COLUMBUS — Wilmington’s Thad Stuckey was the only Clinton County wrestler to win his opening match Friday at the OHSAA Division II Wrestling Championship at the Schottenstein Center.
He will wrestle in the quarterfinal round Saturday morning. The round begins at 10 a.m.
Wilmington’s Thane McCoy and Brett Brooks lost their first match then came back to win their second and will continue in Saturday’s morning round along with Stuckey.
The rest of the county — Carson Hibbs of Wilmington, and Blanchester’s Zane Panetta — both their two matches and are done for the season.
At 165 pounds, Stuckey came out early and took the match to Remmington Myers of Indian Valley. With a takedown in each of the first two periods, Stuckey led 4-2. The two traded escapes, Stuckey’s coming early in the third, and the WHS junior led 5-3.
But Myers took Stuckey down to make it 5-5. Stuckey’s escape with 1:22 to go put him on top, 6-5. The blond Hurricane seal the deal with a takedown with four seconds to go.
“I was nervous,” Stuckey said. “I tried not to look at the crowd, pay any attention to anything else going on. I just tried to focus on my match.”
McCoy’s 138-pound match went right down to the wire, falling by a 6-5 score to Egidio DiFazio of Dover.
McCoy trailed the entire match, including 3-1 early in the second period. He picked up a takedown on a fireman’s carry in the second period. The tie was short-lived, though, as DiFazio recorded an escape to go on top 4-3. McCoy tied things at 4-4 in the third but gave up a takedown with 1:18 to go in the match and trailed 6-4. A late escape put McCoy in a winning situation but he was unable to get a takedown in the final seconds.
“I’m excited to be here,” McCoy said. “I know I belong here.”
He proved that in his next match, a 6-4 decision over Kyle Bizjak of Aurora with a last-second takedown. McCoy is 38-8.
“It was an ugly win,” McCoy said.
Brooks went to his back early in his bout with Cameron Brazak of Louisville. The Hurricane heavyweight fought off an early pin attempt but wasn’t able to do it twice, with a final time of 1:48.
He bounced back with a 9-3 victory over Cael Rostorfer of Wapakoneta to improve to 39-9. “I’m ready to come out (Saturday) and do it again,” Brooks said.
Hibbs, at 132 pounds, wrestled Donovan Paes of Streetsboro and was behind right from the start. Hibbs trailed 4-0 after one and 9-2 after the second period He was pinned with 17 seconds remaining in the match.
Hibbs (42-12) then lost his second match to Zane Van Voorhi of Copley 7-2.
Panetta, at 175 pounds, went scoreless in his opening match. The Blanchester senior lost to Kylan Knapp of Miami Trace 6-0.
He followed that with a 6-1 loss to Bryce Wheatley of Chardon NDCL and finishes with a 37-9 record.
NOTEBOOK
• Thane McCoy and his father Andrew joined a small group of wrestlers at WHS. They are the second father-son duo at WHS to both qualify for the state tournament. WHS head coach Kelly Tolliver and his son RJ Tolliver were both state qualifiers.
What separates the McCoys are it goes beyond just father and son. Andrew’s brother Ben, Thane’s uncle, also was a state qualifier.
