TROY – Troy Christian had four wrestlers qualify for the district meet at Hobart Arena in Troy and all four qualified for state by finishing in the top four of their respective weight classes – two finishing as district champion and two as runner-up.
Kyle Schroer was the first to earn a district championship as he pinned Hayden Jones of Brookville in the finals. Schroer was dominant throughout the tournament as he opened with a 1:35 pin of Khadim Lo of Finneytown and followed with a 2:39 pin of Rocco Mauro of Kettering Alter in the quarterfinal. He advanced to the finals with an 18-6 major decision victory of Ethan Cantrell of West Union in the only match at districts where Schroer didn’t finish with a pin.
The other district champion for Troy Christian was Lee Burkett at 190 pounds. He opened with a 23 second pin of Brody Adams from Springfield Central Catholic and followed with a 2:30 pin of Maxwell James from Madeira in the quarterfinal. Burkett then faced Colton Hultgren from Milton-Union in the semifinal and won a very tough match by the score of 6-1 to advance to the championship match against Drake Bennett of Miami East. Burkett defeated Bennett 12-8 in a back-and-forth battle to claim a district title.
Jason Shaffer finished runner-up in a very loaded 126 pound weight class where returning state placers failed to return to state. Shaffer defeated Logan Jones of Brookville in his opening match and then pinned Brady Hamilton of Coldwater in 3:42 of the quarterfinal. In the semifinal Covington’s returning state placer Jericho Quinter injury defaulted, which advanced Shaffer to the finals against Legacy Christian’s Dillon Campbell, who defeated the Eagle senior 17-1.
At 175 pounds returning state champion Connor Havel finished runner-up as he lost a narrow 7-6 decision to Kane Epperly of Versailles in the finals. Anyone who has witnessed Havel wrestle over the years knows the Eagle senior will use the defeat as extra motivation as he pursues a second straight state title next week in Columbus. Havel dominated his way into the finals with three straight pins over Dylan Bowyer of Lincolnview, Josh Groeber of Northwestern and Awesome Mitchell of Triad.
As a team, Troy Christian finished third out of 57 teams with 102 team points.
