By Ben Stroup
Seventh-seeded Hayes put together a nice string of wins, taking four straight weight classes after dropping the first three, but second-seeded Elyria won five of the final seven to wrap up a 41-21 quarterfinal win during Sunday’s OHSAA State Wrestling Dual Team Tournament finals at OSU’s St. John Arena.
Hayes looked to be in trouble early, falling into a hole when Elyria’s Matt Zuckerman (106) beat Zach Williams 12-0, Brendon Fenton (113) pinned Jason Dominguez in 47 seconds and Joshua Breeding (120) forced Tommy King to the mat in 33 seconds.
The Pacers rebounded in a big way, though. James White IV (126) knocked off Jim Schill 9-2, Jalill Barnes (132) outlasted Jordan Keegan 6-4, Ian Mayberry (138) pinned Jason Truxall in 2:40 and Garrett Young (145) beat Tristan Brady 5-2.
Elyria had an answer of its own, though, and the next match — Nico O’Dor’s 5-3 sudden victory over Greg Brusco in the 152-pound weight class — swung the momentum in its favor for good.
Hayes’ Max Wright (170) and Jakota Carter (195) picked up their team’s final two wins. Wright handled Brendan Price 6-1 and Carter edged Cameron King 7-6.
In other action, Elyria’s Mikah Price (160) pinned Zane Hypes in 1:39, J.T. Brown (182) blanked Carter Davidson 8-0, Ben Darmstadt (220) pinned Chris Martinez in 1:36 and Kevin Vough (285) pinned Paul Lance in 1:10 to smooth out the scoring summary.
Elyria wrestled all the way to the final before falling to eventual state champ Lakewood St. Edward 49-22
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Follow Ben Stroup on Twitter @delgazette_ben.