COLUMBUS — Only the best of the best remain by the time the State wrestling tournament arrives.

Friday, March 8 was the first day of the three-day event, held before a large crowd in every session at the Schottenstein Center on the campus of The Ohio State University.

Three young men from Fayette County qualified for the 87th annual State tournament: Washington High School senior Brady Rohrer (285), Miami Trace High School junior Lyric Dickerson (120) and Washington High School sophomore Malachi McCullough (150).

The first of these student-athletes to step onto the mat at State was Dickerson, 43-6.

He took on 41-7 sophomore Anthony Sindelar of Streetsboro.

Dickerson lost a tough 9-7 decision.

He would wrestle again in the first round of consolation matches.

Soon to follow was McCullough. His first opponent? A two-time State champion, junior Mitchell Younger (34-4) of Bishop Watterson.

McCullough hung with the State-champion, going the distance, falling by a 14-2 major decision.

A little bit later on it was Rohrer’s turn to make his State tournament debut.

The Blue Lion senior entered the fray with a record of 28-14.

His opponent was senior Ian Rutherford of Granville, sporting a record of 39-13.

Rohrer was pinned in the second period at 2:37.

Senior Ethan Hill of McClain (25-3) faced 41-2 junior Jeffery Blair of Dayton Chaminade-Julienne.

This match went into several overtime periods before Hill emerged with a 2-1 win in what is called an ultimate tiebreaker.

So, Hill was done for the day and will wrestle Saturday in the championship quarterfinals which for Division II begins at 10:05 a.m.

Hill’s opponent will be senior Alex Griffith of Gallion, who is now 39-5 after a 1-0 win over senior Vince Luce of Canfield.

At 20 minutes past 4, the first round of the Division II consolations got underway.

For all three participants from Fayette County, their matches were simply this — win or your tournament is over.

First up was Dickerson, who faced off against senior Jadon Gyan of Vandalia Butler who, after a first-round lost by a 16-3 major decision to sophomore Gradey Harding (37-7) of Gallion, was looking to keep his high school career alive.

It appeared to be a little bit of a slow start for Dickerson, but in the second period, with only seconds remaining, Dickerson got the pin of Gyan (in 3:53).

That raised Dickerson’s record to 44-7, while Gyan finished at 37-11.

Dickerson will next face the loser of Saturday morning’s match between senior Alex Gonzales (43-11) of Napoleon and senior Colyn Limbert (48-3) of Medina Buckeye.

Before long, it was time for McCullough to step out in front of the large audience to meet junior Aidan Jones of Richfield Revere who was 43-10 after a first round setback to another Aidan, this one with the last name of Rush (31-10) from Columbus DeSales.

McCullough won the match in overtime, 2-0.

McCullough, now 25-12, will challenge the loser of the match between junior Bo Hertenstein (38-3) of St. Marys Memorial and junior Luke Kaiser (47-3) of Athens.

In his first consolation match, Rohrer met senior Aedan Nicol (33-16) of Lexington.

Rohrer battled but was unfortunately pinned in 2:29, ending his senior season at 28-16.

“That’s a tough kid we wrestled earlier in the year at the Dayton holiday tournament, the GMVWA,” Miami Trace assistant coach Jacob Garringer said of Dickerson’s second opponent, Gyan of Butler. “We beat him there. We knew it was going to be a tough match.

“(Gyan) came out and got to his shots right away,” Garringer said. “He put us in a hole. We kept coming back, kept plugging away. (Dickerson) got a little banged up, but, everybody’s banged up here. You just have to deal with it. So, he dug deep and found a way there at the end.”

“I was probably in my head a little bit,” Dickerson said of the early stages of the match with Gyan. “I knew I could beat him. The second period was when I really kicked it in. I locked in from there and got it done.”

“He’s wrestling with a lot of confidence right now,” Washington assistant coach Craig Snyder said of Malachi McCullough following the sophomore’s win over Jones of Revere. “Getting his first win at State, that’s big.

