It was a successful two days spent at Centerville High School for the Tecumseh wrestling team, as coach Scott Herbert’s squad will be sending six wrestlers to the districts this weekend.

Earning sectional runner-up for Tecumseh was 145-pounder Tommy Rowe, while placing third overall was Alec Hall at 138. With the top four advancing to districts, Tecumseh also capitalized on the strong wrestling of Hunter Donnan at 120, Cyle Wells at 126, Lucas Rodgers at 132 and 152-pounder Hunter Elam who all placed fourth, landing spots this weekend.

“We have a young team, so before the seeds came out, I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Herbert said. “All of the kids had to win a few crucial matches and they pulled through. We lost all our semi matches except for Rowe. We won five of the matches in the next round.”

It all started with Donnan, then three freshmen (126,132,138) all won their matches close, then Elam won a surpise match after he wasn’t seeded. The good thing is that all six will be back next year.”

Rowe opened his day with an opening round win against Cory Dennis of Stebbins by pin in 1:21, before another pin against William Lorenz of Springfield in 1:07 to head into the semis.

There, Rowe survived for a tough 3-0 win against Matt Johnson of Lakota West to advance into the sectional championship match, where he lost 10-7 against Ian Heiland of Beavercreek.

“Tommy wrestled great all weekend,” Herbert said, as Rowe is now 25-9 on the season. “He actually had his opponent worn out in the third period, but couldn’t get him.”

Along the way for Hall was his opening round pin against Wyatt Howard of Fairborn in 3:48, followed by another pin against Devon Davenport of Lakota East in 4:45 to send him to the semi-finals. In that round, Hall was defeated by Brady Wilson of Stebbins by a major decision 11-3 to drop him into the consolation semis, where he fought his way out with a 9-4 win against Allen Tangeman of Sidney. Hall then secured a third-place finish with a 10-4 victory over Davenport in their second match of the weekend.

At 120, Donnan began his weekend with an opening round 34-second pin against Phoenix Robinson of Fairborn to advance to the quarterfinals, where he pinned another opponent, taking down Nathan Shatto of Miamisburg in 3:44. Donnan then dropped his semi match to David Hasty of Stebbins 5-0, and had to fight his way through the consos.

Donnan pinned Cole Gintert of Little Miami in 2:53 to advance to the placer round, where he lost toAlex Epstein of Lakota East in 3:00 to place fourth.

Wells opened the sectionals with a 6-4 win against Jackson Leahy of Lakota East at 126, but the Arrows wrestler then lost his semifinal match to Colin Neuner of Beavercreek 10-7 to drop him into the conso round. There he defeated Josh Wilder of Little Miami in 2:27 to advance to the third place round, where he lost to Ryan Whitten of Stebbins 11-2 to place fourth.

At 132, it was another successful start for an Arrows wrestler, as Rodgers earned a major decision 17-7 over Kyler Peasant of Sidney, only to see his path to districts hit a small roadblock with a 6-0 loss to Casey Lawrence of Little Miami, forcing Rodgers to survive the conso round.

The Arrow wrestler did just that, edging Carlos Quintero of Troy 6-5 to sneak into the round of placers. There, he lost in the third-place match to Gavin Bell of Beavercreek 18-1 but qualified for districts.

Finally coming in at 152 was Elam, as like his teammates, earned an opening win against Landon Johnson of Sidney in 3:48, but also similarly to the previous three grapplers, he lost his semi match to Witt Creech of Lakota West in 1:38. Elam shook it off and mad a 12-2 major decision against Mason Sigler of Northmont to advance, before he lost to Osman Saddatov of Stebbins 15-0.

The Division One districts will be held this weekend at Trent Arena at Fairmont High School, starting at 3 p.m. on Friday, and 9 a.m. on Saturday.

“We are young and just want to win some matches,” Herbert said. “We will have to have some phenomenal matches to get out the districts, they will have to beat some very good kids since those weight classes they are in are very strong.”

“At 126 for example there are five returning state qualifiers. This is a step for this young group, it drives you to do better for next year.”

*Northwestern will also send one wrestler to the Division Three districts this weekend at Hobart Arena in Troy, as 132-pounder Jacob Lees has advanced. Lees placed fourth overall at sectionals.

Lees opened his day with a pin over Mason Hardin of Northridge in 2:21, and earned another pin in the quarterfinals, taking down Austin Flick of Covington in 3:38 to advance to the semis.

Lees then lost to Michael Sergent of Troy Christian in 2:36 to drop to the consos, where he fought thorough with a 7-0 win against Steven Mangen of Versailles to advance to the third-place match. There, Lees lost to Alex Isbrandt of Miami East 4-0 but qualified for districts.

*Earning alternate spots in districts in the event of injury were Northwestern 160-pounder Andrew Reisinger and Bethel’s Kellen Calhoun at 170, who both placed fifth.

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