20-20 Hindsight: Part III: OWS Breaks down a Mythical Single Division State Tournament, Part III of a Three-Part Series (171-285 lbs)

As a wrestling community in Ohio, we are used to thinking of the state as three separate parts- Division I, Division II, and Division III. But it wasn't always so. Prior to 1971, there was a single division of competition in Ohio. In many top states (notably, New Jersey and California) there still remains only one division.

Quite frankly, I fall on the side of those who would like to see a single division state tournament. Qualify 48 to state still- but throw them into a single bracket. The competition would be absolutely riveting. A great wrestler can be from any size of school- as the Monroeville contingent has demonstrated this year. I would keep separate team scores (like they do at the Medina and Brecksville Tournaments) and still have three team state champions, but only one individual champ. Gone would be the days of top wrestlers avoiding each other through "gentleman's agreement". Will it ever happen? Probably not. But the following is a look at how a single division tournament might "play out" in my view.

Couple of caveats first. When compiling these (or any) rankings, I tend to look at the entire season equally- thus, a win at the state tournament is of no more value than a win in a dual if the same wrestlers are involved. I do it this way for several reasons. Most importantly- to simply go on the order of state finish would be a highly unimaginative approach that could be put together by anyone in a matter of minutes, and not worth reading in my view. Second, the question underlying these rankings is "how they would finish" if I had to bet on it. In my experience, all top wrestlers are going 100% every time they wrestle, some just have the good fortune to be at the top of their game in Columbus, some don't.

What follows, at long last, is part III of a three-part series, focusing on 171-285 lbs. With no further ado:

171 LBS: OWS Pick: Chris Phillips

Following my freshman year in college, wrestling at the Solon Open Mats, I had the opportunity to wrestle possibly the greatest high school wrestler in Ohio history, Alan Fried.  At the time, Fried was training to make the  Olympic Team at 152 lbs. while I had just finished a season competing in the 158 lb. class.  On the way home, after a plethora of unanswered Fried takedowns, my father asked me what made Fried so impossible to wrestle against.  After thinking about it, I decided that while he was certainly very strong and very quick, what was striking was how far ahead of me he was in the “mental chessmatch.”  While I was countering one set-up, Fried was two or three moves ahead at all times.  I would be trying to figure out how to counter some earlier set-up and completely out of sync, and then suddenly he would be in on a picture-perfect takedown. 

And so it is with Chris Phillips.  Strong? Yes.  Fast?  You bet.  But what I noted as he dismantled opponent after opponent is that he is simply mentally “wired” to wrestle- he sees the game many moves ahead, like a Russian Chessmaster.  As a result, he is able to combine the attacking style of Fried to create his own offense, with the counter-attacking abilities of Dustin Schlatter, somehow all rolled into one.  The only question that remains now for young Phillips is will he be motivated to continue to progress on this incredible path that he has laid out?  Most of us started as freshman with a lot of room for improvement- with daily reminders of the fact that we still had a long way to go be at the top.  Phillips had the unique experience of literally starting out on top by defeating the nation’s #1 ranked wrestler (and two other ranked wrestlers) in his first high school competition.  My hope is that he will continue to seek out older competition to face as he did in the years preceding high school.  My guess the best has yet to come for this truly rare competitor.

Following a dream season that saw #2 pick Brian Roddy dominate numerous top foes and reach his ultimate goal of a state title with a dramatic win over nemesis Dustin Kilgore, Roddy had the misfortune of having Phillips come onto the scene right when it seemed to be his time to be the dominant upperweight in Ohio.  However, Roddy quietly put together another outstanding season with the exception of one three-match span in December.  In essence, the loss to the freshman Phillips put the senior into a tailspin which he was not able to recover from by the next weekend, and losses to two tough competitors, but competitors whom Roddy would beat under normal circumstances, resulted.  Outside of that, Roddy posted wins of 11-3 and 10-3 over state champion Keith Witt, and 22-9 over an excellent Nick Mills.  Those were the only bouts that went the full six minutes for the St. Edward Senior this year, as he teched or pinned all foes Sectionals through State.  At Fargo, Roddy reminded the skeptics that he is still one of Ohio’s best, moving up a weight and beating the nation’s #3 ranked 189 in Brent Haynes and returning Junior National All-American Ihnen of Iowa along his way to becoming a junior national finalist.  His always entertaining matches will certainly be missed by many a wrestling fan as he takes his take-no-prisoners style to Northwestern this fall.

Though Witt won the match that counted, my #3 choice is Zach Thommusseit.  Thommusseit had the more decisive win (5-0 at State Duals), placed 3rd to Witt’s 5th at Ironman (winning over the wrestler, Corey Peltier, who beat Witt 10-0), and had only one loss to a wrestler rated lower besides Witt (to Nick Mills, who he beat two out of three), whereas Witt had losses to both Even Roth (they split) and Danny Michael (beat him three out of four including the state finals).  Unfortunately for Thommusseit, he has just never seemed to be able to put his best together in Columbus.  Nevertheless, Kent State has a very good recruit coming in #4 Keith Witt, as he showed yet again at the recent Disney Duals, where his only loss came at the hands of one of the nation’s best 171’s in 2x Michigan State Champ Jacob Burge (3rd at Senior Nationals in the toughest weight of the tourney).

