MANSFIELD –Ashland’s Sean Seder barely had to move out of his coaching chair Saturday during the finals of the Ohio Cardinal Conference wrestling tournament.
With 12 of his wrestlers battling for titles, the chair — and the tournament — again belonged to the Seder and his Arrows.
Ashland dominated the seven team field, winning six individual titles, to claim its third consecutive OCC championship.
The youthful Arrows wrestled away and hid from the rest of the pack, scoring 235.5 points. West Holmes was a distant second with 137 and Mount Vernon was third with 132.5.
Rounding out the field were Madison (129), Lexington (108), Mansfield Senior (81) and Wooster (62).
Seder, selected the conference Coach of the Year, compared the three straight titles his Arrows have earned.
“The first one was special because we hadn’t done it in 10 years or however long it had been. The second one was great to repeat and there were some really tough kids,” Seder said.
“Coming into today, we were the favorite and I am glad the kids were able to take care of business and get it done. 12 out of 13 wrestlers going for first or second is pretty good. I can’t complain about that,” Seder said.
“I think we could have won one or two more of those finals matches. I think we went 6-6. But anytime you can do that, you’re always happy,” Seder said.
FINAL MATCH EXCITEMENT: The final match of the day was perhaps the most exciting with Lexington senior Ambrose Adams coming back to defeat Ashland freshman Jake Beaver, 8-6, in overtime at 285 pounds.
Adams (37-3) gave Lexington its only individual title, earning the takedown in the extra period to finally subdue Beaver (20-9), who wrestled with a huge brace on his left arm.
“(Beaver) tweaked his elbow pretty good earlier in the season,” Seder said. “He has got that brace and he is still learning to wrestle with it. I think it’s something he should be able to overcome moving forward, hopefully.”
Six other Arrows earned individual titles, including freshman Jayden Jones (126, 27-9), junior Jake Visintine (132, 27-9), junior Austin McNamara (138, 30-8), senior Landon Plank (152, 34-6), freshman Jakob Beverly (170, 23-8) and junior Josh Bever 220, 35-4).
“We got to see a couple of pretty good kids in the finals. We got some matches in. From here on out, we gotta focus back on sectionals. We got Wadsworth next week, one of the best teams in the country, so we will definitely focus on that. After that, we will look at sectionals, district and state,” Seder said.
GOOD KNIGHTS: West Holmes had four individual champions, a second, a third and a fourth. Mount Vernon was the only other school with multiple champions as the Yellow Jackets had two to go along with two thirds and seven fourths.
Madison had one individual title, four seconds and three thirds. Lexington had the lone title, one second, two thirds and four fourths.
Host Mansfield Senior had a second, four thirds and two fourths. Wooster had one second and three thirds.
OCC TITLE BOUTS:
106 pounds — Cael Woods (WH) pin Ted Haring (Madison), :52
113 pounds — Tyler Masters (WH) dec. Cohan Robinson (Ashland), 7-2
120 pounds — Thane Kaufman (WH) pin Adam Cook (Madison), 1:43
126 pounds — Jayden Jones (Ashland) dec. Damoni Williams (Mansfield Senior), 2-1
132 pounds — Jake Visintine (Ashland) pin Brad Silliman (Madison), 1:21
138 pounds — Austin McNamara (Ashland) dec. Mason Hoskins (Lexington), 13-7
145 pounds — Trenton Osborne (Madison) dec. Brady Gault-Saffle (Ashland), 9-3
152 pounds — Landon Plank (Ashland) pin Cruz Alexander (WH), 3:12
160 pounds — Max VanFossen (MV) dec. Gage Adkins (Ashland), 7-0
170 pounds — Jakob Beverly (Ashland) maj. dec. David Gilbert (Madison), 15-5
182 pounds — Josh Baldridge (WH) pin Brycen Light (Ashland), 2:55
195 pounds — Ashton Spurgeon (MV) tech. fall Tristian Pitz (Ashland), 17-2
220 pounds — Josh Bever (Ashland) pin Brenden Holiday (Wooster), 3:24
285 pounds — Ambrose Adams (Lexington) dec. Jake Bever (Ashland), 8-6 (OT)
