The Mount Vernon wrestling team finished third among seven teams at the OCC Championships on Feb. 19 at Ashland High School.
Defending champion Ashland was supplanted by West Holmes to win the Ohio Cardinal title. The Knights amassed 221.5 points, Ashland 218.5 and the Yellow Jackets 195.
Mount Vernon had four wrestlers win gold medals. Colton Spurgeon at 126 pounds, Rylan Firebaugh at 132, Jake Taylor at 150 and Zach Thomas at 175 all won their weight division titles. In the other eight divisions, Mount Vernon wrestlers secured two seconds and six third-place finishes.
Mount Vernon wrestlers had the following results:
At 106 pounds, Brock Blankehorn, 27-8, placed second, losing in the finals to West Holmes’ Brady Smith, 37-1, by a tech fall.
At 113 pounds, Dylan Hartman, 30-8, placed third, losing to Mason Taylor of West Holmes, 39-5, by decision.
At 120 pounds, Aden Burdulis, 11-17, placed third, winning by fall over Christian Douglas, 0-5, from Mansfield.
At 126 pounds, Colton Spurgeon, 36-4, placed first after drawing two byes. He won by fall over Carter Adkins, 10-20, of Madison Comprehensive. Spurgeon won by major decision (17-5) in the next round over Noah Tish of West Holmes, 27-15, and won first place by a fall over Milan Parobek of Ashland (37-5).
At 132 pounds, Rylan Firebaugh (28-10), won four matches and first place. He defeated Chase Cole of Mansfield, 1-4, by a fall; won by a fall over Connor Rotolo of Wooster, 19-17, then drew a bye. Firebaugh then won by a 9-0 major decision over Ashland’s Tyler Dodson, 13-20, and won the first-place match over West Holmes’ Morgan Smith, 20-22, by a 7-4 decision.
At 138 pounds, Kayden Packard, 22-12, placed third, winning by a fall in the third-place match over Lexington’s Cayden Kunkle, 6-16.
At 144 pounds, Conner Lang, 17-14, placed third and won by a tech fall in the third-place match over Kelsey Logan of Lexington, 23-21.
At 150 pounds, Jake Taylor, 29-9, placed first, winning five matches, the first four by falls over Mansfield’s Noel Ward, 7-10; Lexington’s Landon Tingley, 3-23; Ashland’s Noah Fent, 1-4; and Wooster’s Daniel Rouse, 8-12. He took the championship by a 6-1 decision over Conner Varnes of West Holmes, 32-8.
At 157, Karter Harris, 26-16, placed third, losing by a tech fall to Ashland’s Jon Metzger, 40-7.
At 165, Kyler Howard, 21-18, placed third with a win by a 7-2 decision over Wets Holmes’ Hunter Eberhard, 8-13.
At 175, Zach Thomas (30-9) placed first, winning five matched by falls over Wooster’s Travis Legg, 12-2; Madison’s Brody Savage, 3-25; Mansfield’s Sorien Allen, 2-3; West Holmes’ Dakota Patterson, 14-25; and the final round over Ashland’s Haden Flynn, 26-12.
At 285, Nate Stradley, 28-11, placed second after winning four matches. He lost in the final in a tiebreaker to Ashland’s Cayden Spotts, 29-12.
