The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
KEYSTONE’S GREENE WINS STATE CROWN
Junior’s 13-3 major decision gives Wildcats their first state champ
Keystone’s Tristin Greene has barely been bothered during the Division III State Wrestling Tournament, dispatching his opponents with ease.
Reaching the state finals match in the March 12 Session 5, the No. 1 ranked Greene faced the No. 4 Division III wrestler in the 157 pound weight class in Preble Shawnee’s Brayden Doran. He wanted to take home a state title, which would make him Keystone’s first in program history.
That’s exactly what he did — scoring a dominating 13-3 major decision, walking off the mat stoic and cool as a cucumber.
“It feels good obviously,” Greene said moments after his victory. “It’s practically been my life goal ever since I started wrestling. It feels even better knowing I’m the first one in my school’s history to do this and I was very proud of myself. I knew I worked as hard as I could have, did all I could to achieve this, and I think I deserved it.”
It was a dominating run for Greene, scoring two tech falls and a 5-1 decision in the semifinal without giving up a point that wasn’t stalling until Doran took him down in the third period, when Greene managed to hit a reversal to quickly get out of the bottom position. He came in and crushed it all weekend.
“Throughout this tournament, I had one thing I kept saying to myself: What do they have that I can’t handle? Through all the matches, they had nothing that I couldn’t handle,” Greene stated. “I knew that, so I just kept going. No one could stop me.”
After winning a Fargo U16 Greco Roman national championship last summer prior to his junior year, Greene now has a state title added to the collection. He said then Ohio had some of the toughest wrestlers in comparison to the national level competition.