Big Walnut’s Nathan Barnes picked up first-place points and Olentangy Berlin’s Maddux Nauman and Liam Doneyhue nabbed runner-up honors to lead area wrestlers at Saturday’s Kevin Cleveland Memorial in Dublin.
Barnes (150), who had a first-round bye, handled Westerville Central’s Nathen Higginbotham 16-1 in the quarterfinals before punching his ticket to the championship by pinning Marysville’s Zackary Cooper in 51 seconds.
Matched up against New Albany’s Anderson Rice in the title match, Barnes again won via pin, this time in 4:32.
Nauman (113) and Doneyhue (175), meanwhile, cruised through the first three rounds before falling in their respective championship matches.
Nauman picked up three straight pins — forcing Central’s Josue Hernandez to the mat in 1:08 before dropping Grove City’s John Brothers in 4:49 and Worthington Kilbourne’s Blaise Parrill in 4:54 — to earn his spot in the final.
Doneyhue, who had a bye in the opening round, pinned Central’s Patrick Cusick in 1:42 and Kilbourne’s Yousef Elalfi in just 32 seconds to advance to his final.
Other top performers included the Bears’ Carter Tidball (third at 120), Peter Emery (third at 144), Brayden Becker-Shaw (third at 150), Zander Tompkins (third at 175) and Chase Cone (fourth at 157); and the Golden Eagles’ Eli Hadden (third at 126) and Charlie Barnes (fourth at 113).
Berlin finished second in the final team standings with 155.5 points. Marysville won the team title with 248 points while Central smoothed out the top three with 155.
Big Walnut finished seventh among the 12 teams in action with 100.5 points.