“To bounce back from that first match was pretty good,” Snyder said. “He’s wrestling tough in all positions.”

“I felt pretty good,” McCullough said. “My goal was to make it to the second day. I had a two-time State champion in my first match.”

“He fired off a shot and finished it,” Synder said of McCullough’s takedown of Jones. “He went on the attack in overtime and fired off a shot and got a nice, clean finish.

“It was pretty exciting,” McCullough said. “I knew I could work on my offense against him. I was pretty confident against him. I went out there thinking ‘I’ve got to win to make it to tomorrow.’ I knew he was going to be pretty tough.

“He’s wrestled a lot of OAC (Ohio Athletic Committee) matches,” Snyder said. “So, by going through that, he’s kind of used to these pressure situations. He’s been through it. It’s a pretty big commitment.

“The more he shakes off the nerves, the better he’s going to be,” Snyder said. “Because, his confidence, you can tell it’s up. He knows he deserves to be here and that he can compete with these guys.”

Assistant coach Marlin Ellis and head coach Louis Reid offered words of encouragement and consolation to Rohrer after his tournament and high school career came to an end Friday.

“We told him we were proud of him for making it here,” Ellis said. “Not a lot of kids make it to State — it’s hard to make it here.

“Mason Mustain was an outstanding wrestler for us, with over 100 wins and he made it up here once,” Ellis said. “This is just a place not a lot of kids reach.

“He belonged here,” Ellis said. “We’re proud of him. His work ethic, from the start of the season, to this point, to get him here, he needs to carry that into the next stages of life for him. Life will go on for these kids when this ends.

“They have to carry on what they’ve learned from this sport into life,” Ellis said.

Rohrer’s match with Nicol was something of a 50/50 proposition, Ellis said. “Sometimes you’re luckier than you are good. (Nicol) ended up on the right side and that’s just how it goes.”

“In the first match, I came out confident,” Rohrer said. “Then I stepped out and looked around at the big arena and it got me a little nervous. That’s mainly what happened in the first match.

“I knew I had to bounce back to get on the podium,” Rohrer said.

As for the second match, Rohrer said, “I felt good for the whole match until close to the end. Getting in that throw position, the 50/50 and then he got it, he threw me.

“First I just want to thank my mom for making me go to every practice,” Rohrer said. “Not missing any. Then, Coach Reid and Coach Ellis for pushing me every day at practice.

“Mason Mustain was showing up this week, making me better,” Rohrer said. “All the teammates, really, just pushing each other.”

“Wrestling is a tough sport,” Reid said. “It teaches you a lot of life lessons. Sometimes you put a lot of hard work into it and it doesn’t work out the way you think it will. The lessons that you learn from wrestling will definitely carry over into life. Just the hard work.

“We’re very proud of Brady and the career he’s had for us,” Reid said. “He’s a three-time District-qualifier and a one-time State-qualifier.

“To make it here, he had to battle his way through the consolation rounds (at the District tournament),” Reid said. “He knocked off a couple of kids who were ranked pretty high in the state. Him getting here, we were excited about that. We felt we had a chance to get on the podium, obviously it didn’t work out.

“Brady has done a great job and he’s been a good senior leader for us and we’re really appreciative of that,” Reid said. “We told him some things that he needed to change and he changed those and it helped our team. He’s been part of a very successful (season). We were Sectional champs, FAC tournament champs, ninth at the District. We brought two here to State and Brady is one of them.

“If you look at what legacy he’s going to leave behind, he’s leaving a good legacy, especially with how he’s worked and how he’s been there for other teammates,” Reid said. “He’s been a great teammate. He’s always been positive. I can’t think of too many times when I’ve seen Brady with a sad face, honestly.

“We just say, ‘he’s doing Brady things,’ Reid said. “Brady things brighten up our team. I’m really happy to coach a kid like Brady. I’m sure he’s going to continue to do great things as an adult.

“He’s already on work study,” Reid said. “He’s been working pretty hard, so, for him to balance wrestling and to be on work study, that’s tough. So, we’re very proud of him.”