Highland freshman Cael Gilmore took eighth place to reach the podium at the state wrestling meet.
Rob Hamilton | Morrow County Sentinel
Competing as a freshman in the Division II state wrestling meet, Highland’s Cael Gilmore was able to reach the podium.
Gilmore took eighth place in the 138-pound weight class over the weekend at The Ohio State University’s Jerome Schottenstein Center to finish his first year of high school wrestling with a 47-9 record.
His final opponent of the weekend was a familiar one in Braden Dunlap of Akron SVSM. In the first round of the tournament on Friday, Gilmore led 2-0 over Dunlap after the first period, but was then put on his back and pinned at the 2:33 mark.
After fighting through the consolation bracket to earn a spot of the podium, he faced Dunlap against to battle for seventh and eighth place.
This time, an early Dunlap takedown was the only offense through two periods, but Gilmore was able to get an escape and takedown to lead 3-2. However, he was called for a stalling point and his opponent would then get a reversal to turn that one-point lead into a 5-3 loss.
“He didn’t not wrestle,” said head coach Adam Gilmore. “He wrestled hard. Kind of a questionable call (the stall), but I guess that’s how it goes sometimes. He was winning against that kid in the first round and got caught. He sees him again and wrestles him hard. He was winning; we’re there, right? Not how he wanted to end his freshman year, but definitely, we’re moving in the right direction.”
After Gilmore lost in the first round, he had to win two straight matches to earn a spot on the podium. He was able to succeed in that, but not without some drama.
In his first consolation match, against Loudon Dixon of West Holmes, he won 1-0 with the only point being scored on a Gilmore escape in the second period. He would have another close battle against Clyde’s C.J. Fisher in the go-to-place match.
The two grapplers fought to a stand-still over the first two period, with the score tied 2-2 after the first and 6-6 after the second. However, Gilmore would get an escape to take a 7-6 lead and then tallied a takedown to earn the win.
Adam Gilmore noted that the state meet is an unpredictable thing where wrestlers have to be aware that anything can happen.
“This tournament can be bonkers,” he said. “You’ve got matches that happened last week that went one way — they go the other way this week. You’ve got to be ready to wrestle every match, every session. Every day’s a new day and you see a kid on his game one day and the next day, it’s completely different. He did a good job of coming out to wrestle. He recovered from the first loss on day one and came out here on day two and got the win.”
Gilmore would lose by major decision to Cooper Rathburn of Hartley in his next match, which placed him in the bout for seventh and eighth place.
He’ll be back next year for Gilmore’s team, as will state qualifier Konner Blaney, who went 1-2 at 106 pounds to finish his year with a 39-15 record.
Blaney opened the tournament with a first-round win over Owen Nelson of CVCA. In the first period, he came back from a 2-1 deficit with a head-and-arm takedown that led to two sets of back points to give him a 7-2 advantage. From there, he would not be threatened in winning 10-4.
His next match was a far tougher one as state runner-up Ethan Burkhart of New Lexington topped him by a 13-2 major decision. He then lost by technical fall against Jake Landis of Graham Local to see his tournament end.
Senior Caleb Wetzel (46-8) also went 1-2 while competing at 132 pounds. He opened his Friday with a hard-fought win over Hunter McCluggage of West Holmes. In the match, he trailed 5-3 in the third period, but got a reversal to sent it to overtime, where he would record a takedown to advance to the quarterfinals.
Saturday would not work out as well for the Scot wrestler, though. Eventual state champion Brogan Tucker of Graham Local built a big lead before pinning him at the 2:48 mark of his quarterfinal match and he would then get outscored 9-1 by James Lindsay of Watterson in his consolation match.
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
