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CELINA - The wrestling edition of the Battle of Grand Lake was exciting right to the end.
St. Marys led Celina 29-21 with three bouts remaining, but the Bulldogs had pinfall wins in all three matches to come back to get the 39-29 win for their first win in Western Buckeye League action at the Fieldhouse.
"I hate to say it, but it seemed like we were destined to win it because that was not the way we drew it up," said Celina coach James Miracle. "Everything went to plan up to 215 (pounds), then we got caught. We have five to six freshmen in the lineup right now and guys stepped up. We knew we had a shot."
St. Marys' Tate Hisey tries to take down Celina's Mason Homan.
Celina opened with five points as Aaren King scored an 18-3 technical fall win over Nick Griffis at 132 pounds. State champion Tate Hisey gave the Roughriders the first win of the night with a pin of Mason Homan in 55 seconds at 138. Celina came back with Payten Staugler scoring a 14-1 decision over Dyllan Fink at 144, followed by back-to-back decision wins by Celina's Noah Russell and Luke Maxwell at 150 and 157.
After Celina conceded a 16-1 technical fall win to 2024 state runner-up Bo Hertenstein at 165, Cole Donovan got a pin of Brenner Hinkle at 175 to put St. Marys back in front 17-15. Wes Greber gave Celina the lead back at 18-17 as he went to overtime against Noah Allen at 190. Greber got a reversal with 21 seconds remaining in regulation, then got a point in the overtime when Allen was called for his second stalling call of the bout.
St. Marys' Bo Hertenstein takes down Celina's Kahne Shaffer.
At 215, Carter Ly looked to have a good battle going with Robert Williams, but in the second period Williams got the takedown and held on for the pint to make it 32-18 St. Marys with five bouts to go.
Celina got a big win at 285 as Cash Patrick won 9-3 over Matthew Murray, but St. Marys got the win at 106 via Cayden McCullough's pin of Isaac Helmer.
That was the last win of the match for St. Marys, as Josiah King pinned Chase Luedeke to get the Bulldogs to within two at 29-27 at 113 pounds. Freshman Leland Voss then put Celina back into the lead at 120 pounds with a pin of Jax VanGundy to make it 33-29, meaning St. Marys needed to score a technical fall or pinfall to win. A major decision would tie the match and go to the tiebreaker based on criteria.
Celina's Kristoff Melendrez (right), keeps hold of St. Marys' Declan Bruce during the final bout of the night at the Fieldhouse. Melendrez's pinfall win locked up a 39-29 win over the Roughriders in a league dual match.
Turned out, Kristoff Melendrez was in no mood to offer any major suspense, pinning Declan Bruce at the 3:09 mark to end the match in Celina's favor.
"It come down to the last two matches and we won both of them," said Miracle. "We might have given up the major (decision) and won on criteria. Every point mattered. Like at 165, they didn't like it (conceded the tech fall to Hertenstein), but we didn't want a reversal pin or a takedown pin. We didn't want to give up the points (because) we knew it would be close."
The Bulldogs paid tribute to Ben Ly, who died in a car accident earlier this year. Ben's family was presented with his singlet and flowers in a pre-match ceremony.
"Seeing Ben's family tonight, I was hoping the kids would play like they did when they honored during football against Wapak. I thought the football team played their best. I thought maybe we could tap into some of that energy," said Miracle. "Honestly, this was probably the best team dual we've wrestled since we beat Wapakoneta a few years back."
Celina returns to action on Saturday with a trip to the Elgin Invitational. St. Marys (1-1 WBL) is off until next Thursday when Defiance comes to Grand Lake Health Systems Court for another league match.
