COLUMBUS — Bodie Martin will have to refocus his mission at the state tournament after losing in an ultimate tie breaker in the 150-pound semifinal.
Martin was wrestling a fellow junior in South Range’s Tyson Seesholtz Saturday night with a shot in Sunday night’s championship match on the line.
Seesholtz (34-2) took the early lead as the first period ended with him up 3-1.
Martin got a point when Seesholtz was called for stalling in the second and scored on an escape in the third to tie the bout.
They wrestled scoreless through the sudden death period and two overtimes to reach the ultimate tiebreaker round.
Seesholtz chose the down position and was able to get the advantage about 10 seconds in to advance with a 5-3 win.
“That’s a tough kid. Like Bodie, he’s a junior who’s been up here three times,” AC coach, and Bodie’s father, Curtis Martin said. “No father’s ever been more proud of their son than me right now.
“We wrestled our hardest. We’ve got nothing to hang our heads about, we just went to triple overtime. (Seesholtz) was able to score in in triple overtime, he gets the win and we don’t.”
With sites set on wrestling for a state title, the Martins need to refocus for Sunday morning’s consolation semifinals which will determine if Bodie wrestles for third or fifth in the finals.
“That’s going to be the hard part. He came here to wrestle tomorrow night. He’s disappointed as you can imagine,” coach Martin said. “That’s going to be the trick – It’s easier said than done – if we can get refocused and finish as high as we can.
“We’ve just got to get refocused and wrestle our best.”
Martin (44-1) will return to the mats Sunday morning when the consolation semifinals begin at 9:30.
Click here for complete results from the Division III tournament.