For those interested - and because I would love to see UT get wrestling back - the NW Ohio wrestling in HS has seen a bit of a comeback.

Clay just had the most exciting state dual match in Ohio HS history - against Perrysburg - mainly because it is only the second year the state duals have been in existence. Clay won 31-30 with the last point decided on criteria (2 pins and 1 forfeit vs. 2 pins for P'burg). Clay then beat Elyria 36-30 to advance to Columbus. There they will meet 28 time state champion and perennial national powerhouse - Lakewood St. Edwards.

If ever there was a time to bump off a national powerhouse - this is the year. St. Ed's is seeded #4 and Clay is #5 out of the 8 teams making the trip to C'bus.

Meantime - Delta is favored to win the state title in D-3 and Toledo Central Catholic has a great shot to do well in D-2, but has no chance of bumping off St. Paris Graham for the team title.

If Clay, P'burg, Delta, and TCC had one team that could recruit like St. Eds does - they would win something like 36-18.

UT needs to make wrestling a varsity sport again. I look at the success that Central Michigan and Kent State has had - and wonder why we dropped the sport. We could have national champions at UT. We've had them before.

(01-31-2014 09:33 PM)MotoRocket Wrote:  For those interested - and because I would love to see UT get wrestling back - the NW Ohio wrestling in HS has seen a bit of a comeback.

Clay just had the most exciting state dual match in Ohio HS history - against Perrysburg - mainly because it is only the second year the state duals have been in existence. Clay won 31-30 with the last point decided on criteria (2 pins and 1 forfeit vs. 2 pins for P'burg). Clay then beat Elyria 36-30 to advance to Columbus. There they will meet 28 time state champion and perennial national powerhouse - Lakewood St. Edwards.

If ever there was a time to bump off a national powerhouse - this is the year. St. Ed's is seeded #4 and Clay is #5 out of the 8 teams making the trip to C'bus.

Meantime - Delta is favored to win the state title in D-3 and Toledo Central Catholic has a great shot to do well in D-2, but has no chance of bumping off St. Paris Graham for the team title.

If Clay, P'burg, Delta, and TCC had one team that could recruit like St. Eds does - they would win something like 36-18.

UT needs to make wrestling a varsity sport again. I look at the success that Central Michigan and Kent State has had - and wonder why we dropped the sport. We could have national champions at UT. We've had them before.

You are so right Moto. With the talent provided by Ohio alone, let alone NW Ohio, in wrestling, UT could have fielded a great , competitive, cost effective program.
Big mistake by UT.
An example of a Title 9 miscalculation.
Do not mess with past success.
Time to get this program back up and running.

To put it in perspective - Pennsylvania is widely regarded as the #1 HS wrestling state in the country. Next is often considered to be California - primarily because of the relative size and population of the state and the HS ranking publications. Even though there are a lot of great individual HS wrestlers in California - most have not had much success in converting those HS rankings to success at the NCAA level.

Ohio is widely regarded as the #2 ranked state in terms of HS wrestling talent by most publications that are close to the sport (Intermat in particular). Every year at the NCAA champions, the All-Americans (top 8 spots) are dominated by Pennsylvania and Ohio HS talent. We need to exploit the talent pool out there and move Toledo into the national spotlight. BRING BACK WRESTLING.

Isn't there another thread that was made before this about this topic? Might be nice to keep it all on one thread as the tournament goes along to post updates. A lot of locals could do very well this year. As will some of the local teams.

Probably right about combining threads - but I will just continue to update here.

Just checked the OHSAA seedings and this is what it shows for NW Ohio

D1 - Oregon Clay #5 seed (P'burg may have actually been the #4 seed if they had won against Clay)
D2 - Toledo Central Catholic - #4 seed
D3 - Delta - #1 seed

That is pretty solid. It indicates that NW Ohio wrestling is now at the forefront of the 2nd best state in terms of wrestling talent. UT - you paying attention???

The other thing worth mentioning - the top ranked wrestlers are often highly ranked students as well. It is the closest thing to being at a military academy in HS that there is.

As Dan Gable once said "Once you have wrestled, everything else in life is easy..."

There are some other Gable quotes that are dead on: The first period is won by the best technician, the second period is won by the kid in the best shape, the third period is won by the kid with the biggest heart.."

Quick update:

Nice showing by NW Ohio teams at the District championships. P'Burg and Clay finish 3rd and 5th in Cleveland D-I, Toledo Central Catholic wins D-II at BG District and Delta runs away with title at BG District in D-III. And BG does not have wrestling either. But they host 2 classes of wrestling in D-II and D-III. Maybe they are thinking of bringing it back....