While the #3-7 group is very close (and make up excellent depth, I might add), there is a big drop-off after the top seven, and an even bigger one after the #9 or possibly #10 wrestler.  The next group (10-25) are virtually interchangeable.  Division I was particularly wide-open, as state 3rd place finisher Pat Leahy came in with only the #23 ranking in his division in the OWS Rankings (and was unranked by Brakeman) and state 5th place finisher Abuaradeh of Berea was not ranked by either myself or Brakeman.   Division II was clearly the class of the three divisions, as- by way of comparison- Leahy was major decisioned by the 6th and 7th place state finishers in Division II (in fairness, he definitely turned it up a notch when it counted, wrestling with a tremendous amount of guts down the stretch this year).

189 LBS: OWS Pick: Cody Magrum

In a weight class filled with wrestlers who are “brawlers”, the #1 choice here was more known for his finesse than power.  3x state champion Cody Magrum went out like so much of the Oak Harbor Team- in style- with a big win over long-time (hailing from the same area, they’ve been butting heads since their youth wrestling days) bitter rival Jeremy Foster.  Magrum swept the series their senior year, three wins to none.  Other than a loss to 2x Wisconsin State Champ Joe Budi at Ironman, Magrum was unbeaten and thus an easy choice here.

The #2 choice may raise eyebrows for some since he was beaten in the Brecksville finals by #6 Lamberg (in a “battle of the funksters”), but Jeremy Foster rebounded by knocking off the Division I and Division III state champions among many other great wins (including over #5 Isley).  Given that, and an excellent career which includes wins over Dustin Kilgore and Cody Magrum, he must be the #2 choice.  While Foster never quite reached the level I envisioned early in his career- like Roddy, his entertaining style will certainly be missed.

#3 choice here again may surprise, but I think that on-balance, Tumlin was probably Division I’s best.  Tumlin was completely unbeaten except for a 3rd period collapse against Isley (in the state semis) whom he had previously beaten.  Certainly, he looked much more impressive to me against Lamberg than #4 Alexander did.  Alexander is one of those guys that knows how to win the close ones- seemingly in a one point bout with virtually everyone down the stretch- and that proved to be a very useful talent in a weight with so many evenly matched competitors.  #5 Isley is an extremely fiery competitor who just couldn’t solve Alexander- losing to him narrowly three times I believe.  Lamberg was arguably the state’s second best 189 during the season- winning over seemingly everybody in the state.  Every season has highs and lows for every competitor, and unfortunately for this great sophomore, he just wasn’t quite as sharp at the end as he was mid-season.  With Lamberg, Isley, and Tumlin all back at 189 the competition there will be fierce next year.

Some may wonder how Max Thommusseit placed 3rd in Division II yet only managed the #19 ranking.   The answer here is two-fold: first, D-II was not as strong as either D-III or especially D-I at this weight. Second, Thommusseit wrestled those ranked above him six times and lost all six matches.  However, the question was raised by his season- why is it that every Thommusseit must move up 60 lbs. between their freshman and sophomore year?  First, Zac did it, going from 103 to 160, and now Max goes from 130 to 189.  The real story here of course is the fact that a sophomore wrestled off for 160, and after losing his wrestle-off (to Mannier) he ends up 3rd in the state all the way up at 189.  As Thommusseit grows into a legitimate 189, he is going to be an absolute force in the years to come.  With Nick Mills likely moving up to this weight next year, looking for this rivalry to pick up right where Mills and Thommusseit’s older brother Zac left off.

215 LBS: OWS Pick: Orlando Scales

In hindsight, Cogar-Scales was the most underrated match-up in the state in 2008.  I have to say, that at the end of the day, I still believe that Adam Cogar (the winner of their match in 2007) would win seven of ten times these two wrestled.  Neverless, since losing to Cogar in the state semis his sophomore year, #1 Scales has not lost a single match (in-season).  He followed up his unbeaten state championship season with an undefeated Disney Duals and 2nd and 3rd place finishes in Fargo- losing only to five-time national champion Tyrell Fortune.  Scales was rarely pushed in the rest of his matches. The general consensus is that Scales is the #1 heavyweight recruit in the nation for 2008-2009.  Scales competes everywhere- he’s won at NHSCA, been to Fargo every year, and been to Disney- and just keeps getting better and better.  In my view he’s likely staked his claim to being the #3 recruit out of Ohio for 2008-2009.

