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St. Marys' Tate Hisey has his hand raised after defeating Buckeye's Blake Bartos to win the Division II 132-pound state title on Sunday in Columbus. Hisey became a two-time state champion after winning the 126-pound title last year.
COLUMBUS - For the final 73 seconds of his match, Tate Hisey was hanging on for dear life.
Taking an 8-6 lead in his Division II 132-pound wrestling championship match against Medina Buckeye's Blake Bartos, The St. Marys senior held tough and prevented Bartos from scoring any points to secure the victory and win his second straight state championship on Sunday night at the state tournament at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.
Hisey, the 126-pound state champion last season, ends his season at 40-3 and four All-Ohio finishes after placing fifth at 106 as a freshman and fourth as a sophomore at 113.
"It doesn't make much sense, but senior year, whatever you get, that's what you are the rest of your life," said Hisey. "I wasn't a state champion until now. Now I feel like a state champion for life."
St. Marys' Tate Hisey, back, tries to take down Medina Buckeye's Blake Bartos during Sunday's Division II 132-pound championship match at the state wrestling tournament in Columbus. Hisey won a close 8-6 decision for his second consecutive state championship.
Bartos, last year's champion at 113 pounds and entering the final at 46-3, defeated Hisey last summer at the Super 32 Duals tournament.
"It was a bit of a grudge match. He wanted to come back and win this," said St. Marys coach Larry Gruber.
After each wrestler came up empty on early takedowns, Hisey was able to sneak around and get a takedown at the 1:31 mark of the opening period, then after some work, earned two near-fall points before Bartos got the reversal with 1:02 remaining and put Hisey on his back long enough to earn three near-fall points to tie the match at 5-all after one period.
St. Marys' Tate Hisey, right, tries to break free from Medina Buckeye's Blake Bartos during their 132-pound state championship match on Sunday at the Schottenstein Center.
Hisey won the flip of the disc and deferred to the third period. Bartos chose the down position to start the second quarter, then got an escape seven seconds into the period to go up 6-5. Despite several attempts, Hisey fended off any attempt to be taken down the rest of the period remain a point down heading into the final two minutes.
Choosing to go neutral, Hisey tried several attempts for the takedown before finally succeeded to gain the three-point takedown to go up 8-6 with 1:13 remaining. The wrestlers went out of bounds with 47 seconds remaining and the two referees had a discussion before going restarting with Bartos in the down position.
"I wasn't thinking much, but I had coach Gruber and (assistant coach) Garrett (Hower) bringing me back to reality, telling me 'one, not two,' " said Hisey, referring to that an escape was just one point and a reversal two points. "When we had that break (referees' discussion), I felt reassured. I needed that tough ride for 45 seconds. I could do this and got to execute."
Hisey did his best to keep Bartos from getting loose, and was hit with a stalling warning with 23 seconds left, but Hisey hung tough to the final whistle and began to celebrate.
"I was holding on for dear life," said Hisey. "I guess nothing was going through my mind, but everything (was going through). So much emotions. Everything I worked for paid off again."
"He knew what he wanted to do," said Gruber. "It was just the matter of getting it done. He's been focused all weekend on what he wanted to do."
St. Marys' Tate Hisey, left, tries to score back points on Medina Buckeye's Blake Bartos.
Hisey got through Saturday's quarterfinal and semifinal unscathed. In the quarterfinal, Hisey scored a first period takedown on Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy's Rocco Czarnecki and battled to keep the final two periods scoreless for the 3-0 victory.
In the semifinal against Columbus Watterson's Thomas Lindsey, Hisey again got the opening takedown, then added a second period takedown and finally got an escape in the third period for the 7-0 win to reach the title match.
Hisey finishes his career at St. Marys - and will head to NCAA Division I George Mason this fall - with a 174-11 record and four Western Buckeye League titles on top of his state accomplishments.
"It's still going on," said Hisey about the realization of what he's done for the Roughriders. "I don't think I'll realize it until I'm in college, until I miss it bad."
St. Marys' Bo Hertenstein, here wrestling Sheridan's Coltyn Reedy in the semfinals, finished fourth at 157 pounds.
For Hisey's classmate Bo Hertenstein, the mission to reach the final at 157 pounds started well as Hertenstein defeated Alter's Luke Snyder via 14-8 decision to reach the semifinals against Sheridan's Coltyn Reedy.
Reedy got the opening takedown, but Hertenstein escaped before another Reedy takedown made it 6-1 after the first two minutes. In the second, Reedy scored an early escape and got the takedown. Hertenstein escaped but was taken down again. After another escape, Hertenstein got a takedown but Reedy broke free to take a 14-6 lead into the final period. Hertenstein got the escape in the third period, but was taken down with 33 seconds remaining. Reedy was called for his second stalling violation to give Hertenstein a point, but it wasn't enough as Reedy advanced to the final with a 17-8 major decision.
With third place the highest goal, Hertenstein returned Sunday morning and scored a 17-3 major decision over Goshen's Gage Croley in the consolation semfinals to advance to face Marengo Highland's Cael Gilmore in the third-place match.
Gilmore scored the opening takedown with 11 seconds remaining in the first period to take the early lead. Hertenstein went to the down position for the second period and got the escape, but Gilmore got another takedown to make it 6-1 heading into the final period.
Gilmore got the escape early in the final period to make it 7-1. Hertenstein scored a takedown with 22 seconds remaining, but could not get any back points as Gilmore claimed third place with a 7-4 win as Hertenstein ends his career with a 44-5 record.
St. Marys' Cole Donovan, who lost his opening match Friday but won his first round consolation at 190 pounds, looked to work his way onto the podium on Saturday needing a win to earn a top-eight finish. Facing Howland's Christophe Mijavec in the second round of consols. After a scoreless first period, Mijavec got an escape and then a takedown in the second period to go up 4-0. Neither wrestler scored in the final period to give Mijavec the win as Donovan ended his season at 37-10.
