Three Northmor wrestlers place

Thanks to three state placers, the Northmor wrestling team flirted with a top-10 showing in the Division III state meet before finishing in a tie for 15th place with 35.5 points.

Bringing five performers to the Schottenstein Center at The Ohio State University, the Golden Knights got fourth-place finishes from junior Cowin Becker and sophomore Carson Campbell and an eighth-place spot on the podium from sophomore Ethen Amens.

With freshman Carter Thomas also winning a match and sophomore Brady Carr getting valuable state meet experience, head coach Scott Carr is excited about the potential of his athletes.

“We have one senior, but he wasn’t in our starting line-up,” said Carr. “One junior, three sophomores and a freshman down here. It’s exciting to see what these guys can do in the offseason. I always say nothing’s guaranteed. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to get out of the districts sometimes, let alone compete and get on the podium.”

Becker (52-3) was the only one of the five with experience reaching the podium previously. As a freshman, he placed seventh and moved up to sixth last year. Competing at 132 pounds, he got off to a great start, topping Austin Hamilton of Coldwater in dominating fashion. Becker took an 11-0 lead after two minutes of action and then added to that advantage to earn a 15-0 technical fall.

His quarterfinal bout was the opposite. In taking on Lane Thacker of Lakota, offense proved elusive to both wrestlers, with the only point scored coming on an escape by Becker that granted him a 1-0 decision.

In Saturday night’s quarterfinal bout, though, Becker would run into a buzzsaw in Legacy Christian’s Dillon Campbell, a senior who would secure his fourth state title in as many years on Sunday. Becker was the only one of Campbell’s four state opponents who would last the entire six minutes, but he would wind up on the wrong end of an 11-0 major decision to fall to the consolation semifinals.

There, he would have a rematch against his district finals opponent, Zane Pickerrell of Zane Trace. When they met the previous week, Becker had won by a 12-0 count. The match was closer on Sunday, but Becker still was able to top his opponent by a 4-0 score.

He would not be able to succeed in claiming third place, though. Joey Romano of Lake Catholic was able to prevent him from generating any offense other than one point off a penalty in topping the Northmor wrestler 4-1.

“It’s all heart,” Becker said about what it takes to place higher on the podium. “Once you’ve placed, it’s like every kid’s good. It feels good to climb the podium more, but I wish I could have got to third place. I’m a little salty about it still, but it’s still not the main goal. I’ve just got to keep pushing.”

Campbell (48-9) followed the same path to his fourth-place finish.

He opened the tournament with a first-period pin of Grant Bomer of Lakota. In the quarterfinals, he was in a tougher match with Jermaine Watson of Liberty. After taking a 5-0 lead in the first period, his lead steadily diminished until a third-period Watson takedown brought him within a 7-6 margin. However, Campbell would catch his opponent and pin him at the 4:38 mark to reach the semifinals.

There, he faced a defending state champion in Tristin Greene of Keystone and got knocked into the consolation bracket by an 11-1 margin. He was able to outlast Tristan McKibben of Rootstown to earn a 6-5 decision, but they was topped 10-3 by Marcus Medina of Milan Edison to finish fourth.

“He got a taste of it last year,” Carr said of Campbell. “He got quite a few more this year. We talked about seeing how high we can get. Once we get here, it’s great, but don’t be satisfied. See how high we can get. Fourth this year, the sky’s the limit next year.”

Campbell feels he needs to improve at controlling opponents to take that next step.

“Probably work on some more moves on top,” he said. “I just found my whole weekend pretty fun.”

After losing his first match to Xavier Pearson by a 7-3 count, Amens (40-12) earned an 8-4 win over Cameron Wagers of Plymouth to survive through Friday and make it to Saturday.

To earn a spot on the podium, he picked up a dramatic win over Tyler Barnes of Delta. After falling behind 7-0, he was able to catch his opponent and pin him to clinch a spot in the top eight. However, he would suffer a pair of losses in the consolation bracket — by pins to Tristen Rossiter of Shenandoah and Evan Natale of Sandy Valley — to finish in eighth.

Carr noted he was pleased with how each of his three placers were able to battle through nail-biters Saturday morning to earn their spots on the podium.

“We talk about that all time time through the season,” he said. “It’s not over until the whistle blows. You just empty the tank, you give it everything you’ve got and just keep plugging away. Sometimes you have to win the ugly ones, too; they can’t all be tech falls and pins. Three gut-checks there and we got them all done.”

At 106 pounds, Thomas (32-19) lost 6-0 to Owen Patchen of Monroeville in his first match, but battled back in the consolations to overcome of Trent Huber of Versailles by an 11-8 margin in overtime. However, he would then get pinned by Mason Hermes of Milan Edison to end his tournament.

Brady Carr (37-10), competing at 113 pounds, was topped 6-0 in his first match by Stephen Patterson of Waynedale. In his consolation bout, Carson Taylor of Covington earned a 5-0 decision over him.

Girls’ Division

Two Morrow County girls competed in the state meet, but would be unable to make it to the podium.

A year after placing eighth at the Schott, Cardington junior Cameron Sherman (23-7) was topped twice at 170 pounds. Lori Grimes of Marysville pinned her at the 5:11 mark of her opening match. Then, in the consolation round, she was pinned again by Paris Willis of Lutheran West.

At 190 pounds, sophomore Emma Bolton (29-14) of Highland also suffered a pair of losses via pin. Zayna Muntaser of Lakewood overcame an early Bolton takedown to earn a pin at the 3:53 mark. Bolton then fell to Keyonna Vann in 4:34 to end her season.

Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS