The second annual Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association’s girls state wrestling championships kick off Saturday at Hilliard Davidson High School near Columbus.
Last year’s inaugural event was a major success, with the top six wrestlers in all 14 weight classes earning a spot on the podium.
This year, there was enough interest generated that required four district tournaments to determine who advanced to the state finale.
As the #SanctionOH push is on to convince the OHSAA to officially sanction girls’ wrestling as an official state sport, the increase in interest, with or without COVID, is huge for the overall effort.
Speaking of COVID, in effort to limit the number of participants and spectators at the state championships matches, the event was split into two days.
Young ladies in the 101 through 131 weight classes will wrestle on Saturday, with 137 through 235 set to go on Sunday.
Weigh-ins take place at 9 a.m. with wrestling to get under way at 11 a.m. each day.
OVAC Competitors in the Hunt
Locally, Warren’s then freshman Hayley Snyder won the first state championship with an 8-1 decision against Elyria’s Riley Banyas in the 101-pound class.
Snyder is back to defend her crown. She will be joined in Hilliard by teammates Karlee Duffey and Kylee Tait.
Duffey finished fourth at 131, losing by pinfall to Delaware Hayes’ Aubrey Griner in the third four-place match while Tait pinned Trimble’s Kaylee Toner in 2:21 to finish third in the 137 class.
The top four placers at each weight class advance to the championship meet, with the winner of the fifth sixth-place match to serve as the alternate.
As a team, the Warriors finished fourth with 57.5 points, 1.5 behind third-place Bishop Watterson. Olentangy Orange won the district team championship, as its full roster of wrestlers compiled 258.5 points.
Shenandoah finished fifth with 47 points in the school’s first season fielding a girls’ wrestling team.
The Zeps took four wrestlers to the district meet at Lewis Center, and all four placed.
“What a day. I couldn’t be prouder,” Shenandoah head coach Jesse Wells said. “We placed fifth as a team with only four girls. All four places.”
As of now, only one Zeps’ wrestler is heading to Hilliard—Laney Hitchens in the 143 class.
Hitchens had a difficult path to the finals, but came up big before falling to Bishop Watterson’s Lily Grayem by fall at 3:45 in the championship finale.
“She pinned the No. 1 seed in the quarters and the No. 4 seed in the semis,” Wells said. “She punched her ticket.”
Kyra Kunkle finished six at 101, Makenna Clift finished fifth at 106, and Grace Wikander also came in fifth at 116.
John Glenn’s Courtney Bichard won third place at 106 with an injury default against Meagan Justice of Watkins Memorial. If for some reason Justice is unable to go this weekend, Clift will take her place as she’s the alternate.
The district was a great cap for the team as a whole in its first season, especially given none of the four Zeps’ wrestlers started wrestling prior to December.
“We really didn’t know what to expect,” Wells said. “We went up to Olentangy earlier in the season for a quad, and we wanted to expose ourselves to what that level of wrestling looked like.
“We left happy to win two matches the whole day and then, a month later, to have the type of showing we did at the districts was pretty awesome.
“The girls had a great attitude and have shown a ton of improvement.”
Two other OVAC-based wrestlers placed in the district tournament. River’s Alexus Felton finished sixth at 160, losing by pinfall to Hamilton Township’s Olivia Yocum.
In the Northeast District, Dover’s Payton Curley won the 189-pound class with a pin of Alliance’s Kayley Ross in the finals.