On to the state tournament next weekend. Matt Stencil (soph) from Clay wins the District title at 182 with convincing wins over the field including Lakewood St. Eds kid in finals. Went down 4-0 then stormed back to win 8-6 - and it was not really that close after giving up the early 4 on an ill-advised takedown shot where he got taken down instead and put to his back for a 2-count. Looked several times like he was going to get the pin on St. Eds. Just lost to the same kid 3 weeks ago by a 3-1 score. Rocco Caywood who was ranked #1 in this weight class struggled again at District but still finished 3rd. He lost to the St. Eds kid in the semis.

JP Newton from Perrysburg wins the District title convincingly at 152. Pinned his opponent in the final and was up 12-2 before the pin. He is ranked #1 in the state in D-I and has a schollie for OSU.

UT needs to bring back wrestling.

(02-23-2014 08:44 AM)MotoRocket Wrote:  Quick update:

Nice showing by NW Ohio teams at the District championships. P'Burg and Clay finish 3rd and 5th in Cleveland D-I, Toledo Central Catholic wins D-II at BG District and Delta runs away with title at BG District in D-III. And BG does not have wrestling either. But they host 2 classes of wrestling in D-II and D-III. Maybe they are thinking of bringing it back....

On to the state tournament next weekend. Matt Stencil (soph) from Clay wins the District title at 182 with convincing wins over the field including Lakewood St. Eds kid in finals. Went down 4-0 then stormed back to win 8-6 - and it was not really that close after giving up the early 4 on an ill-advised takedown shot where he got taken down instead and put to his back for a 2-count. Looked several times like he was going to get the pin on St. Eds. Just lost to the same kid 3 weeks ago by a 3-1 score. Rocco Caywood who was ranked #1 in this weight class struggled again at District but still finished 3rd. He lost to the St. Eds kid in the semis.

JP Newton from Perrysburg wins the District title convincingly at 152. Pinned his opponent in the final and was up 12-2 before the pin. He is ranked #1 in the state in D-I and has a schollie for OSU.

UT needs to bring back wrestling.

BG will never bring back wrestling because they have an expensive hockey program to run.

UT could bring back wrestling, but would would also have to add a program like women's rowing that wouldn't be too expensive. The school would also have to build a training facility for wrestling. You could knock out part of the north wall at Savage and add 3,000 seats on the upper level, like the east side, to get over 10,000. On the lower level of the new bump-out you could have a wrestling facility.

Of course, with fewer HS graduates in Ohio every year, adding any sports would be problematic.

Congratulations to Central Catholic on advancing a city of Toledo record 9 wrestlers to states! Yes, that really says 9!

(02-23-2014 11:20 AM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  Congratulations to Central Catholic on advancing a city of Toledo record 9 wrestlers to states! Yes, that really says 9!

Not bashing TCC - but that record is not what it would appear to be at first glance. Most of the Toledo schools (not sure how they have drawn that "boundary") have always competed at AAA or D-1. It was also accomplished at a pretty weak D-II district at BG.

I was much more impressed with Perrysburg getting 8 out of the Cleveland State district where 6 of the top 12 Div I schools in Ohio were competing at that district (Brecksville, Elyria, Wadsworth, P'Burg, Clay and St. Eds) You get 8 wrestlers through that meat grinder and you've accomplished a helluva lot. A good gauge of the difference in competition is that Clay beats TCC at the TRAC championship (let's call them even) but finishes a distant 5th at the CSU district while TCC almost doubles up on the 2nd place team while winning the district title at BG. I would think that TCC would only qualify 3 - maybe 4 out of Cleveland State - Venia doesn't make it out, nor does Beltran, Fisher, Norwood, Beauch, or Jackson. Mossing, Mossing and Hagan get through -with only Alex Mossing competing in the finals for a district title. No need to go into the school districts and number of males, etc. There is no correct answer on that argument that has gone on for decades.

TCC has a solid team and should do well in Columbus. Meanwhile, Clay will struggle to make it on the leader board as being in the top 10 in D-1. Hoping they get 4 place finishers out of the 5 going to state. One has a solid chance of getting into the finals and going for that 1st individual state title for Clay.

(02-25-2014 09:48 PM)MotoRocket Wrote:  

(02-23-2014 11:20 AM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  Congratulations to Central Catholic on advancing a city of Toledo record 9 wrestlers to states! Yes, that really says 9!

Not bashing TCC - but that record is not what it would appear to be at first glance. Most of the Toledo schools (not sure how they have drawn that "boundary") have always competed at AAA or D-1. It was also accomplished at a pretty weak D-II district at BG.

