COLUMBUS — The 88th Annual Boys Wrestling State Tournament got off to a solid start for Amanda-Clearcreek’s Bodie Martin Friday
The junior came out on top of his Division III opening match by recording a technical fall (20-2) over Tyler Wiseman (25-6) from Tuscarawas Valley.
“Perfectly – that’s exactly how I expected that match to go.” Martin said. “A hard match but still just scoring my points on my offense, controlling my ties, wrestling my match and not his.”
Unbeaten on the season, Martin has his eyes on a big finish but isn’t taking anything for granted this weekend.
“Just one at a time – I’ve only got four more in my head so I’m just approaching them one at a time with all the confidence in the world because that’s what you need in this sport is a good mindset,” he said.
“It’s just a matter of staying focused,” coach Curtis Martin said. “Him and coach Miller work together a lot and coach Miller really mentors him and discusses things with him — staying locked in, staying focused, keeping your eyes on your goals. He’s done a good job being coachable.
“He’s stayed focused and we’re fortunate to be sitting at 43-0 right now.”
Martin came in as the district champion from the Troy tournament while Wiseman was the fourth-place finisher at Coshocton. But that didn’t play into how the Aces approached the opening match.
“It’s pretty easy not to be overconfident up here, actually. He’s a former state qualifier so we knew that he had won a lot of matches and he’s had some success, so we were not overlooking him at all,” coach Martin said.
After going 1-2 at the state tournament as a freshman and a sophomore, just making it to Columbus again isn’t enough.
“That’s another thing that’s kept him focused and really kept him dialed in because he knew he wanted to come here and win this year,” coach Martin said.
Up next is Port Clinton junior Gavin Connell (41-7). Connell won his opener 4-2 over Logan Haer (38-8) from Tuslaw.
The undefeated season up until now won’t mean anything if they don’t go undefeated in the quarterfinals.
“If you come in here undefeated and don’t win, your undefeated all year doesn’t mean a darn thing,” coach Martin said. “It’s not even something I think he really thinks about. That’s not the goal, the goal is not undefeated, the goal is bigger than that, I know that sounds strange but that’s not the goal.”
The championship quarterfinals begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Click here for complete results from the Division III state tournament.
