Looking 'super': Ontario makes impressive early showing on the mats
OLIVESBURG — Ontario's wrestlers, under new coach Wes Turnbaugh, made a statement on Wednesday night. Taking into account all of the wins by pin, you could say a resounding statement.
Competing in what was billed as a "Super Tri," hosted by Crestview, the Warriors more than held up their end by beating Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference rival Marion Pleasant 48-27 and Mechanicsburg 38-30. In the latest statewide team projections at borofanohio.net, Pleasant is ranked No. 3 and Mechanicsburg No. 4 in Division III. Both schools boast seven state-ranked wrestlers, although Pleasant was missing three and Mechanicsburg two.
Few teams look like they will a month from now, with some wrestlers slowly making the transition from football or moving around in weight, but Ontario's performance was impressive by almost any measure.
In their opener against Pleasant, the defending MOAC champs, Ontario started off with four pins from Carson Barnes (106 pounds), 2020 state alternate Jacob Ohl (113), Noah Poole (120) and Owen Reamsnider (126). The string was broken when Mason Turbaugh, the coach's son, lost at 132, but the freshman made a nice showing, falling only 4-2 to Daxton Chase, a returning state placer.
In all, the Warriors scored 42 of their 48 points in that victory by pin, the other win coming by forfeit.
"The kids are wrestling great," said Wes Turbaugh, a former state champ for Ontario promoted to head coach when Kevin Kroll stepped down after nine seasons at the helm. "Just from last week, when we were over at Northmor (where the Warriors beat Mansfield Senior and lost to Upper Sandusky) we worked on some minor things and came out tonight on fire. We're very strong in our lightweights right now, and everybody's young — that's the good thing. We're sophomores down low and sophomores up high. The middle is our upperclassmen. The young guys stepped up big."
There were several top 10-ranked wrestlers in the meet, led by returning state runner-up Ethan Turnbaugh (150), Mason's older brother, and Crestview junior Hayden Kuhn (132), both ranked No. 1 in Divisions II and III, respectively.
If you think they're patting themselves on the back over their No. 1 stature, you're wrong.
"I don't really look at the rankings," said Kuhn, who finished third at state last season for the Cougars and beat Pleasant's aforementioned Daxton Chase 3-0 Wednesday to go along with a forfeit win. "I just go out and wrestle whoever's in front of me. If they show up and cross the line, I'll be ready to wrestle."
Ethan Turnbaugh knew nothing beforehand about Mechanicsburg's Westyn Moyer, ranked No. 3 in the state, before they squared off in Wednesday's second round. Moyer finished seventh at state last year and was in a 5-5 dogfight in the third period before Turnbaugh scored back points and then finished it with a pin at 4:29 after planting Pleasant's Sam Mentzer at 1:13 in his opening match.
"I had no idea who (Moyer) was until five minutes before the match," Ethan Turnbaugh said. "(Rankings) just put a bulls-eye on your back, which doesn't bother me. It gives me harder competition. Maybe a kid will see my name and say, 'If I beat him, I'll be seeded.' It just makes kids want to go harder against me and it makes me better as I keep going."
After his evening was over, Ethan sat in the stands with family and watched his matches on his phone. His free-flowing style sometimes lands him in predicaments, but he always seems to extricate himself from danger while giving his dad, formerly an Ontario assistant before his promotion, more gray hairs.
"I would like to not get taken down first, which happened in both of my matches," Ethan said with a grin. "Coach is always like, whoever takes down the kid first has the best chance of winning, like 80 percent of the time. If you look back at all of my matches, there's only 20 percent where I took the kid down first."
Drew Barnes (144) and Brayden Robinson (285) were the other Warriors who had pins against Pleasant. Like Turnbaugh, Robinson and Carson Barnes had pins in both of their matches.
Ethan said last year's state runner-up finish is his motivation for finishing on top this year. Part of his offseason included competing on Team CLAWS, run by Crestview coach Steve Haverdill, or "Haverdad" as he calls him. Now he gets to wrestle for his real dad in his final high school season.
It's not all fun and games. Ethan woke up Wednesday overweight, so his dad put him to work at his construction company.
"I was covered up in a lot of sweats, lifting things," Ethan said. "That's how I cut my weight.
"(My dad) is going back to basics because we have a newer team. We're going over single legs, double legs ... takedowns all over again, just getting everybody good at the basics."
Haverdill, who had two double-winners Wednesday in Kuhn and heavyweight Mitch Kline, rewarded himself with two days off after leading Crestview's football team to a historic 12-1 season and berth in the Division VI regional semifinals.
"I figure I can rest when I'm dead," he joked.
Crestview has won back-to-back Firelands Conference titles in both football and wrestling and will try to make it five titles in six years this winter. That could very well happen with a full complement of wrestlers. Among the missing Wednesday were Connor Morse, along with the state-ranked Godseys, Aidan and Brier, as they heal from a long football season. The Cougars fell 46-30 to Mechanicsburg and then 37-30 to Pleasant.
"We look at it this way: We want to be full throttle by mid-January," Haverdill said. "That's when we should have everybody at their weight and get guys back from injuries. Then we can get ready to peak."
Kuhn wasted no time transitioning from one sport to the other, especially since he and Kline are entered in the nationally renowned Walsh Ironman this weekend.
"I didn't want to take any time off," said the third team All-Ohio quarterback. "I got right in the wrestling room the Monday after we lost in the playoffs. My legs are still fatigued, just getting into wrestling. But I felt pretty good."
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ontario Warriors Wes Turnbaugh Jacob Ohl Ethan Turnbaugh Crestview Cougars
