J.P. Wrobel, Johnny Green, Tristan McKibben sweep fifth-place matches at state wrestling

John Wrobel of Crestwood, top, wrestles Riley Greathouse of Waynedale during their 126 pound Division III match for fifth place in the 2024 OHSAA State Wrestling Tournament at the Schottenstein Center, Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio.

COLUMBUS — A perfect slate of fifth-place matches followed by heartbreak in a couple of third-place contests.

All in a couple of hours at the Schottenstein Center.

Crestwood senior 126-pounder J.P. Wrobel got the fifth-place matches started locally with a sweet end to his career. Wrobel took the lead with an escape to start the second period, then bowled his head into Waynedale freshman Riley Greathouse’s torso to finish off a double en route to a 3-2 win.

The two might have been even more spectacular than the three as Wrobel walked a tightrope after taking a 3-point lead, repeatedly avoiding danger when Greathouse seemed poised for points. That is Wrobel to a T, according to the man who has watched him the most.

“That’s him,” Crestwood coach Dave Wrobel said. “That’s JP in a nutshell. You really almost, in a way, can’t even coach it. You just let him do his thing and hope for the best, but that’s his style, and you can’t really tell him not to wrestle that way because he’s good at it.”

Johnny Green of Aurora, top, slams Austin Bickerton of Highland onto the mat during their 113 pound Division I match for fifth place the 2024 OHSAA State Wrestling Tournament at the Schottenstein Center, Sunday, March 10, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio.

A couple of mats over, Aurora junior 113-pounder Johnny Green won a similarly low-scoring fifth-place match, 3-0. Able to ride Highland’s Austin Bickerton out in the second, Green took the lead with an escape to start the third. The three-time state placer masterfully handled the rest of the period, forcing Bickerton to take a shot late, which Green slickly deflected for the clinching takedown with two seconds left.

“Well, that’s a kid that we’ve wrestled quite a few times and the last few times he’s gotten the better of us,” Greenmen coach Jeremy Johnson said. “That’s a match Johnny wanted to get back and he did a really good job following the game plan and the second period ride-out was huge for us, Johnny is a great top wrestler and he proved it in that match, and I think that’s what kind of gave us the edge a little bit.”

Green thus clinched a third straight season of finishing in the top five of the state.

“You look around, this is a tough tournament,” Johnson said. “Anytime you can end up on top, it means a lot and it gives you that stepping stone for the next year going into his senior season.”

Rootstown junior Tristan McKibben (157) followed by ending his state debut on a high, slowly emerging from the bottom position to land a reversal and near fall to start the second. That 5-point swing carried the match for a 5-2 fifth-place win.

“You stay solid down there,” Rootstown coach Anthony Anderson said. “You battle hands and get the weight off of you and just keep moving until an opportunity presents itself and he’s really good at finding that.”

Overall, McKibben was competitive against everyone he faced in Columbus aside from Barnesville’s Skyler King, who will wrestle for a state title later this evening. Indeed, McKibben may well have landed in the third-place match, not the fifth, had mat points been awarded after his second-period reversal.

“When he’s on his game and he’s healthy, yeah, he can wrestle with anybody,” Anderson said. “We’re a little banged up, the elbow is a little bit sore still, but all in all, I think we wrestled really well.”

Portage County’s fifth-place magic couldn’t quite carry into the third-place matches.

Senior Mia Gaetjens, who has played such a monumental role in the rise of the Mogadore girls program, lost a heartbreaker of a third-place match to Orange’s Lydia Heinrich. Gaetjens led 7-0 and was going for a third-period cradle when Heinrich landed a pin.

“Mia had a fantastic career at Mogadore,” Wildcats coach Duane Funk said. “She’s a four-time [state] qualifier, three-time placer and she’s in a very elite group with the four-time qualifiers. You’re talking Nick Skye, Tyler Knight, John Tompkins, so she’s up there. She set the bar high. She set a good example for our girls.”

One of the girls Gaetjens set a great example for? Mogadore sophomore M.J. Shellenbarger, who finished fourth as well.

Shellenbarger raised eyebrows when she stunned a district champ, Bellbrook’s Jada Weiss, in the first round. She then stunned Tuscarawas Valley sophomore Tori Wilson when she rallied from an 8-1 deficit to record a late first-period pin.

Ultimately, Wilson got Shellenbarger back in the third-place match with a pin, but the future is bright for the Wildcats, led by Shellenbarger and Kai Gaetjens, who took eighth at 130.

Streetsboro sophomore Anthony Sindelar surged to victory in his seventh-place match with a 6-point first period. Aurora’s Luke Green (106) and Cole Walton (157) finished eighth.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Green, McKibben, Wrobel sweep fifth-place matches at state wrestling