MILLERSBURG — The Miami Trace Panthers wrestling team made the long trip to West Holmes High School, in Holmes County, near the town of Millersburg on Monday, Feb. 7 to compete in the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association-sponsored State Dual Team tournament.
Miami Trace defeated West Holmes, 37-24.
Next up for the Panthers is the state portion of the tournament set for this Saturday in Louisville, Ohio.
The Frontier Athletic Conference tournament, originally scheduled for this Saturday, has been moved to Saturday, Feb. 19. The tournament will still be held at Jackson High School.
“West Holmes is a very good team,” Miami Trace head coach Ben Fondale said. “They beat a very good Indian Valley team right before they wrestled us.”
Results for Miami Trace:
Corbin Melvin won his match by pin at 120 pounds.
Riston LeBeau won by decision at 132 pounds.
Weston Melvin won by decision at 144 pounds.
Asher LeBeau won his match by decision at 150 pounds.
Ethynn Munro won by pin at 157 pounds.
Vincent Munro won by pin at 165 pounds.
Kylan Knapp won his match by pin at 175.
Jayden LeBeau won by a major decision at 190 pounds.
West Holmes won two of the weight divisions by pin.
“We had a talk right after warm-ups about what they needed to do and what was expected of them,” Fondale said. “We talked about maximizing our wins. For the guys that were expected to go out and get a victory, they needed to get a pin or get a tech fall to maximize our team points.
“We talked about minimizing any defeats,” Fondale said. “West Holmes had a couple of just hammer kids. We weren’t going to match up too well with them on paper. We talked about minimizing the amount of team points we would give up.
“A lot of our kids stepped up and understood that logic and performed the way we asked them to,” Fondale said. “A lot of our guys exceeded expectations.”
The remaining teams in Division II, in addition to Miami Trace, are: Graham Local, Aurora, Louisville, Perry, Ashland, Lisbon Beaver and Wilmington.
The Division II Sectional tournament will be held at Washington High School on Feb. 26. The District tournament will be held at Gallia Academy on March 4 and 5.
The State tournament at the Schottenstein Center on the campus of The Ohio State University is scheduled to run Friday, March 11 through Sunday, March 13.
