SPARTA — It wasn’t the state championship he coveted, but for Madison’s Nate Barrett it was the next best thing.
A senior 182-pounder, Barrett placed third at the Division II state meet Sunday at Highland High School. He beat Mentor Lake Catholic’s Cole Hivnor 7-5 in the consolation finals, his second win over Hivnor in as many days.
Barrett won a pair of matches Saturday before falling to St. Paris Graham’s Carter Neves in the semifinals Sunday morning. That sent Barrett into the consolation semifinals, where Bellevue’s Justin Mayes awaited. Mayes had beaten Barrett (50-5) twice already this season, most recently in the semifinals of the Norwalk district meet.
Barrett avenged last weekend’s 8-6 overtime loss to Mayes at Norwalk with a commanding 8-2 win early Sunday afternoon.
“After the loss last week I was like, ‘I need to beat him where it counts,’ ” Barrett said. “Whether it’s in the situation we had or in the state finals, I told myself I was going to beat him when it counts.
“Going into that match I just told myself I needed to put it into another gear … and that’s what happened.”
Barrett’s second showdown with Hivnor was considerably closer than Saturday’s 10-4 win in the championship quarterfinals.
“I just kept telling myself I’ve got to do what I did the night before,” Barrett said. “There was some stuff that didn’t go my way this match, but I kept doing what I was doing and ended up on top.”
Ashland’s Jakob Beverly matched Barrett with a third-place finish at 220 pounds. The senior pinned Indian Creek’s Elijah Llewellyn in 3:28 in the consolation finals.
An undersized 220-pounder, Beverly (49-8) dropped a narrow 5-4 decision to St. Clairsville’s Reese Skaggs in the opening round of the tournament. He then reeled off five straight wins in the consolation bracket.
“I didn’t really get down on myself because I knew the kid was tough,” Beverly said of his loss to Skaggs. “After that match I knew I just had to keep wrestling hard.”
Madison 195-pounder Trenton Osborne and Ashland 285-pounder Jake Bever both battled their way to fifth-place finishes Sunday afternoon. Osborne (48-5) pinned Hamilton Badin’s Ely Emmons in 56 seconds in the fifth-place match, while Bever (53-4) pinned Woodridge’s Alistair Larson in 1:15.
“My goal at the beginning of the season was to place in the top eight and I came in here and did it,” Osborne said. “I knew all of my matches were going to be tough. I’m content with getting fifth.”
Ontario’s Carter Kroll finished seventh at 180 pounds. The senior beat Lisbon Beaver’s Jonathan Potts 5-0 in his final high school match.
“To come down here and just see the stuff I work on every day pay off, it’s surreal,” said Kroll who finished with a 42-5 record. “You’ve just got to trust the process.”