I was much more impressed with Perrysburg getting 8 out of the Cleveland State district where 6 of the top 12 Div I schools in Ohio were competing at that district (Brecksville, Elyria, Wadsworth, P'Burg, Clay and St. Eds) You get 8 wrestlers through that meat grinder and you've accomplished a helluva lot. A good gauge of the difference in competition is that Clay beats TCC at the TRAC championship (let's call them even) but finishes a distant 5th at the CSU district while TCC almost doubles up on the 2nd place team while winning the district title at BG. I would think that TCC would only qualify 3 - maybe 4 out of Cleveland State - Venia doesn't make it out, nor does Beltran, Fisher, Norwood, Beauch, or Jackson. Mossing, Mossing and Hagan get through -with only Alex Mossing competing in the finals for a district title. No need to go into the school districts and number of males, etc. There is no correct answer on that argument that has gone on for decades.

TCC has a solid team and should do well in Columbus. Meanwhile, Clay will struggle to make it on the leader board as being in the top 10 in D-1. Hoping they get 4 place finishers out of the 5 going to state. One has a solid chance of getting into the finals and going for that 1st individual state title for Clay.

DII is the hardest division to win a state title in. Why? St. Paris Graham, I'm sure you've heard of them. They have won 13 consecutive DII state championships and are ranked in the top 5 nationally. Central Catholic faced in them in the duals state semi finals and competed very well with them. Graham ended up winning 42-25, but the head-to-head record was 7-7. Graham just scored more points in their 7 victories. Ever since that match, the Irish wrestlers have really been on a roll. I look for a top 3 finish at states this weekend, if all goes well.

Good luck to all area wrestlers. Hope everyone can get on that podium.

(02-27-2014 10:20 AM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  

(02-25-2014 09:48 PM)MotoRocket Wrote:  

(02-23-2014 11:20 AM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  Congratulations to Central Catholic on advancing a city of Toledo record 9 wrestlers to states! Yes, that really says 9!

Not bashing TCC - but that record is not what it would appear to be at first glance. Most of the Toledo schools (not sure how they have drawn that "boundary") have always competed at AAA or D-1. It was also accomplished at a pretty weak D-II district at BG.

I was much more impressed with Perrysburg getting 8 out of the Cleveland State district where 6 of the top 12 Div I schools in Ohio were competing at that district (Brecksville, Elyria, Wadsworth, P'Burg, Clay and St. Eds) You get 8 wrestlers through that meat grinder and you've accomplished a helluva lot. A good gauge of the difference in competition is that Clay beats TCC at the TRAC championship (let's call them even) but finishes a distant 5th at the CSU district while TCC almost doubles up on the 2nd place team while winning the district title at BG. I would think that TCC would only qualify 3 - maybe 4 out of Cleveland State - Venia doesn't make it out, nor does Beltran, Fisher, Norwood, Beauch, or Jackson. Mossing, Mossing and Hagan get through -with only Alex Mossing competing in the finals for a district title. No need to go into the school districts and number of males, etc. There is no correct answer on that argument that has gone on for decades.

TCC has a solid team and should do well in Columbus. Meanwhile, Clay will struggle to make it on the leader board as being in the top 10 in D-1. Hoping they get 4 place finishers out of the 5 going to state. One has a solid chance of getting into the finals and going for that 1st individual state title for Clay.

DII is the hardest division to win a state title in. Why? St. Paris Graham, I'm sure you've heard of them. They have won 13 consecutive DII state championships and are ranked in the top 5 nationally. Central Catholic faced in them in the duals state semi finals and competed very well with them. Graham ended up winning 42-25, but the head-to-head record was 7-7. Graham just scored more points in their 7 victories. Ever since that match, the Irish wrestlers have really been on a roll. I look for a top 3 finish at states this weekend, if all goes well.

Good luck to all area wrestlers. Hope everyone can get on that podium.

I've heard that argument a number of times, but I don't agree with it. Lakewood St. Ed's is traditionally more dominant than Graham and they are usually strong at every weight. Graham rarely competes well above 170 - with a few exceptions. There are plenty of examples of D-2 "studs" going to ironman and not placing, then winning or becoming a finalist at state. I suppose being more difficult to win in D2 is not the same as saying they are better wrestlers than in D1. Myself, I would prefer having easier matches leading to the finals than to have battles in each round because of the depth of the competition. D-2 has fewer kids overall to pick from as well. Then again there are the Monroeville Mutants.

In Division II, Toledo Central Catholic sits in 3rd place. St. Paris Graham is in first. CCHS has 3 state finalists.

In Division I, Clay sits in 4th place with Perrysburg right behind them at 5th.

Started a new thread about the same time you were posting this. Great night of wrestling for Toledo.

Would love to see all the TCC guys and both Clay guys take home championships. All of them are wrestling very well right now. Peaking at the right time is vitally important in this sport, and both teams have coaches that understand how to do that.