The Perrysburg wrestling locomotive kept chugging down the tracks on Saturday as the Yellow Jackets captured a seventh consecutive Northern Lakes League title.
The Yellow Jackets had 13 wrestlers in the 14 weight classes of the championship finals at Springfield. Perrysburg set a meet record with 351 team points, claiming 12 individual titles and cruising to the NLL Buckeye Division title.
“Our kids all just wrestled really well,” Perrysburg coach Scott Burnett said. “We set the tournament [points] record as our target, our gauge.”
Perrysburg's previous best performance at the league meet came in 2014, when it had 11 champs and 312 points. That team went on to finish second in the Division I state meet.
“Our goal also was to win every match [in the finals]. But we had 12 champs and 350-plus points, so that says a lot about these kids,” Burnett said.
Napoleon sent five wrestlers to the championship finals and won the NLL Cardinal Division with 156.5 points. The Wildcats also finished second in the overall standings with senior George Eggers winning an individual title at 215 pounds.
Napoleon was the last team to win an NLL title other than Perrysburg, taking the 2018 team title.
“It's a big deal for us,” longtime Napoleon coach Jason Seiler said. “We faced a lot of adversity this year and we didn't have a senior wrestling in the tournament. I wanted to not only win our division but be second overall. It's a sense of pride for us in our program to prove even though we're out-sized, we can compete against everyone.”
Whitmer placed second in the Buckeye with 146.5 points, followed by Findlay, Northview, and Anthony Wayne. Fremont Ross took second in the Cardinal with 125 points, while Clay was third, followed by Bowling Green, Southview, and Springfield.
Perrysburg standout senior Marcus Blaze became just the 13th wrestler in the 63 years of the NLL to win a fourth consecutive title. Blaze joined 10 other Yellow Jacket wrestlers, including his brother Joey, in accomplishing the feat.
Blaze worked quickly at 138, rolling to a 16-0 technical fall over Napoleon's Max Swihart. Blaze, a three-time state champion who committed to wrestle at college power Penn State, moved to 32-0 this season and is 189-2 in his high school career.
“I was looking at the program, and this league goes back a long way, and I know there haven't been too many four-time champs. So I know it's a very competitive league, and I'm fortunate,” said Blaze, who was named the Buckeye's most valuable wrestler. “I just made a trip to Penn State to figure out some things there and I was working on that stuff here. I just want to keep progressing and trying to be the best version of myself.
“It's been nice to continue Perrysburg's dominance here,” said Blaze, who will now look to become Ohio’s 34th four-time state champion.
Clay senior Garrison Weisner earned tournament MVP in the Cardinal Division.
In the best match of the finals, Perrysburg junior Joe Foels (21-13) went toe-to-toe with Findlay senior Keegan Klotz (20-2). Foels trailed 7-3 after the second period and fought twice off of his back. Foels then earned a dramatic takedown as the pair landed off the mat and fell into the scorer's table to take a 12-11 lead. Foels went on to earn an 18-13 decision.
“That's what practice is all about in the room and wrestling with these dudes who have just consistently gotten me better,” Foels said. “I kind of get thrown around in the practice room, but it helps me with the willpower and mental space in matches like this. He got pretty gassed, and we've been training for this moment. I didn't want to let my teammates down and I wanted to continue the championship mindset.”
Perrysburg had already built a 158-point lead over Whitmer heading to the championship and consolation finals.
In the opening match of the championship finals at 106, freshman Connor Bagdonas (22-7) got Perrysburg going with a technical fall of Clay sophomore Ethan Ackerman.
At 113, junior Ayden Dodd (28-4) then secured his third consecutive NLL title with a technical fall over Joshua Medina of Clay. Dodd quickly built an 11-3 lead after one period and won 21-5.
“I like to try and build a comfortable lead and then I can work on some things,” Dodd said. “It's pretty awesome to be able to get to go for my fourth. It's the coolest thing being around all these great wrestlers and being part of something special.”
Burnett called Dodd a creature of habit. “He's been really focused in and dialed in,” Burnett said.
Perrysburg sophomore Grey Burnett improved to 31-2 with a pin of Whitmer's AJ Dubendorfer in the second period at 120. Burnett, the coach's son, rolled to an 11-0 lead after the first period and captured his second straight title.
“It's nice to get the bonus points for our team,” Burnett said of the fall. “We've been preaching bonus, bonus, bonus for when we get down to state. This is another step of the process, and I'm starting to build that confidence. We'll keep building.”
Perrysburg junior Alex Denkins (31-6), a league runner-up last year, posted a technical fall over Aidan Autullo of Fremont Ross to win the title at 126.
At 132, freshman Urijah Lopez (27-5) won a fifth straight title for the Yellow Jackets with a first-period pin of Whitmer sophomore Gage Older.
Senior Kaden Soto (22-7) continued the Yellow Jackets' roll through the finals with a 10-2 major decision over Landon Deiter of Bowling Green at 144.
Senior Cole Evans (30-5), who had won an NLL title in 2023, got back on top of the podium with a 4-0 decision over Bryce Estep of Fremont Ross in the 150-pound final.
“It feels really great. It's all I can really ask for,” Evans said. “[My teammates] motivate me and make me want to wrestle harder because you don't want to be the only guy that loses in the final. I definitely feel like I'm starting to hit where I'm going to be my best.”
At 156, junior Beckett Walters (27-12) then kept the momentum going for the Yellow Jackets as he jumped out to a 16-3 lead over Northview's Markus Kuhlman and posted a technical fall (19-3).
Senior Josh Takats, Perrysburg's standout quarterback, earned his consecutive NLL title with a 19-4 technical fall of Napoleon's Ayden Johnson to improve to 29-3 at 190.
Napoleon's Eggers (46-2) then ended Perrysburg's streak of 11 consecutive wins in the finals with a pin of Yellow Jackets senior Ben Sawaya. Eggers caught Sawaya in the second period and posted the fall at 3:39.
“George has been rock solid for us all year,” Seiler said. “He's had two tough losses, and it's good for him to go out there and get a league championship. It's not easy to come by to get a league title.”
Perrysburg senior Eric Bush (26-8) put an exclamation point on the tournament with a pin of Napoleon's Eyon Salinardo-Boyd in the final at 285.
In the only weight class not featuring a Perrysburg wrestler, Clay sophomore Gabe McNally registered a 5-3 decision of Napoleon's Hayden Groll to win the title at 165. McNally, who finished second last year, moved his record up to 34-6.
Perrysburg won its 23rd NLL title as a program, with Springfield being the next closest with 16 team titles. Fourteen of the Yellow Jackets' titles have come in the past 15 years.
“We had guys in this tournament where they flipped the score on guys that beat them before. And then we just showed our consistency today,” Burnett said.
First Published February 15, 2025, 9:03 p.m.
