Washington High School sophomore Lyndyn Gibbs, at left, tangles with Marysville senior Cali Leng in a 120-pound championship semifinal match at the Schottenstein Center on the campus of The Ohio State University Saturday, March 11, 2023. Leng won by an 11-6 decision. Leng wrestles for the 120-pound State championship Sunday starting at 5:15 p.m. Gibbs will wrestle in the consolation semifinals at 9:30 a.m.
Chris Hoppes | Record-Herald
COLUMBUS – Washington’s Lyndyn Gibbs was looking to advance to a state championship on Saturday evening, as she competed in the semifinals of the inaugural OHSAA Girls State Wrestling Tournament at the Jerome Schottenstein Center.
Gibbs wrestled senior Cali Leng from Marysville, who came into the bout with one loss on the season and is a returning state runner-up. Leng’s father, Jesse Leng, is the co-founder and CEO of Rudis, which is the title sponsor of the OHSAA Wrestling Tournament. Several former Olympians and National Champion wrestlers who are sponsored by Rudis, gathered around the mat to watch Gibbs and Leng compete.
The match was extremely physical and competitive to say the least, with both Gibbs and Leng trading points back and forth. In the end, Leng came out victorious with an 11-6 decision.
Lyndyn shared some comments following the loss.
“I definitely need to work more on hand fighting. She was able to get me off-balance and throw me off at times. I got out of the bottom position pretty well; I think she was scared to see me on the bottom.”
Head coach Wes Gibbs spoke about the match.
“That’s a no joke match. Right now, Cali’s only loss this year is to Lacie Knick and Lacie defeated Lyndyn in the Regional championship. I thought she wrestled very well overall, probably her best match of the year. We didn’t hit a lot of our offense, but neither did Leng. In almost all of Leng’s matches, she’s either winning by technical fall or pin.”
Gibbs is set to wrestle at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday in the consolation semifinals. If she wins that match, she will wrestle for third place at 11 a.m. A loss in her first match would have her wrestling for fifth place, also at 11 a.m.
