PLYMOUTH — The Northern 10 Athletic Conference was well represented at the Division III sectional wrestling tournament here on Saturday. Seneca East led the way with two champions, Hunter Lacy at 106 pounds and sophomore Nathan Parks at 120 pounds.
The top four in each weight class advance to the district tournament next week at Rossford High School. Seneca East will send six wrestlers.
“We were hoping for at least four or five to make it,” Tigers head coach Tommy Gayheart said. “Lacy is a projected champion this year. Hunter is our senior and we’re hoping for great things from Nathan.”
Parks (37-4) was third in the district and sixth at state a year ago. Lacy remains unbeaten at 30-0.
“We’re young, with a lot of sophomores. It should be good next year with seven sophomores and a good freshman class coming in,” Gayheart said.
Bryant Pfeifer, Bucyrus’ 215-pounder, took second in a tough bout against Jacob Thompson of Milan Edison, falling 4-3. He holds a 43-5 mark after placing third at 220 last season.
Lacy used an escape and got the 3-2 ultimate tiebreaker against Casper Caizzo (Norwalk St. Paul).
“I just kind of went into it thinking it’s been a long year. I’ve never won the sectional tournament,” he said. “The best I ever got here was third.”
Lacy picked up his 100th career win.
“I’ve been around all four years but half the season I was out and half of last season, a lot of matches I missed out on. I wrestled, I’d say, conservative mainly because I have to see these guys again next week and then again at state,” Lacy said.
The Tigers program has grown in recent years.
“From our freshman year coming out we had like five guys, total. Our 150-pounder (Luke Bischoff) has been with me all four years. I mean, if you went into a practice four years ago and went now, you’d go, ‘Oh my goodness, this room is 10 times different,'” he said.
Bischoff took third place with a 3-1 decision and also advanced.
Parks overcame an early season injury and stayed in shape, he said.
“I hope I can do good at districts. Knowing there are other people better out there makes you want to try harder.”
Bucyrus head coach Shane Kokensparger was pleased with his squad’s showing.
“We knew Edison was going to be tough. We had seven in the semi-finals and only came out with one winner.”
Pfeifer avenged a loss against Crestview’s Caleb Cunningham scoring a 1-0 decision.
At 104, Max Hermes of Edison pinned Bucyrus’ Kiyran Kershner in 1:04.
“He’s number one in the nation. But Kiyran came back and got fourth,” Kokensparger said.
Sophomore Sawyer Cooper “surprised a bunch of people … He has the heart of a lion.”
Cooper lost both his parents recently.
“Tough kid. Mentally tough kid. When you find a positive in something. That’s what he does every day.”
Kokensparger’s philosophy is that every kid is 0-0 entering a tournament.
“Dalton Barker at 126 had a tough semi-final match. Very close match till the end,” he said.
Barker, a junior, lost via pin at 4:30 to Plymouth’s Andrew Miller.
Mason Gebhardt (132) has only been wrestling for six weeks and finished sixth.
Cody Zurfluh (144) fell behind 3-0 and lost in the first round but came back to take fifth with default over New London’s Carter Downs.
“I like where we’ve come since the beginning of the year,” Kokensparger said.
The Redmen will return all but two wrestlers next year, losing Pfeifer and Isaac Banks (165).
“The kids have to put in the work in the summer,” Kokensparger said. “We have open mats two to three days a week with our assistant coaches. We want all the wrestlers to play football. We’re going to have a couple of camps. We’re going to give all the kids an opportunity and they have to take advantage of it.”
