The Olentangy Liberty and Olentangy boys wrestling teams had three district champions apiece en route to finishing second and third, respectively, at Friday and Saturday’s Division I district tournament in Hilliard.
The Braves got first-place points from Luke Mokros (106), Kurt Mokros (113) and Jake Piontkowski (138).
Luke Mokros cruised past Dublin Coffman’s Nick Lawrensen 14-6 in his final, Kurt Mokros blanked Mount Vernon’s Brock Blankenhorn 8-0 in his and Piontkowski outlasted Coffman’s Joseph Baumann 8-5 in a tiebreaker to claim a top seed heading into this weekend’s state showcase at Ohio State.
The Patriots’ top point producers included Jaxson Rosselli (120), Huggy Williams (126) and Prestyn Parks (132).
Williams blanked Gahanna Lincoln’s Musa Jalloh 9-0 in the final at 126, Parks pinned Thomas Worthington’s Dean Poppy in just 26 seconds to take top honors at 132 and Rosselli rolled through his first three matches before winning the title via forfeit.
Other area state qualifiers included Liberty’s Tyler Deericks (second at 157), Zade Archibald (third at 138), Lincoln Gardner (third at 165), Broc Fitzpatrick (third at 175) and Brady Quillin (third at 215); Olentangy Berlin’s Maddux Nauman (third at 113), Chase Cone (fourth at 157) and Ethan Guevara (fourth at 190); and Olentangy’s Preston Schuler (fourth at 120) and Nolan Gregson (fourth at 126).
Coffman finished with a combined 237.5 points to win the team title while Liberty and Olentangy collected 216.5 and 110.5, respectively.
Berlin was 10th with 49.5 points, Orange was tied for 14th with 36, Big Walnut was 23rd with 22 and Hayes was 28th with 19.
GIRLS WRESTLING
Olentangy’s Cori Young and Olentangy Orange’s Lydia Heinrich and Kascidy Garren won regional titles to highlight area standouts at Sunday’s regional tournament in Lewis Center.
Young, competing in the 125-pound weight class, pinned Olentangy Berlin’s Annette Oberhauser in 1:21 to get her tourney off to a good start. She then beat Licking Valley’s Adison Justice 5-1 and pinned Teays Valley’s Lidia Huntley in 1:07 to punch her ticket to the championship match (which she won over Licking Heights’ Lauren Seeman via forfeit).
The Pioneers’ Heinrich (170) and Garren (190) also had impressive runs to their respective title matches. Heinrich beat the Braves’ Alyssa O’Barr with a pin in 2:59 while Garren outlasted Gahanna Lincoln’s Jordan Mills 5-4 in a tiebreaker.
All three regional champs, and O’Barr, who finished 3-1 on the day, will compete at the upcoming state meet at OSU.
Other state qualifiers included Orange’s Mackenzie Carder (second at 110), Alanna Smith (second at 115), Josie Nickoloff (third at 120), Peyton Johnson (third at 140), Surraiya Mahmud (third at 155), Lucy Scheibeck (fourth at 135) and Jenny Huaracha-Arellanos (third at 235), Delaware Hayes’ Nelease Danzy (third at 145), Berlin’s Chloe Tompkins (third at 130) and Big Walnut’s Reagan Radke (fourth at 100).
Orange won the team title with 236 points while Gahanna and Watkins Memorial smoothed out the top three with 95 and 84, respectively. Hayes finished fourth with 81 points, Olentangy was sixth with 70, Big Walnut was 13th with 48 and Berlin closed tied for 23rd with 33 points.
In the Division II tournament at Norwalk, Buckeye Valley’s Landon Froehlich kept his season alive, finishing fourth at 175. BV closed 30th as a team with 12 points.