Here's how two former central Ohio high school wrestlers rose to top in NCAA Division III
Once training partners in the Hartley Wrestling Club during middle school, Michael Petrella and Jacob Reed are now competing for Ohio Athletic Conference rivals in Baldwin Wallace and Ohio Northern.
They’re competing at different weight classes but enjoying similar success.
In the NCAA Division III national championships Friday and Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Petrella won his second consecutive title at 149 pounds and Reed finished second at 141. Petrella, a senior and 2020 Hartley graduate, and Reed, a junior and 2021 Lancaster graduate, were both No. 1 seeds.
Petrella capped a perfect two-year run when he pinned Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Tyler Goebel in 4:19 in the final. He went 43-0 this season, with 16 pins and 16 wins by technical fall, after going 49-0 last year.
That followed a second-place national finish at 149 as a sophomore.
“I was really disappointed my (sophomore) year, and that’s what helped me flip the switch ... getting back to wrestling and finding a love for it,” said Petrella, who has one year of eligibility remaining after losing his freshman season to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has 114 career wins and plans to compete next season as a graduate student.
“Michael is one of the fiercest competitors in Division III,” Baldwin Wallace coach Jamie Gibbs said. “He loves to test himself and compete against the very best. ... He sets little side goals all the time to keep himself highly motivated to be the best. His performance in the final just shows how dominant and special he can be.”
In high school, Petrella wrestled for his brother, Kevin, who is the head coach at Hartley. He went 167-29 for Hartley and finished seventh in the Division II state tournament as a sophomore (106) and junior (113). The state tournament was canceled in his senior season because of the pandemic.
“It’s pretty incredible,” Kevin said. “The amount of growth that he’s had in the last four years ... he’s always been talented. The things that he’s always had going for him were his work ethic and he truly believes that he can beat anyone that he’s lined up against. No matter how the match is going, he can win at any time during the match.”
The family ties continue for Michael Petrella at Baldwin Wallace, where his father, Paul, was a football and wrestling two-time All-American and the school’s first wrestling national champion in 1978 at 177. Paul was inducted into the school's Athletics Alumni Hall of Fame in 1990.
“I wouldn’t say I didn’t have that many options (for college), but I like the people here,” Michael said. “I’m glad this was the school that pursued me because I don’t think I’d be able to grow as much as I did anywhere else.”
Coming off third-place finishes at 141 as a freshman and sophomore, Reed lost to second-seeded Josh Wilson of Greensboro 4-2 in the final.
“My freshman year I came in and had a lot to prove,” Reed said. “My sophomore year I came back with the expectation that I had to match what I did last year or do better, so I focused on getting better and trying to be more dominant, and I was able to achieve that. This year I tried to widen the gap between me and the other people and try to develop what I have going.”
A resident of Canal Winchester, Reed open-enrolled at Lancaster and was a four-time Division I state qualifier, highlighted by finishing fourth at 138 as a senior.
“I knew in high school his style of wrestling was tailor-made for the college style, sort of hard to score on, very controlled, very methodical,” Lancaster coach Dugan Bentley said. “He really pushes the endurance and is a very solid, controlled, stable type of wrestler. He knows how to win really tough matches.”
Reed’s continued progress has impressed Ohio Northern coach Ron Beaschler.
“We’re very pleased with where Jacob is at, academically and athletically,” Beaschler said. “He’ll be a three-time scholar All-American and three-time wrestling All-American. You can’t get much better than that.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Central Ohio wrestlers Petrella, Reed rise to top in NCAA Division III
