This past weekend 4 Paulding County wrestlers competed in the 20th Annual OAC State Wrestling Tournament. First on the mat to get the weekend started was Eli Reinhart from Antwerp Wrestling in the 84 lb. weight class. Eli came out of the gates with a bang defeating Dominic Artman by decision 5-2. However, in the second round Reinhart fell short losing to Owen Nelson 0-7. In-order to stay alive to make it to day two, Reinhart needed to pull out another victory. Eli did just that not accepting that his journey at state would be over. It was a hard-fought match with a win over Kaidin Walls 9-8. With that victory Reinhart was guaranteed a spot-on Sunday. Next up on the mats was Jarrett Hornish from Wayne Trace Wrestling in the 90 lb. weight class. Hornish received a bye in the first round since he was a runner up at Districts. Following the bye Hornish needed to win the next match to advance to day 2, he did just that by defeating Alexander Crane 7-4. Next up was Hunter Long from Wayne Trace Wrestling in the 114 lb. weight class. Long also received a bye in the first round due to being crowned the district champion. Following his bye Long had Chase Abul whom he handled with ease pinning him with a time of 2:19. To round out Saturday was Ty Tinlin also from Wayne Trace Wrestling in the 209 lb. weight class. Round one Tinlin pinned Gabe Maxwell in a time of 3:45. Looking for another win to advance to day two, unfortunately Tinlin fell short and was defeated by Mason Mustain 0-13. Tinlin then knew he must win the next match or his state journey would end. iInlin was now in the consolation bracket but dominated Matthew Michael pinning him in :44 seconds. This win advanced Tinlin to the second day. Finishing out the first day of the tournament all 4 County wrestlers would advance to onto day two.
Starting out Sunday, day two of the State Tournament in the consolation bracket, first on the mat was Reinhart. Reinhart fell short in his opening match losing 0-3 to Brian Crevar ending his state run. Moving on to Tinlin also in the consolation bracket. Tinlin started out his day on a roll with a 3-match winning streak. Defeating Evan Hart pinning him in :34 seconds, then pinning Austin Grate in a time of :22 seconds, finishing off pinning Elijah Williams in :33 seconds. After this win streak Tinlin found himself in what is commonly known as the blood round in the wresting world, meaning if you can win in this round you find yourself on the podium. Sadly, Tinlin couldn’t clinch that final victory to reach the podium. Losing to Austin Kohlhofer 1-9. Although Tinlin was short of the podium his performance left him in the top 12 in the state.
Moving into day 2 of the championship bracket Hornish started off the day with a pin of 3:48 seconds defeating Ryan Cadnum moving him into the quarter finals. In the quarter finals Hornish faced Logan Cravatas knowing a win would guarantee him a spot on the podium. Hornish lost a highly competitive match by a final score of 7-11. Sending him into the blood round of the consolations, win takes you to the podium losing sends you home. Hornish’s goal at the beginning of this season was to finish on the podium at the State Tournament. Hornish would face Donovan Paes, Hornish wrestled with pure heart and was victories over Paes 8-5. This win secured a place for Hornish on the podium. Hornish falls short in the next match 1-7 to Dominic Hoffarth, moving him into the finals to wrestle for 7th and 8th place match. Unfortunatly Hornish’s opponent was unable to make weight at the final weigh out, requiring him to forfeit the match giving Hornish the win and a 7th place finish at the State Tournament.
Long started day 2 in the championship bracket with a goal of making it to the finals. Long started out great, dominating his first opponent Kaedyn Mcallister with a win by tech fall a score of 15-3. Long was now in the quarter finals where he continued his winning streak by pinning Branton Dawes in a time of 2:06 putting Long in the semi finals and securing his podium spot. In his semi final match Long came up short in a highly contested bout, losing to Pierce Taylor, the eventual state champ, 2-5. This put Long in the semi-final consolation bracket, with a chance to move on into the 3rd and 4th place match. Long started the match off good, leading 3-0 but his opponent Carter Neeves tied up the match sending it into overtime. Neither wrester was able to score in the 1-minute overtime period, sending it into sudden victory where Long was unable to earn an escape resulting in Neeves earning a point for the ride out wining the match 4-3. This lose moved Long into the 5th and 6th place match in the finals. Long was out scored in the finals 0-7 by Domanick Speelman resulting in a 6th place state finish for Long.
With Long and Hornish finishing 6th and 7th respectfully, they became the first Junior High State Placers in school history for Wayne Trace. Another amazing accomplishment is the fact that with only 3 wrestlers, Wayne Trace was able to finish 27th in team score out of a total of 361 teams that had wrestlers competing this weekend. With these accomplishments it looks like Wayne Trace Wrestling may have a bright future.
