WRESTLING | Gavan Morris' 190-pound title highlights Waynedale's big day at sectional

WEST SALEM — With seconds remaining in his 190-pound title bout Saturday, Waynedale’s Gavan Morris stood there moments away from doing something he had been dreaming about since his biddy wrestling days.

As trainers plugged his bloody nose, and his coaches gave him some final words of encouragement, the senior withstood one last attack by Dalton’s Sean Geiser to take the Division III Northwestern Sectional title.

“The coaches coached me up a lot in that blood time, with the amount of time that we had,” Morris said moments after his 6-5 decision. “I think it's just that conditioning and how hard we work in the room that got me there and I really pushed through to get first place.”

Morris was one of five Golden Bears to walk away with championships in their respective weight classes — joining Caiden Heller (106 pounds), Caden Schmeltzer (126), Justin Hershberger (165) and Peyton Lemon (175) — as the team captured the team title for the fifth consecutive season.

But the day belonged to the senior who has been patiently been waiting his turn.

Morris had taken part in just one sectional tournament over his first three years, going 1-2 as a replacement for an injured wrestler at 182 pounds as a sophomore, but Saturday was his moment.

He responded with an 18-second pin of Northwestern’s Kevin Mosher before upsetting state-ranked Sean Gast of Mapleton with a pin in 2:16 to get the final and get a rematch with Geiser, who pinned him in the closing minute of regulation for the Wayne County Athletic League crown last weekend.

This time, however, Morris stormed out to 4-1 lead at the opening period and led by as much as four midway through the second, before Geiser mounted his comeback. The score stood at 6-5 heading into the final stanza with the Waynedale grappler holding off every move that Geiser threw at him.

The final moment came after the bout stopped for blood time as, with 14 seconds left, Geiser went for Morris legs, which he withstood and held on to avoid the takedown and took the win.

“Me and Sean had a battle last week at county, I knew it was going to be a battle again, but even after I lost last week, I knew that come back and turn the tide,” Morris said. “I think that having a good first period sets up the rest of the match. I felt like I set it up perfectly in the first period and it just went from there.”

As he walked off, Lemon and his other teammates embraced Morris to celebrate, making it all a reality for Morris.

“I haven't been a varsity wrestler until this year and I think I've grown a lot. I'm just thankful to my coaches for that,” he said. “I knew it was going to happen at some point. Obviously, I'm super happy … I think I've put in the work and I deserve this.”

Heller won the 106-pound title uncontested as the only other potential competitor in the field failed to make weight, while Schmeltzer, Hershberger and Lemon all won via pin as the Bears compiled 244 points to outlast Dalton (187.5) and Mapleton (168.5).

Schmeltzer needed a little over a minute to pin Loudonville’s Issac Wittel, capping off an efficient 2-0 day for the freshman.

“I don't know, I just went out and did my thing,” Schmeltzer said. “I've been working hard all season and my teammates have been pushing me. They've been kind of coaching me through it all, because I'm a freshman and I've never done this before.”

Hershberger was equally as quick, recording a fall of Northwestern’s Collin Good just 1:21 into the 165-pound final, while Lemon — the projected state champ at 175 — took care of Orrville’s Jack Waldron in 3:51.

“You just need to trust the process at this point,” Lemon said. “The coaches do a good job of getting ready every week. They’ve been doing this a long time.”

The Bulldogs had three individual champs with Greyson Siders recording a 14-4 major decision victory over Caleb Zimmerman of Waynedale at 150, followed by Tate Geiser at 157 pinning Columbiana’s Daniel Vivo and 215-pounder Austin Ryder winning 9-3 over Landon Sword of Mapleton.

An early takedown of Zimmerman was all that Siders needed to get him doing.

“It got me fired up,” Siders said. “I was kind of sloppy at the beginning, giving up two, but once I got back on my feet I was able to take him down. I just wanted to dominate the match, so I wanted to get as many takedowns as I could.”

For both Geiser and Ryder, it was about establishing their offensive attack and wearing down their opponents to take sectional titles.

“Just staying on my offense and staying on his head,” Geiser said. “It was a good weekend. I just wanted to work on some things to get ready for next weekend.”

Ryder had a modest 4-2 lead after two periods before an escape and a pair of takedowns closed the match.

“I just had to work him down and get into the things that I wanted to do,” the senior said. “I was starting to feel him open up a little bit, so I took what I could.

“I was locked-in. In a close match, anything can happen, so I was just in the moment and not worried about the score.”

The match of the day, however, belonged to Norwayne’s Gibson Moore.

Facing Jake Sundberg for the second time in as many weeks, the senior 132-pounder stormed out to an early 2-0 lead and then followed up a pair of escapes by the Waynedale 12th-grader with one of his own to lead 3-2 with less than a minute remaining in regulation.

With 20 seconds left, Moore had one more defensive stand that he not only was able to spin out of the hold, but turned into two points of his own for the 5-2 decision.

“I think I just barely avoided that takedown,” Moore said. “At that point, I was up by one, so I knew I just had to hold on. He then went for a sloppy throw and I just caught him.

“This means a lot,” he added. “It means a lot to win, especially against a Waynedale guy. He beat me last week, so it felt good to just get him this time.”

Loudonville’s Drew Spreng (113 pounds) and Smithville’s Michael Harris (138) were the other two locals to take individual championships.

An early lead was enough for Spreng to wear down Domanic Devault of Waynedale before the sophomore picked up a pin at the 4:50 mark.

“He tried to get a big move on me, because I was up by a lot, and I just rolled through and had him in a good position and got him down at the end,” Spreng said.

Harris put on an offensive display, leading 9-1 after two against Robert McCrork — who had a thrilling 8-7 decision over Dalton’s Bram McCourt in the semifinals — before ending the match with an 18-3 technical fall.

“I just had to stay in my ties and keep control on top,” Harris said. It was about staying in control, basically.”

Northwestern’s Trent Sigler (120), Dalton’s Kaden Russell (138) and Northwestern’s Isaac Ott (285) each earned sectional runner-up honors. Russell came up just shy of the title, giving up an escape to Andrew Sas of Mapleton – which proved to be enough for the 1-0 decision.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Wrestling: Waynedale rules Northwestern Sectional again