Sectional Tournament: Division III
Plymouth High School
Feb. 26
Team Score
- Monroeville 193.5
- Mil. Edison 187.5
- Plymouth 143.0
- Mohawk 142.5
- Ash. Crestview 125.0
- Seneca East 116.5
- St. Paul 116.0
- Bucyrus 104.0
- Willard 60.5
- Lucas 41.0
- New London 39.0
- South Central 34.0
- Western Reserve 30.0
- Buckeye Central 26.0
First Place
106 Hunter Lacy (Seneca East) dec. Casper Caizzo (St. Paul) 3-2 UTB
113 Max Hermes (Mil. Edison) pin Nick Roberts (Plymouth) 2:43
120 Nathan Parks (Seneca East) pin Markell Mitchell (New London) 5:06
126 Connor Robbins (Willard) pin Andrew Miller (Plymouth) 3:45
132 Alec Homan (Monroeville) dec. Hayden Kuhn (Ash. Crestview) 1-0
138 Ashton Homan (Monroeville) dec. Aiden Naseman (St. Paul) 6-1
144 Hunter Vogus (Monroeville) dec. Jace Margraf (Mohawk) 5-2
150 Will Stieber (St. Paul) Default Duke Hermes (Mil. Edison) Default
157 Remington Bauer (Mil. Edison) dec. Kael Margraf (Mohawk) 8-2
165 Shadrick Slone (Willard) tech. fall Connor Morse (Ash. Crestview) tf 15-0
175 Colton Sparks (Plymouth) pin Tristan Nickoli (St. Paul) 1:19
190 Logan Lloyd (Mil. Edison) pin Gabe Cox (Plymouth) 0:58
215 Jacob Thompson (Mil. Edison) dec. Bryant Pfeifer (Bucyrus) 4-3
285 Jackson Berardi (Mil. Edison) pin Dominic Hemmer (Seneca East) 1:30
Third Place
106 Abe Hermes (Mil. Edison) dec. Cameron Wagers (Plymouth) 13-6
113 Diton Farnsworth (South Central) pin Kiyran Kershner (Bucyrus) 2:11
120 Andrew Mitchell (Ash. Crestview) pin Sawyer Cooper (Bucyrus) 1:44
126 Dalton Barker (Bucyrus) dec. Mickolas Takacs (Monroeville) 6-4
132 Harley Stoll (St. Paul) maj. dec. Wyatt Harrison (New London) md 15-4
138 Owen England (Mohawk) dec. Will Bischoff (Seneca East) 8-3
144 Walker Cisco (Mil. Edison) maj. dec. Zach Miller (Plymouth) md 13-5
150 Luke Bischoff (Seneca East) dec. Ian Patchen (Monroeville) 3-1
157 Brencyn Evans (Monroeville) pin John Vetter (Lucas) 1:58
165 Blake Martin (Seneca East) dec. Trevor Johnson (Mohawk) 4-0
175 Ryan Emshoff (Mohawk) pin Duncan Steward (Monroeville) 0:57
190 Braylan Mulholland (Mohawk) tech. fall Kaiden Vaughn (B. Central) tf 17-2
215 Zane Finley (Lucas) def. Caleb Cunningham (Ash. Crestview) Default
285 Mitch Cline (Ash. Crestview) pin Peyton Barnhart (Monroeville) 1:20
Fifth Place
106 Braden Barman (Monroeville) maj. dec. Ryan Holloway (Crestview) md 8-0
113 Niko Cuturic (St. Paul) pin Cameron Blasetzky (Monroeville) 2:50
120 Quentin Cox (Mil. Edison) dec. Brody Mcgee (Monroeville) 9-2
126 Nolan Moore (Crestview) pin Dominic Allgyre (Buckeye Central) 1:51
132 Morrison Dauch-Munroe (West. Reserve) pin Mason Gebhardt (Bucyrus) 3:28
138 Grant Dowell (Bucyrus) pin Cayle Pope (Plymouth) 1:22
144 Cody Zurfluh (Bucyrus) def. Carter Downs (New London) Default
150 Evan England (Mohawk) def. Shae Sparks (Plymouth) Default
157 Jacob Robinson (Plymouth) pin Clete Rogers (Ash. Crestview) 1:58
165 Brandon Smith (South Central) pin Landin Hershiser (Monroeville) 0:41
175 Austin Rosemark (Coll Western Reserve) pin Carson Cinniger (Willard) 1:43
190 Levi Beard (Monroeville) tech. fall Owen Hamilton (Ash. Crestview) tf 18-2
215 Coby Butler (Mohawk) pin Preston Ehrnsberger (Coll Western Reserve) 0:51
285 Nate Zehring (Bucyrus) pin Noah Robinson (Plymouth) 2:49