ASHLAND, Ohio — Ashland senior Sid Ohl and his classmates weren’t about to let history repeat itself.
The top-seeded Arrows advanced to the Divison II, Region 13 semifinals of the the dual team state tournament with a pair of resounding victories Wednesday at Arrow Arena. Ashland roughed up No. 8 River View 60-17 before knocking off No. 4 Madison 66-9.
Ashland’s last home meet ended with an unexpected loss to Findlay on Senior Night last week.
“Last week was a silver lining loss,” Ashland coach Sean Seder said. “We didn’t take Findlay seriously and we came out and got beat at home.
“We definitely wanted to reclaim our territory.”
The veteran Arrows didn’t waste any time in taking control against No. 4 Madison, which advanced with a 42-24 win over No. 5 John Glenn in its first match. Austin McNamara (106 pounds), Kenith Respuesto (113), Cohen Robinson (120), Matthew Taylor (126) and Jake Visintin (132) all recorded pins as Ashland opened a 30-0 lead.
“Ashland has a good tournament team and a good dual meet team,” Madison coach Doug Mosier said. “They can score points anywhere.”
Making matters worse for the Rams, 106-pounder Adam Cook and 138-pounder Carson Speelman, the MVP at the Gorman Invitational earlier this month, were sidelined. LeConte Merrell, Madison’s regular 132-pounder, moved up to 138 and edged Landon Plank 4-2.
“We’ve got nine freshman and I think we used eight of them tonight,” Mosier said. “A lot of good things came out of this for our younger kids on the mat.”
Ashland got pins from Brady Gault-Saffle at 145 and Ohl at 152 before Gage Adkins edged Madison’s Hunter Borden 6-4 in overtime at 160. Madison’s David Gilbert won by injury default at 170. The Arrows closed it out with a pin by Devin Goschinski at 182, a 9-2 win by Brycen Light at 195 and a pin by Tyler Newlan at 285.
“Our upperclassmen who … had chances to pin but were letting kids back up to get more takedowns, we got out of that mindset,” Seder said. “If we can pin them, we’re going to pin them.”
Ashland was again without 113-pounder Clay Eagle and 145-pounder Rickey Maffett. Eagle is out for the year, but Maffett could be back within a few weeks. Both were state-ranked.
“We’ve got three freshmen thrown in the lineup because of that and another back-up thrown in,” Seder said. “At some point you think their inexperience is going to catch up with them. They just keep fighting.”
Ashland will host the four-team regional semifinals on Feb. 1. The Arrows will face West Holmes with the winner taking on either Fairfield Union or New Lexington for a berth in the eight-team state quarterfinals.
“The state duals, that’s a team thing for us,” Seder said. “Right now it’s team season and they’re bought in. We tell them … it’s we before me.”
