COLUMBUS — For someone whose dream of a state championship had been snatched away in the cruelest way imaginable, Galion’s Gradey Harding remained remarkably composed.
The Schottenstein Center crowd was still buzzing about Harding’s controversial 4-1 overtime loss to Kettering Alter’s Bronson Begley in the Division II 126-pound championship match as Harding dutifully answered reporters’ questions in the tunnel leading away from Value City Arena.
The winning takedown was awarded to Begley, even though it appeared both wrestlers were out of bounds. The head referee conferred with the assistant before delivering the disputed verdict.
“I should have kept wrestling,” Harding said. “You can’t ever leave it up to the refs, but I’m still pretty upset about it.”
As was Galion coach Brent Tyrrell.
“He was clearly out of bounds when they called takedown,” Tyrrell said. “All four feet, nothing was inbounds.”
The top-ranked Harding had controlled the match up until that point. He had a couple of scoring opportunities that Begley worked out of earlier in the bout.
“I got to his legs a couple of times and he didn’t get to mine at all until the end,” Harding said. “I knew he wasn’t taking me down until the end when I was out of bounds.”
Watch: Highlights from Sunday’s title matches
‘I’ll be back’
The loss tempered what was an outstanding weekend for the top-ranked Harding. He opened with a 10-1 win over Kenston’s Brady Baran before holding on for a 5-4 win over Franklin’s Dareyan Egner.
Harding thundered to a resounding 10-3 win over Sandusky Perkins’ Sawyer Smith in Saturday’s state semifinals to advance to the finals.
“I was confident going into this,” Harding said. “I felt like I was wrestling well.”
A junior, Harding is the first wrestler in program history to reach the state semifinals in each of his first three seasons. He finished fifth at 120 pounds as a freshman and was 120-pound state runner-up last year.
“I’ll be back next year and we’re winning it,” Harding said. “We’re going to get right back to work.
“Making state finals twice is a big deal, but you can’t lose it twice. This is going to motivate me even more.”