By CHUCK MARTINEZ

martinez@crescent-news.com

FOSTORIA -- When all was said-and-done at the Division II district wrestling tournament at Fostoria High School, three area grapplers were left standing with a ticket to next week's state tournament in their hands.

The six-county area sent 22 grapplers to Fostoria with the hopes of qualifying for the 71st annual Ohio High School state-wrestling tournament, but in the end it was Defiance 112-pound B.J. Miller and Napoleon's Josh Lynch (119) walking away not only with a ticket to state, but district championships. Meanwhile Wauseon junior Michael Perez (119) also earned a return trip to the Schottenstein Center.

In 112-pound action, Defiance's Miller entered the weekend with a flawless 38-0 record and the distinction of pinning his way through the Western Buckeye League and Wauseon Sectional tournaments.

On Friday, Miller added to his school record for wins and claimed another spot in the record books with his 25th pin of the season with a 37-second fall over Lima Bath's Tommy Mault.

In the second round on Friday, Miller gave up his first offensive points in two weeks before taking command against Lexington's John Gould and an eventual 9-3 victory.

In the money match, Miller showed another opponent the lights with a first-period pin against Tiffin's Delian Schneider.

"It feels really good to get to go back to state," explained Miller. "I'm happy and proud to be able to do it. A little of the pressure might be off, now that I've qualified for state, but now I need to go down there and place."

In the finals, Miller faced Highland's Bart Young.

Young, the fifth-place finisher in the state at 103-pounds a year ago, entered the postseason as the fifth-ranked 112-pounder by Brian Brakeman, but on Saturday he too fell victim to 12th-ranked Miller as the DHS sophomore recorded a 5-2 victory and another appearance in Columbus.

"I told myself that I had to give it my all this weekend no matter what," added Miller. "But these matches (districts) are over with now, I can't look back, I have to keep my eye on the current match that's in front of me."

In 119-pound action, Defiance junior Jordan Gonzales lost his opener, but managed to pick up a pair of wins in the consolation rounds before falling to Fairview Park Fairview's Drew Liechty, 6-2.

Meanwhile, in the top half of the bracket, Lynch and Perez were leaving beaten opponents in their wake.

Lynch, who finished third last week at the Wauseon Sectional behind Perez and Gonzales, got back-to-back sticks on Friday to put himself in the semifinals where he disposed of Highlands Jake Rininger 4-3 to earn a spot in next week's bracket.

The win that put Lynch in the finals and in the state tournament was even sweeter considering he entered last year's district tournament as a sectional champ, but finished the district meet a disappointing fifth. Add to that the fact that Lynch has been battling a torn labrum throughout the majority of this season and there was no doubt the junior had plenty of reasons to smile.

"Boy, I don't really know (what to say), I never thought this (qualifying) would happen," said an overjoyed Lynch. "It feels good, because a lot of people didn't think I could do it (after last year). I wasn't in good shape (this year), because of the injury and I've been working hard to get there, I'm still not there, but I'm going to keep working on it."

While Lynch was exorcising his district demons, Perez (39-6) was rolling along, picking up a technical fall and a pair of decisions to earn his trip to state.

"It feels great to make it back (to state)," said Perez. "I was getting worried there for a while in my qualifying match, but a lot of it (being successful) is knowing that you've been there before and knowing how to react."

In the finals, it was Lynch gaining the glory as the Wildcats' junior pushed his record to 31-8 with a narrow 3-0 victory over Perez.

Lynch had hoped that he could share his ride to Columbus with his district-qualifying teammates. But for the second year in a row, the district semifinals and consolation brackets took their toll on the Wildcats.

Sectional champion Robert Sanchez, got a pair of wins on Friday to move to the 285-pound semifinals. However, in the semifinals, Sanchez suffered just his third loss of the season, before falling again in the consolation brackets to Toledo Libbey's James Reynolds, who Sanchez beat last week for the sectional crown.

Sanchez did come away with a fifth-place finish, however, to become the Fostoria 285-pound state alternate.

Napoleon 189-pounder Cody Bloom also won two on Friday only to lose two straight on Saturday, while 160-pound Jason Brown and 145-pounder Derek Vocke hung around the consolation rounds, but not long enough.

Brown won one on Friday and added two more wins to his resume on Saturday only to fall one win short of qualifying, but he did finish fifth to become the state alternate. Meanwhile Vocke also won a match on Friday before being bounced to the losers' bracket.

Vocke responded with a win in the second round of consolation and was two ticks away from another.

As time wound down in the third period of his consolation quarterfinal match against Van Wert freshman Connor Massillo, Vocke went for broke and a head-and-arm. Massillo went head-over-heels as Vocke picked up the reversal, but the buzzer sounded before the two count that would have given the Napoleon senior back points and another win.

Defiance junior Terry Wagenhauser was also in the thick of the 145-pound melee.

Wagenhauser picked up a 6-2 decision over Lima Shawnee's Ryan Rider in the opener on Friday before dropping to the loser's bracket where Massillo ended his season.

Also suffering in the consolation rounds was Wauseon 130-pounder Carson Frey and the Bryan trio of Donny Ramos (103), Shayne Combs (135) and Broc Combs (140).

Frey and the Combs brothers each won a pair of matches on Friday to put themselves in the driver's seat on Saturday.

But all three lost back-to-back bouts on Saturday to put them in the fifth-place match where Shayne and Broc were victorious to earn state-alternate honors while Frey finished sixth.

At 103, Ramos fell to the consolation rounds on Friday, but opened Saturday with a win before suffering a second loss.