Mellott keeps state tourney streak going for Redskins
NORWALK — When Wapakoneta’s Colin Mellott captured third place in the 113 pound division at the Norwalk district wrestling tournament, he kept two streaks alive.
The first was his personal streak of making the state tournament, which is now three years, and it marked the 29th straight year Wapakoneta has had at least one wrestler advance to state.
“They redrew the district this year and brought in schools that hadn’t been here before,” commented Wapakoneta head coach Jason Rostorfer. “That made his division very difficult. He wrestled very well. The only match he lost was a 6-4 decision, but that might have been the best match he’s wrestled all year. To get out of this district is a huge accomplishment. It’s a testament to his work ethic.”
It is never easy to earn that state berth at the districts where the best wrestlers in northwest Ohio have sifted through the sectional battles to try and earn that coveted spot, and after you’ve lost one match you face a one and done situation from there on out.
Mellott, who won the sectional title in Defiance, was victorious in his first match against Braylen Williams of Huron by a pin, but was narrowly beaten 6-4 by Robbie Sagaris of Aurora, who ended up as the weight class runnerup.
That put the pressure on, but being used to pressure, he responded by winning his first consolation match over Kaleb Ruhl of Norwalk by a 17-1 technical fall, and followed that up in his first match on Saturday morning with a pin of Wyatt Nemitz of Perkins, who was the sectional champ coming out of Sandusky.
Now he faced the moment of truth. He was taking to the mat against and old and respected opponent, Trevor Hisey of St. Marys in what is often called the “blood round”. A win and the worst you can finish is fourth, which earns a berth at the state tournament; lose and your season is over.
Mellott, faced the good and bad part of the fact that he had gone up against Hisey two other times this year, beating him in the regular season and in the sectional finals, but beating a solid wrestler (37-5) three times in one year is quite the challenge.
“Wrestling a kid multiple times is tough,” said Rostorfer, “because they know what you do and you know what they do. It often comes down to one position, one mistake. A moment when you relax and they don’t, so you have to be on top of your game.”
The first period ended scoreless, and the second might had ended the same as well, but Hisey locked his hands and drew a technical violation and a point went on the board for the Redskin. Toward the end of the second stanza the Roughrider also drew a stalling warning.
Trailing 1-0 Hisey, starting in the down position, was able to pull a reverse with 1:25 left in the third period to take a 2-1 lead, but he was having trouble controlling Mellott, and he drew his second stalling call. That cost him a point to tie the match at 2, then at the restart he received his third caution for moving too soon, and that cost him another point. Now he trailed 3-2 with only 31 seconds left.
Hisey’s only choice was to let Mellott up for an escape, to go down 4-2 with 15 seconds left, but he’d at least have the chance for a match tying takedown. The Redskin avoided that and his tournament continued.
Afterwards, Mellot commented, “It’s nice (not to have to wrestle him again), but hopefully next year he can go on to big things, but I have to finish my season out especially since I got the ball moving with a good tournament this weekend.”
Being assured of a spot at state was not good enough for the competitive senior as he faced off against Logan Cravats of Buckeye who sported a 36-2 mark on the season.
It was another battle royale as the two went at it for third place. It was a scoreless first period, but Mellott gained an escape in the second, followed by a takedown to take a 3-0 lead, but Cravatas returned the favor as he escaped and was given credit for a takedown in the last second of the period to tie the score at 3-all.
Neither wrestler could score in the third stanza so it was overtime. First takedown wins, and it was Mellott who gained control to take the match, 5-3, and secure third place.
Having three straight state appearances is something that has been on his radar since the beginning.
“It’s a goal I’ve always wanted to achieve,” said Mellott, “and I’m proud that I did achieve it, but it’s not the end game yet to be meaningful to me. Yeah, a top six finish (at state) would be the bare minimum, but to be honest I’d like to finish higher than that.”
“(Hisey) is a very talented wrestler,” said Rostorfer, “and I have a lot of respect for that family. Unfortunately it came down to two league schools in the go-to match. There would have been nothing better than for both of them to get out to represent the area.”
Two other Wapakoneta wrestlers also competed in Saturday’s afternoon session for the upper weight classes.
Jacob Schlesselman (160) had won his first match of the tournament on Friday night, defeating the Beachwood sectional champion, Ryan Steppenbacker of Buckeye, 8-5, but he dropped his second championship round match to Chase Dillow of Ashland (337) by a 10-4 decision.
He won his second match of the tournament in the consolation bracket with a 9-7 decision over Eric Steckner of Beachwood, to match him up with another sectional champion, Zaidan Kessler (18-3) from the Defiance sectional, and he was pinned at 2:48 to end his season.
Cael Rostorfer was the Redskins’ final wrestler vying for a state berth. He too won his first 285 pound division match on Thursday night by pinning Gavin Mansor of Rossford at 40 seconds. He lost his next championship bracket match to Jake Bever, the Clyde sectional champion by pin at 1:09. He bounced back with a pin of Andy Vanscoy of Akron Saint Vincent Saint Marys at :36, but fell to Jaden Banister of Wauseon by a fall at 3:19.
A takedown and a near fall had given him a 4-0 lead in the second period, but Bannister pulled an escape so the score was 4-1 as the third period started. Both wresters were on their feet as the whistle blew, but Bannister gained two points for a takedown to draw to within a point, 4-3. As Rostorfer has faced all year, his opponent outweighted him by 25 pounds and he was able to use that to his advantage to put the Redskin on his back and record the pin.
Wapakoneta sent a total of seven grapplers to Norwalk. Ean Kramer (195) and Trevor Houts (220) both won a match on Friday night, but dropped their first consolation match to fall from the tournament. Senior Bryce Knapke (120) and junior Gavin Hall (132) lost both of their district match-ups.
Mellott (36-2) will wrestle again at Highland Marengo High School on Saturday morning. That is the site of the Division II state tournament with the morning session beginning at 10 a.m.
Mellott is seeded third at 113 pounds. In the first round, he will face Reece Chapman of Jonathan Alder (355), the second-place finisher at his district tournament.
Also representing the WBL will be Tyler Hisey of St. Marys, who finished second at 106, and Celina’s Landon Engle, the runner-up at 126 pounds.