Where’d he come from?: Unheralded Lex heavyweight among 11 area state qualifiers

NORWALK — If they couldn’t award him a first-place medal, Lexington heavyweight Aedan Nicol at least deserved hazard pay.

While the Ontario Warriors looked every bit the No. 1 wrestling team in the News Journal Power Poll and the area’s four weight class champions lived up to their state rankings, it was Nicol who broke new ground by coming out of nowhere to earn a well-deserved berth in the state tournament.

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Competing in the Division II district meet at Norwalk High School, the unranked senior rebounded from a first-round loss to reel off four straight wins and finish fourth, giving Lex its first state qualifier since 2018.

Entering the tournament with a modest 29-13 record, it looked like a quick exit for Nicol when he lost his first match 5-1 to Van Wert’s Breese Bollenbacher. But that proved insignificant, just like his loss in the consolation finals to Napoleon’s sixth-ranked Isaac Lehman.

It was the magic in between that mattered. Four wins, three by pins. He avenged a 10-second loss – that’s not a misprint – to Sandusky Perkins’ Eli Sanchez in the J.C. Gorman Invitational with a 1:27 pin of Sanchez in his second consolation match. Then in the blood round, he ousted Toledo Central Catholic’s fifth-ranked Michael Cannings at 4:23.

Unfathomable, especially given that Nicol decided not to wrestle last year and had his sophomore year wiped out by injury. He competed as a freshman, but had only a handful of teammates because wrestling had become an afterthought at the school.

“I did it (qualified for state) the hardest way you can,” said Nicol, knowing a loss in any of his first four consolation matches would have ended him. “I didn’t think I had anything in me, but I guess I had something in me … I pulled something out.”

His strategy was simple if the execution was not.

“They’re all bigger than me. I’m like 250 pounds, the smallest one out there,” he said. “So I’ve got to try to make it to the third (period), make them get tired. I can’t get under them, that’s for sure.”

Nicol’s district run and the team’s respectable fifth-place finish at the Clyde sectional could become good recruiting tools for a program that is showing renewed life under second-year head coach John Watkins, His son and assistant, Jon, was a state medalist in 2015, part of an era when the program was among the DII elite.

“He’s a special kid,” Watkins said of Nicol. “He’s more confident and his greatest strength is coming off the bottom. He’s hard to keep down.”

A great comeback story is Madison’s sixth-ranked senior 120-pounder Mike Thomas. A few weeks ago his season appeared in jeopardy when he learned he needed eye surgery. It sidelined him for nearly three weeks and he was back for only two practices before winning an Ohio Cardinal Conference.

Now he’s making a return trip to state after posting two first-period pins en route to a fourth-place district finish.

“I wasn’t allowed to do anything because there was fluid where they did the repair and if my heart rate got too high during a workout it could bust through,” Thomas said. “And then everything could go south.”

That’s the direction Cole Dille’s wrestling career for Ontario was headed a couple of years ago because of injuries, but the senior 157-pounder stayed healthy this season, won his first career title a few weeks ago in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference meet and built on that momentum to earn a state berth with Saturday’s fourth-place finish.

He’ll be joined by the Ohl brothers, Aiden (106), a sophomore, and Jacob (113), a senior, junior Mason Turnbaugh (138) and senior Landon Campbell (215). Ontario’s five qualifiers is believed to be the most in program history.

The latter four were all district finalists, with the sixth-ranked Turnbaugh and second-ranked Jacob Ohl winning titles.

“It’s amazing after everything I’ve been through (health-wise) and the season I’ve had,” Dille said. “To not be wrestling to the best of my ability at one point in the season and now to be peaking at the right time is awesome.”

Turnbaugh pinned his way to a sectional title and nearly repeated that kind of run at districts, settling for a 12-0 major decision over Elida’s Skyler Kirk in the finals. In a showdown of 2 versus 3 in the state rankings, Jacob Ohl got his 150th victory in the finals with a 4-0 win over Galion freshman Carter Trukovich. That came one day after Campbell achieved the same milestone in the first session of the tournament.

“We didn’t plan it that way, but it’s pretty cool,” Campbell said. “It’s something to look forward to and something we’ll always be able to look back at.”

Campbell, ranked No. 2 in the  state, squared off in the finals against defending state champ Max of Shulaw of Columbus DeSales. Campbell pinned his way to the finals, but Shulaw stopped him in 3:52. Campbell was the only one to last more than 71 seconds with him.

“I definitely feel I can be top two,” Campbell said. “I guess me and him will go right back at it.”

Clear Fork senior Luke Schlosser, ranked No. 5, came within one point of making it to Saturday’s finals. He lost 1-0 in the semis to DeSales’ No. 3-ranked Zack Lopez, but finished strong by pinning Wauseon’s Ian Martin in 2:54 for third.

“There was never any doubt I was going to get out,” said Schlosser, the area’s top returning state medalist after finishing fourth in 2023. “I wish I had pushed the pace a little more (in the semis), and when I’m on the bottom I’ve got to get out. Plain and simple. You can’t get (held down) for a period and expect to win.”

Galion sophomore Gradey Harding (120) and senior Alex Griffith (285), both ranked No. 3 in the state, were repeat champions. Griffith finished with overtime wins in the semis and finals, making him the school’s first four-time state qualifier.

“Adam Gilmore (head coach at MOAC rival Highland) was a four-time qualifier, but not all four years were at Galion,” Griffith said. “We had a lot of good people coming through Galion, like Dustin Fox (a two-time state heavyweight champ). I’m honored to be one of them.”

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Where’d he come from?: Unheralded Lex heavyweight among 11 area state qualifiers