County wrestlers shine at state tournament
By Chris Miles
Sports Editor
The seven Madison County wrestlers who participated at the OHSAA state championship tournament Thursday and Friday at Ohio State University proved they belonged to be among the state’s very best.
All seven of them, three from West Jefferson, two from Jonathan Alder, and one each from London and Madison-Plains all won matches at the state’s biggest wrestling event.
When you’re going up against the best, there’s a fine line between winning and losing and a couple area competitors found themselves flirting with that line.
Jonathan Alder’s 285-pounder Dustin Kuhlwein found himself in a battle Thursday with Beau Harmon of Benjamin Logan in the Division II tournament.
Troy Caldwell of Jonathan Alder maneuvers for position on his opponent during the Ohio High School state wrestling tournament at the Jerome Schottenstein Center at Ohio State University.(JIM RINALDI)
Kuhlwein trailed 1-0 for most of the match and was in serious danger of being knocked off in the first round. But he managed an escape with under :02 seconds remaining to tie the match 1-1.
He was then down again by a point in the second overtime session, but executed a later reversal and near fall and escaped with a 6-3 first-round win.
“That was awesome,” Kuhlwein said of the win. “It was there, he was high and I just grabbed his arm I ducked and rolled and caught him.
“I went two and out last year and learned a lot. (The experience of being at the state meet) gave me the determination this year.”
Kuhlwein also managed to earn a double overtime 2-1 victory over Washington Court House’s Hayden Bottorff Friday in the second round, earning him a spot in Friday night’s semifinals.
London’s Owen Shoemaker, a 160 pounder, fell in a 1-0 heartbreaker to L.J. Henderson of Indian Lake Thursday despite being near flawless in his match.
“It’s a little disappointing,” Red Raiders coach Dave Kennedy said. “He didn’t make a lot of mistakes, the only thing he gave up was an escape.
“The kid got on top and rode him pretty good. We had a couple chances to get him flipped and just couldn’t do it.”
Shoemaker, visibly upset, sat by himself just off the side of the competition mats for roughly 20 minutes after the match. When he returned to the mat later in the evening he earned a rewarding 15-4 major decision over Chris Wilson of Monroe.
Shoemaker picked up a 3-1 consolation round win Friday.
Alder teammate Troy Caldwell was unable to overcome a bloody nose that wouldn’t stop bleeding in his first round tilt and fell 7-5 to Sean Rutherford of Norton Thursday.
The unexpected nose bleed knocked the sophomore off his game.
“I don’t think I wrestled as good as I could,” Caldwell said. “It was hard to do anything because I was dazed a little bit. I kept getting hit in the head and my nose wouldn’t stop bleeding.”
With the bleeding under control Caldwell bounced back to earn a 6-1 victory over Lexington’s Bailey Faust a couple hours later.
West Jefferson’s Gennar Feucht (132) came into the D-III event sporting a stellar 46-0 record.
He didn’t waste any time improving on that mark as he topped Mogadore’s Justin Chew 5-2 Thursday and came back with a 5-3 win over Austin Laney of Hicksville to snag a spot in the 132-pound semifinals.
Madison-Plains Tim Violet couldn’t escape the grasp of Massillon Tuslaw’s Dylan Marthey and was pinned in 3:17 of his first match.
But instead of hanging his head, he responded with a 7-5 win over Troy Christian’s Chase Mayabb. His state run ended with a 15-0 tech fall loss in the consolation round Friday.
West Jeff’s Corey Ginn (215) won both of his matches to advance to the semifinal round. He topped Tyler Ash of Paulding 5-3 in the first round Thursday and followed it up with an impressive 9-2 defeat of Justin Post of Coldwater Friday.
Roughriders teammate Carter lost his first match 4-2 to Jacob Worthington of Lagrange Keystone, but earned a 9-3 win in the consolation round over Kevin Stock of Garrettsville Garfield. He advanced in the consolation round in a win by default.
The OHSAA state championship tournament was scheduled to continue Friday night and will also take place on Saturday. The finals for all divisions will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday evening.
