matches not getting underway until after 7 p.m. due to middle school bouts. "There were a couple times you don't know what's going though someone's head on the mat, if they're going to give up or come back. We talk to them before and tell them if they wrestle six minutes, they have a good chance."

Quincy Tracy opened up the night for St. Marys by pinning Collin Fokine in three minutes at 138 pounds. At 144, Bo Hertenstein scored an early takedown on Zach King and attempted to roll him over for back points, but King blocked Hertenstein, who was on his back and unable to break free, allowing King to get the rare pinfall win without having advantage.

The Roughriders took control starting at 152 as Keegan Sharpe recorded a 12-3 major decision over Zach Greber. Isaac Torsell followed with a close 9-6 decision over Carver Harris with a late escape and takedown. Kayden Sharpe added another four-point major decision with a 15-6 win over Wes Greber at 165. Caleb Turner followed at 175 with an 11-6 win over Luke Lazarich to make it 2-6.

Tyler Carlin snapped the Bulldogs' skid with a 10-5 decision over Cole Donovan at 190 pounds. Reece Rutledge cut Celina's deficit to 20-12 with an 8-2 decision over Brice Saeler at 215. The six-minute match streak ended with Jace Schaefer moving up to 285 pounds and pinning Keene Rinderle in 3:40.

"We're both senior teams that lost a lot from last year, but we're still going to be competitive with everybody," said Celina coach James Miracle. "We had a path to victory, but from (152) to 175, there were a lot of close matches and we didn't win a single one of them."

The lighter weights took their turn as Celina's Kenzie Miracle pinned Jeremiah Cisco in 3:39 to get Celina to within eight at 26-18, a big win as St. Marys voided at 113 to give Celina six easy points and trim the margin to two at 26-24 with three bouts remaining.

Tate Hisey, the Roughriders' returning All-Ohioan, switched with teammate Michael Crites, moving Crites down to 120 to face Aaren King. Crites was able to get the pin in 1:46 to make the score 32-24, forcing Celina to need nine team points in the final two bouts to win. Hisey, though, quickly dashed those hopes, pinning BJ Tare in 87 seconds to clinch the match for St. Marys. Zach Meyers closed out the night for the Roughriders with a final pin in beating Nolan McRavin in 3:27.

"We won a few matches here and there, even in the last match, the score could have been 38-30 instead of 44-24," said coach Miracle. "It would have been a lot closer. Hats off to (St. Marys). They're three-time champs for a reason. (St. Marys) and Wapakoneta will battle it out (for the WBL title) and we'll be battling for third."

St. Marys is off until next Thursday when the Roughriders host Defiance for a WBL match. Celina travels to Williamsport on Saturday for the Westfall Invitational.