Three area wrestlers win crowns at VB Invite

VAN BUREN – Liberty-Benton's Gavin Gillig, Elmwood's Cannon Endicott and Upper Sandusky's Abraham Baldwin were weight class champions on Saturday when some of the top teams and wrestlers in Northwest Ohio gathered to take part in the Van Buren Invitational. Gillig, 23-3 on the year, pinned his way to the 215-pound title. The No. 7-ranked wrestler in Division III, Gillig stopped McComb's Owen Deweese in 3:49 of their championship match. Deweese had also pinned all of his opponents to set up the finals match with Gillig. The two will likely be squaring off again this season, including the BVC meet scheduled for Feb. 18 at McComb. Endicott, a state qualifier a year ago, won the 175-pound crown in another all-area final. After pinning his first three opponents Endicott, 22-2 and rankled No. 3 in the state, posted a 12-6 decision over Carey's Lance Rickle (26-2). Baldwin also opened with three straight pins at 106, then won the final when Eastwood's Ian Reynolds could not compete due to an injury. Carey's Brock Bushong (285) and McComb's Montana Pierce placed second in two of the marquee weight classes of the tournament. In the semifinals, Bushong, 23-2 and ranked No. 12 among Ohio's Division III 285-pounders, pinned No. 3-ranked Javen Gaines of Tinora in 5:20. That set him up with a match against No. 1-rankled Eli Criblez of Allen East in the final, a match that Criblez won 5-1. Pierce (26-2) also faced a rough road to the 150-pound championship match, but he got there with a decision, a pin and a technical fall. In the final he faced No. 3–ranked Jace Margraf of Mohawk, who won the match 10-4. Liberty-Benton had two wrestlers place third in 113-pounder RJ Coldren, who beat Elmwood's Grady Nekoranec 3-2 in the match for third and fourth place, and Zach Ponx, who pinned Woodmore's Aiden Cordy in the 126-pound consolation final. Upper Sandusky's Caleb Clary scored a 19-3 tech fall over Van Buren's Landyn Lowery in the consolation final at 132, Columbus Grove's Ethan Beam was fourth and L-B's Will Pask fifth at 120, and Elmwood's Connor Sterling (150) and Grove's Kyle Lathro (175) finished fourth as well. At 157, Elmwood's Frank Blair was fourth and Carey's Lane Montgomery beat Grove's Logan Mershman for fifth and sixth. Patrick Henry's Jeff Camp was the Van Buren Invitational champion at 138, with Ottawa-Glandorf's Justice Pope fourth and Bluffton's Jett Blackburn sixth in that class. Fostoria's Jose Garcia beat Van Buren's Gabe George in the 190-pound match for fifth and sixth place. Liberty-Benton's Avery Allen (144), Van Buren's Brooks Hill (113) and Fostoria's Binicio Flores (285) placed fifth, and Arcadia's Patrick Ebright, Grove's Boat Thompson (126), Elmwood's Peyton Schafer (132), Bluffton's Kyle Basil and Van Buren's Ryan Gifford were sixth. Tinora won the team title with 238 points. Lakota (189.50) was second and Allen East (144.50) edged Mohawk (143.50) and Liberty-Benton (137) for third. Elmwood was sixth (114.50) in the 32-school field, Columbus Grove and Van Buren (97.50) tied for eighth, Carey was 12th (78), McComb 14th (69.50), Upper Sandusky 15th (65.50) and Fostoria 17th (52). SWIMMING FREMONT – Findlay High's Claire Kemmere won two events and helped a relay team add another first in leading the Trojans to a third place finish on Saturday in the girls portion of the Three Rivers Athletic Conference swimming and diving championships held at Fremont Ross. Kemmere captured the most demanding freestyle events, winning the 200-meter free in 1:56.48 and the 500 free in 5:23.91. The FHS sophomore was a full 5 seconds ahead of the pack when she touched the wall in the 200, and was 14 seconds faster than the runner-up in the 500 free. Kemmere also swam a leg on the TRAC championship 400 free relay team that included Delaney Spradlin, Ava Weissling and Jillian Nicholson. That group posted a winning time of 3:47.50, while also placing third in the 200 free relay (1:43.06). Findlay doubled up points in the 100 backstroke with Spradlin placing second (10.43) and Taylor Hudson third (1:02.98). Spradlin also finished third in the 100 butterfly (1:03.13), with Weissling third in the 500 free (5:46.06) and fourth in the 200 IM (2:28.47). Hudson was fourth in the 50 free (25.78), Charlotte Biesiada was sixth in the 100 breaststroke (1:20.36) and Findlay was sixth in the 200 medley relay (2:16,29). Toledo St. Ursula won a sixth straight TRAC girls swim title, amassing 653 total points to finish well ahead of Fremont Ross (411). Findlay was third (355), its best finish in the girls meet since winning the league in 2017 and finishing third in 2018 and 2019. Toledo St. Francis made it a clean sweep in the 12th and final TRAC swim meet, scoring 720 points and outdistancing second place Fremont Ross (444.5) by a huge margin. The Knights won every league title since the TRAC started with the 2011-12 school year. Findlay, runner-up to St. Francis in eight of previous 11 league meets, finished third this year with 275 points. In the boys meet, Findlay got fifth-place finishes from Spencer Schedel in the 100 back (1:07.15), Casey Daniel in the 100 fly (1:12.49) and the 200 medley (1:55.96) and 400 free (3:48.67) relays. Matt Weber was sixth in the 500 free (5:21.63) and seventh in the 200 free (1:57.37). Sam Dolan finished seventh in the 100 breast (1:11.38), with the Trojans also placing seventh in the 200 free (1:47.46) and 400 free (4:10.77) relays. The TRAC diving competition was held Friday, with Kelsie Ritzler finishing second (337.40) in the girls meet and Zach Doepker third (381.60) and Anderson Reimer fifth (269.55) for the boys. HOCKEY FINDLAY 6 ANTHONY WAYNE 1 BOWLING GREEN – Riding the momentum of Friday's 5-3 rivalry victory over Bowling Green, Findlay High's hockey team posted a second straight league win on Saturday when the Trojans beat Anthony Wayne 6-1. After falling behind 1-0 for the second straight game, Findlay once again rallied. Kellen Wetz tied it 1-1 on an unassisted goal, Trey Downard put Findlay ahead midway through the period, and freshman Colin Somerville's goal made it 3-1 with 1:50 left in the first period. Somerville got his second goal of the day in the second period. Power play goals by Ross Trenkamp in the second period and Matt Pinski in the third put it out of reach. Conner Stearns, Simon Tanner, Draven Wilson, AJ Savage, Wetz, Noah Schramko, Sam Swisher and Chris Eickholt had assists for Findlay, 15-9-0 and 3-3-0 in NHC play. Findlay had a healthy edge in shots on goal. Anthony Wayne goalie Ryan Kibista made 34 saves. Seth Russell had 16 saves for the No. 11-ranked Trojans, who will face league-leading (5-1-1, 11 points) and No. 4-ranked Sylvania Northview Friday at The Cube. JUNIOR VARSITY: Findlay 7, Anthony Wayne 1 SCHEDULE Monday's Events GIRLS BASKETBALL Lima Senior at Findlay (TRAC) Cory-Rawson at Lima Perry Pandora-Gilboa at Cardinal Stritch Elmwood at Patrick Henry Kenton at Upper Sandusky