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Celina's Kenzie Miracle, white headgear, locks up Tinora's Ava Steffel in the seventh-place match at 113 pounds at the girls state wrestling tournament on Sunday at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.
COLUMBUS - As her hand was held high after her final match of the 2023 inaugrual Ohio High School Athletic Association's girls state wrestling tournament, Celina sophomore Kenzie Miracle had a look of bliss.
After St. Marys sophomore Tate Hisey's final match, he had a look of what might have been.
Miracle wrapped up her season with a win to claim seventh place in the girls 105-pound weight class to become the first area girls wrestler to earn All-Ohio honors and the first Bulldog wrestler since 2010 to reach the podium.
Hisey, looking to move up the ladder after finishing fifth at 106 pounds last season, suffered a tough overtime loss in the Division II 113-pound third-place. Hisey moved up one podium spot to fourth this year, but the defeat left him in shock.
For Miracle, who just missed the podium at the state tournament organized by the state coaches association last season, Saturday started with a match against Columbus Academy's Cece Reitter in the quarterfinals. Reitter took a 4-0 lead after one period and then added four more points before Miracle got a late escape to take an 8-1 loss.
Needing a win to earn a podium finish, Miracle faced Arcadia's Charlize Distel, over whom Miracle earned two wins in the Marysville regional last week. Miracle led 2-0 after the first period, but in the second, Distel got a takedown and five total points on two near-fall moves. In the final minute, Miracle got a reversal and scored the pinfall with nine seconds remaining in the second period to lock up a finish in the top eight.
"I just started crying," said Miracle, regarding winning her match to clinch All-Ohio. "My last couple matches, I knew I had nothing to lose since I was placing. I went out there not (being) nervous and could wrestle and have fun."
In the consolation quarterfinal, Miracle faced Scotlyn Adams of West Union for a chance to move up the podium. Adams jumped out to a 6-1 lead after the first period and then got a reversal to start the second period and scored the pinfall at the 2:06 mark of the match to drop Miracle into the seventh-place match.
In the seventh-place match on Sunday morning, Miracle faced a familar foe in Tinora's Ava Steffel, who had beaten Miracle in their first two meetings of the season, the most recent at the regional last Sunday. Steffel got a takedown early in the first period to lead 2-0 and added an escape to start the second period before Miracle snagged a takedown with 44 seconds left in the period to cut the margin to 3-2.
Miracle chose the down position for the third period and was able to get a reversal with 27 seconds gone in the period. For the remaining 93 seconds, Miracle worked to keep Steffel locked down and tried for backpoints. Steffel hung tough, but when the final whistle blew, Miracle was a 4-3 winner.
"It feels great to walk out of here seventh and not eighth," said Miracle. "She beat me two times, both close. Third time was the charm. I knew how she wrestled and she knew how I wrestled. I kept doing what I usually do."
Celina's Kenzie Miracle has her hand raised in victory after winning the girls 113-pound seventh-place match on Sunday in Columbus. Miracle is the first area girls wrestler to earn All-Ohio honors at the first OHSAA-sanctioned state tournament and first Celina wrestler to reach the podium since 2010.
St. Marys' Tate Hisey takes down Wapakoneta's Caden Mellott in the Division II 113-pound consolation semifinals on Sunday in Columbus.
Hisey secured a podium spot in his first match on Saturday as he faced Chillicothe's Canaan Smith in the quarterfinals. Hisey got a takedown in the first period, scored a reversal in the second period and, after Smith got a takedown midway through the third period, got another reversal in the final period to reach the semifinals with a 6-2 win.
With the chance to become the first Roughrider to reach the championship match, Hisey took on Buckeye's Colyn Limbert in a rematch of last year's 106-pound consolation semifinal when Limbert major decisioned Hisey 11-0 en route to finishing third.
Limbert got the takedown midway through the first period to take a 2-0 lead. In the second, Limbert got another takedown with a final takedown coming in the third period for the 6-0 win, giving Hisey his first loss of the season.
Hisey returned to the mat Sunday morning for a consolation semifinal against Wapakoneta's Caden Mellott. The two had not faced each other in the schools' league match in December, as Hisey bumped up to 120 that day.
The pair went scoreless for the first two periods. In the third, Hisey chose down and worked a reversal with 1:27 remaining in the match as Hisey worked to keep Mellott from getting a reversal of his own or at least an escape and hung on for the 2-0 win to put Hisey in the third-place match later in the early afternoon in a rematch with Smith, who worked his way through the consolations.
After a scoreless first period, Hisey got a reversal followed by two back points to lead 4-0 heading into the third period. Smith copied Hisey's approach in the third period, getting a reversal of his own followed by two near-fall points, but Hisey held off any more near falls to the whistle to send the bout into sudden-victory overtime. In the extra sessions, Smith got the opening shot in and was able to maneuver Hisey to his back for the takedown to end the bout with the 6-4 win.
St. Marys' Tate Hisey, left, tries to break free from Chillicothe's Canaan Smith during the Division II 113-pound third-place match on Sunday.
The seasons for Coldwater's Will Fox and St. Marys' Bo Hertenstein ended on Saturday with two straight losses.
Fox, the Cavaliers' first-ever district champion, faced Mogadore's Tyler Shellenbarger in the 215-pound quarterfinals on Saturday morning. Shellenbarger led 5-0 after one period on a takedown and three-point near-fall. Fox got a point back in the second period on an escape, but Shellenbarger earned a reversal in the third period and allowed Fox just a late reversal to come away with the 7-3 win.
Needing a win to stay alive and secure a podium finish, Fox faced Brookville's Bronson Stacy in the consolation second round. After a scoreless first period. Stacy got a reversal and after Fox escaped, got a takedown and three back points before Fox escaped again. Late in the second period, Stacy got the takedown he needed to score the pin with 18 seconds remaining in the period.
Fox ends his season at 40-6.
Hertenstein started his day against defending 144-pound state champ Mitchell Younger of Columbus Watterson. Younger broke out for a 15-1 lead in the first period, needing just a point to record the technical fall. Hertenstein got an escape to start the second period, but Younger got a takedown and earned the 17-2 technical fall to send Hertenstein to the consols.
Facing Quake Beatty of Indian Valley, Hertenstein broke the shutout early in the second period with an escape, but Beatty got a late takedown to make it 2-1 heading into the third period. Beatty got the reversal with 25 seconds remaining in the match to secure the 4-1 win.
Hertenstein ends his season at 23-12.
