by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
COLUMBUS — If you’re going to win, you might as well make it exciting.
With about two seconds left on the clock, Circleville’s Trentt Fulgham scored his only two points to advance to the Division II heavyweight championship match with a 2-1 decision.
“He was too far forward,” Fulgham said. “I saw his head and arm, I grabbed it, I was able to level myself out a little bit and was able to get that cradle which set me up for the two.”
The match with West Holmes’ Elisha Baldridge had been stuck at 1-0 since part way through the second period as the two grapplers tried to find their edge.
“He’s a hell of a wrestler,” Fulgham said. “He’s fast, no heavyweight should be moving that fast. He was very fluid in his techniques, and he just made one mistake that I was able to capitalize on.”
In last week’s Steubenville district tournament, Baldridge had pinned Fulgham in the semifinals on the way to winning the title.
Fulgham will be back at the Jerome Schottenstein Center on the campus of The Ohio State University Sunday night to take on New Lexington’s Zane Pletcher for the title. Pletcher advanced to the finals with a third-round pin, a 10-1 major decision and a 9-7 decision.
Pletcher also came out of Steubenville, as did other state semifinalist. Pletcher was second at the district but he and Fulgham didn’t meet up in that bracket.
Fulgham didn’t seem too worried about who was going to be on the other side of the bracket tomorrow night.
“I’m my coach’s first finalist, that alone feels amazing,” he said. “Being able to wrestle for my parents and everyone supporting me, it just feels phenomenal knowing they’re all beside me, behind me, everywhere.”
“He’s got the biggest heart I’ve ever coached, and it’s been 26 years for me,” Circleville coach Trent Brooks said. “He just doesn’t stop. He just showed it there. He’s going to get it and let’s hope he does.”
