NORWALK —Brahm Ginter’s final match of the weekend didn’t play out the way he would have liked, but the consolation prize for the Shelby senior is a return trip to Columbus.
Ginter dropped a 4-2 decision to Sandusky Perkins’ Lucas Salmon in championship match at 170 pounds, finishing as Division II district runner-up and punching his ticket to the state meet for a second straight year.
Ginter was one of four local wrestlers to earn state berths at Norwalk High School on Saturday. He will be joined in Columbus by Ontario’s Carter Kroll and Colton Turnbaugh and Lexington’s A.J. Adams.
“I wrestled pretty well this weekend, but in that last match I took one bad shot and it cost me,” said Ginter (44-7), who was seventh at state at 160 pounds last year. “I didn’t even grab his leg. I completely missed. I don’t know what happened.
“Other than that it was a pretty even match. If I just would have grabbed anything on that shot, it might have gone differently.”
Like Ginter, Lexington 285-pounder Adams was a district runner-up. The senior dropped a 6-3 decision to Wapakoneta’s Brenan Knueve in the district championship match.
“I thought I was going to come out on top but he got a takedown and that’s usually what decides these matches, one or two points,” Adams (45-4) said. “I feel like I have a pretty good shot at placing (at state). I’m pretty confident.”
A freshman, Kroll finished fourth at 120 pounds. He lost to Fairview Park Fairview’s Matt Kaufmann 14-3 in the consolation finals. Kroll’s only other loss on the weekend came against Kaufmann in the championship quarterfinals.
“It’s awesome that I qualified for state as a freshman. I just want to keep the momentum going down to Columbus,” Kroll (29-13) said. “I just wanted to come in and wrestle with confidence and let it rip.”
Turnbaugh, whose father, Wes, won a state championship for Ontario in 1999, finished fourth at 145 pounds. He dropped a a 12-7 decision to Parma Padua’s Sam LoFaso in the consolation finals.
“It’s amazing,” Turnbaugh (38-9) said. “I felt coming up here I had a chance to get through. I’ve been working really hard to get here.”
Turnbaugh suffered serious burns in a house fire in December of 2016. He missed almost his entire freshman year.
“I didn’t really have a wrestling season last year because of the fire,” Turnbaugh said. “I never imagined that, after going through that, I would be in this position.”
Ontario 113-pounder Ty Spencer and Clear Fork 170-pounder John Witschi are state alternates after finishing fifth Saturday afternoon. Mansfield Senior’s Damoni Williams was sixth at 126.
Division I: Ashland’s Josh Bever won a Division I district championship at 220 pounds at the Perrysburg district. He will be joined at state by teammate Jake Visintine, who was fourth at 132 pounds. Landon Plank was fifth at 152 and Case George was sixth at 106.
Division III: Crestview’s Clay Eagle, Dakota Blanton and Colton Campbell earned state berths at the Division III Defiance district. Eagle was third at 120, while Blanton was third at 126. Campbell finished fourth at 195.
Plymouth’s Seth Bailey was fifth at 220.