#2 choice Adam Cogar was a wrestler who never really got his due in my view.  A two-time state runner-up (losing by a point to Powell and Scales), he seemed to be the second coming of 3x state champ Matt Koz of St. Edward.  Like Koz, his low center of gravity made it impossible for opponents to penetrate his defense while he got in on them at will.  The Medina Tournament- where he piled up wins of 12-3 over Tyler Houska (Division II Runner-up) and 9-3 over Cody Smith (Division I 3rd place)- was a perfect example of his consistent dominance.  Without having seen those matches (they were the same day as Brecksville), I’d bet anything that Cogar piled up four takedowns to three escapes for his opponents.  Cogar wrestled many outstanding opponents on Barberton’s tough schedule, but his closest bout prior to the state finals was a 9-5 win over long-time rival Tyler Rasho.

Travis Porter had the breakout season I believed he would have before the year started.  Not only was he an unbeaten state champion who won all matches at state by fall, technical, or major decision, but he beat the excellent heavyweight state champ (Stocum) in that wrestler’s only loss of the season.  At 215, he was never really pushed.  A superb mat wrestler, it would be very interesting to see him match-up with the top duo- though in my view, either Scales or Cogar would have the edge. 

Matt Fisher is a solid #4 choice after closing out an excellent career with state finishes of 4th, 2nd, and 1st.  Fisher opened the year with a win at Ironman, and even moved up to defeat Division I state finalist at heavyweight Baker.  There were several things that put him a step behind to top duo and (arguably) Porter as well- first, the loss to Houska (versus two wins) who Cogar dominated in every bout the past two years, second, a somewhat disappointing showing Senior Nationals, and third, he just wasn’t quite as dominant as Scales and Cogar.  I’m sure a strong case can be made that he deserved the #3 spot, Fisher vs. Porter is really a tossup in my view.

One to watch here in the future is #14 Logan Erb, a mere freshman who really could have been as high as #10.  He’ll be pushed hard next year by this year’s other big surprise, #7 Branko Busick, and #11 Dave Pickerel, but if he can win next year he stands a great chance at being a three-time champ.  What’s scary is that Wadsworth Freshman-to-be Nick Tavanello defeated Erb for the second time in three bouts at the TOC this spring (their other bouts being the prior year), so there is great young upperweight talent in this state besides the incomparable Phillips.

285 LBS: OWS Pick: John Hiles

This is a weight class where my pick will be controversial regardless of which of the top five picks were chosen- in fact, a strong case can be made for all of them.  My starting point was to determine who the top pick should be in Division II since three of the top five were from that division- bearing in mind, again, that for purposes of these rankings, all results are considering equally (as opposed to merely ranking in order of state finish).  At state, Hawkins beat Walls and Walls beat Hiles.  But, Hiles beat Hawkins at Districts and Walls beat him at Top Gun.  This means that Walls is 2-1 against this top group while Hiles is 1-1 and Hawkins is 1-2.  All matches were decided by a single point so that is no help.  However, looking to outside results, Walls had three losses to wrestlers not in the top five- #8 Meder, #10 Prichard, and #17 Holcomb.  In fairness, he had by far the toughest schedule of the group, but the fact that Hiles and Hawkins had no such losses leads me to put him 3rd in this group, and 5th overall.  Hiles goes ahead of Hawkins based on: 1. Head-to-head, 2. Better career achievement with three top three state finishes; and 3. Fargo credentials (Junior National Greco Champ and Freestyle AA) and his runner-up finish at Beast of the East.

From there, it was down to Hiles, Stocum (D-III Champ) and Kline (D-I Champ) for the top spot. #5 Stocum was unbeaten at heavyweight, and had just one close match all year that I am aware of.  However, he faced nobody ranked higher than #7 all year (though he did beat #7 Southwick by a commanding 6-0).  With no prior state placements, no competition against the best heavies in this state, and nothing on his resume nationally, it was tough for me to give him the top spot just because I don’t have much to base it on.  Moreover, he had the aforementioned loss to 215 lb. state champ Travis Porter.  Frankly, if not for the loss to Porter, I’d have him #1 or #2.  #2 Kline looked unstoppable in the state finals, as he dismantled and then pinned unlikely finalist Baker, but was hurt by what can only be described as a fluke loss via fall to District Qualifier Schramm at the Mason tourney.   Again, his chances were hurt here by the same factors that hurt Stocum- no matches against Walls, Hiles, Hawkins, or Stocum and no credentials nationally.  In fact, except for a win at state over an ailing Cody Beatty, he faced nobody ranked higher than #10.  Certainly, he legitimately could win a single-division state tourney on a hot weekend.

Both #6 Beatty and #8 Meder may be too high or too low.  Both, I think, were right there with the top five if not for late-season injuries.  Meder looked like an animal at Ironman- beating Walls and taking possibly the nation’s best heavy (Goebbel of IL)  into overtime.  From there, he sank like a swimmer with an anchor around his neck.  First, he came down with pneumonia which wiped out over a month of his season.  Recovering from that shortly before the tournaments, right when he needed to get back in shape, he suffered a severe ankle sprain which left him out of shape and immobile down the stretch.  Looking purely at their late season results when they were not 100%, obviously you’d say both are rated too high, but I’ve tried to “split the difference” here by taking it account their results were certainly affected by serious injuries.  Look for Meder to bounce back with a big senior campaign.

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