COLUMBUS — Moments after winning his third Division III state championship Sunday at Ohio State, Delta senior Adam Mattin ran into the stands to embrace several members of his family.
The tradition of having success at the state wrestling tournament started long ago when his father, Mike Mattin, won the program’s first state championship and continued when his three older brothers combined to win five.
He gave the family its ninth title, leaving the three-day event which began Friday with a 19-3 win over Proctorville Fairland’s C.J. Graham and giving him a final 38-1 record.
That performance helped the Panthers earn a state runner-up team finish as he was one of three Toledo-area individual champions, along with Genoa junior Scotty Fuller (113) and Lakota senior Braxton Quaintance (165).
“I’m very familiar with the environment,” said Mattin, who also was state runner-up as a freshman. “Competing for my fourth time in the finals, I think that helped with the nerves. You can’t make it more than it is — it's just another match.
“The tradition of success is huge for us, and I couldn’t be more proud of the time we’ve put in. We know how much work we’ve put in, and it’s really nice to get recognized for that.”
Quaintance beat Barnesville’s Ayden King 5-4 in the 165-pound title match to cap a 46-0 season. He was fourth as a sophomore and second a year ago.
“I see that opening in the first and second period and I wish I would have capitalized a little more off of it, but I was just kind of seeing it in the third period, and I knew I could outmuscle him,” said Quaintance, a Kent State commit. “Once I felt his legs, I knew I had the three points. It felt amazing. There was just a lot of hard work and a good support system. That’s what equals a state championship.”
Fuller was third as a freshman and second as a sophomore but beat St. Paris Graham’s Jake Landis 9-6 in the title match to finish 53-3.
“It’s defending the top work,” Fuller said. “I know I’m the best in the state on my feet, and I got it done with takedowns. There’s no better feeling obviously. We’ve had people do it over the years, and I’m blessed to be the first one to get it done in a while.”
St. Paris Graham had won 24 consecutive Division II state titles but dropped to Division III and continued its domination, scoring a division-record 174.5 points.
Delta was runner-up with 103.5, with Liberty Center tying for sixth (54).
It was the first time since 2015 that Delta left state with team hardware.
“It means everything, especially since we have eight seniors,” said Delta junior Tyler Barnes, who was runner-up at 120. “It was really emotional [making it to the state final] because I’ve never been to the finals before after placing eighth as a freshman, and last year I didn’t place at all. This year I was feeling really, really good throughout the whole tournament, and it was so fun.”
Also earning a state runner-up finish was Liberty Center junior Braedyn Tammarine, who lost to Columbia’s Bodey Gibbs 5-2 for the 106-pound championship.
He was fourth as a freshman and third a year ago.
“Getting to the finals was a big goal of mine,” Tammarine said. “Once you’re there, you want to win it all. To lose in that fashion isn’t ideal, but you want to look at the positives. We had [two other placers] and that was good enough to be sixth as a team, so that was awesome.”
Earning third-place finishes were Lakota senior Lane Thacker (150), Liberty Center senior Jackson Bartels (157), and Swanton senior Evan Smigelski (285). Delta seniors Richard Flores (132), Connor Sintobin (190), and Cass Chiesa (215), and Liberty Center junior Logan Sifuentes (285) each were fourth.
In Division II, Wauseon finished fifth (63) as Columbus Watterson (108) won the championship.
Leading the Indians were senior Jordan Cook (144), who lost his first-round match but went on to place third, and senior Kale Waxler (175), who also was third.
For Napoleon, junior George Eggers (215) placed fifth.
First Published March 10, 2025, 3:41 a.m.
