Wrestling: Galion goes 2-0 at Northmor meet

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NORTH BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — Galion emerged with a 2-0 record during a quad meet wrestled on Wednesday night at Northmor High School.

The Tigers rallied to defeat Jonathan Alder 36-33 in their first match of the evening and then picked up a 51-21 win over the host Golden Knights in a contest that featured the winners of the first two bouts of the evening.

Northmor went 1-1 on their home mats. The Golden Knights also had to come from behind in their opening match against River Valley, handing the Vikings a 40-37 defeat.

The Tigers trailed Jonathan Alder 33-15 before mounting a massive comeback to claim victory. Head coach Brent Tyrrell said he had confidence in his upper weight class wrestlers to pull off the win despite the large deficit.

“I knew where we were at,” Tyrrell said. “The top end of our lineup is the best. We have some pretty good kids (in the lower weight classes), but we havefive guys in a row that are really good, so that helps. When we’re in a hole, I know we have a shot. Our kids battled hard, man. I’m excited about that.”

Linkon Tyrrell, Landon Campbell, and Caden Roberts each recorded pin falls at 175, 190, and 215 pounds, respectively, to set the table for Alex Griffith in the heavyweight bout. Griffith defeated Alder’s Damon Hay 6-2 to give the Tigers the victory.

Wednesday’s meet at Northmor marked the second consecutive night that Tyrrell’s Tigers were faced with stiff competition. On Tuesday night, Galion defeated Allen East (45-27) and Upper Sandusky (58-16) in a meet wrestled at Upper Sandusky. He said the two-day stretch is good experience for his team as they prepare for the postseason.

“This kind of simulates later in the season when we have to weigh in two days in a row,” Tyrrell said. “I like doing that early and then we get a break from it, and then we’re going to do it three weeks in a row, then we’ll have a break from it, then it’s postseason time. I’m trying to prepare them for March. I love winning — we all love winning — but this is preparation for March. It doesn’t really matter what happens today, but we always want to win.”

Galion’s Falco Frank (120 pounds), Aydan Reyes (138 pounds), Brodyn Butcher (144 pounds), Sam Wegesin (150 pounds), Linkon Tyrrell (175 pounds), Landon Campbell (190 pounds), and Alex Griffith (285 pounds) each went 2-0 on Wednesday. Galion wrestlers recorded a total of nine pin-fall victories against Alder and Northmor.

Northmor head coach Scott Carr echoed Tyrrell’s sentiments, noting that his team is still working its way into wrestling condition early in the new season.

“It kind of went as expected. We’re not in great shape yet,” Carr said. “We try to peak at the right time. We try to get better as the season progresses. If you watched, you see we’re kind of out of shape at this point, but it’s early. We had four freshmen in our lineup today, so there’s some growing pains with some of those guys.”

Heavyweight Max Lower provided the most electrifying moment of the evening for Northmor fans when he etched his name in the annals of Golden Knights wrestling lore. With Northmor trailing 37-34 and the heavyweight class as the final match on the mat, Lower pinned River Valley’s Remington Sanchez in just 12 seconds to give the Knights a 40-37 victory.

“Max played every minute of the basketball game (on Tuesday night against Fredericktown) and then came out here and got a pin in the final match for us,” Carr said with a broad smile. “That was awesome. That was the highlight of the night. We have a wrestling history book at Northmor and any pin recorded in under 15 seconds, you’re going to be in the history book forever. And that’s the first match he’s wrestled since he was eight years old and it happened to be a 12-second pin. That’s just awesome.

“That’s probably something he’ll never forget. I know I’ll never forget it.”

Niko Christo (175 pounds), Gavin Whited (215 pounds), and Cowin Becker (113 pounds) each went 2-0 for Northmor during the quad meet. Northmor wrestlers posted six victories by pin fall in the two matches against River Valley and Galion.

Galion’s Alex Griffith presses his advantage against Jonathan Alder’s Damon Hay during a heavyweight match wrestled at the quad meet on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, at Northmor High School. Griffith defeated Hay and then was awarded a forfeit against Northmor to go 2-0 on the evening.
https://www.galioninquirer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/38/2021/12/web1_a-120821j-GHS-at-NOR-wr_0452.jpgGalion’s Alex Griffith presses his advantage against Jonathan Alder’s Damon Hay during a heavyweight match wrestled at the quad meet on Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2021, at Northmor High School. Griffith defeated Hay and then was awarded a forfeit against Northmor to go 2-0 on the evening. Don Tudor | AIM Media Midwest

By Andrew Carter

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