When the best of the best meet this weekend in Columbus for the OHSAA state wrestling tournament, four area grapplers will be competing to bring the gold home back to the area.

Logan Ferrell, the 285-pound senior at Tippecanoe was the lone wrestler to capture the district championship last weekend, as he won the Division Two title at Wilmington High School.

Three other area wrestlers finished second at districts, qualifying them for state. Jack Perua was second for Tippecanoe at 152, while Troy Christian’s Jacob Edwards (106) and Michael Sergent (120) both finished second in Division Three at Hobart Arena. The top four in each weight class qualify for Columbus.

Finishing as state alternates were Drew Whaley at 113 and Levi Sims at 195, as the pair of Troy Christian wrestlers just missed out on a trip to Columbus.

In all, five wrestlers from Troy Christian, four from Tippecanoe, three from Troy, and two each from Tecumseh and Northwesters battled last weekend in the districts.

Troy Christian- In the Division Three event, Edwards lost a close match in the finals to Ronnie Pietro of Dayton Christian 4-2 to earn silver at the districts. He pinned Jordan Crist of Amanda Clearcreek in the semis to reach the finals.

Sergent also rolled into the finals with a pin against Kalib Patterson of Ridgedale in 1:36, setting up a championship match against Hunter Lucas of Lima Central Catholic, and Sergent lost a heartbreaking 6-5 decision to Lucas, placing him second overall.

Whaley advanced to the fifth-place match against Justin Sigler of Coldwater, and the Eagle wrestler battled to a tough 3-2 victory allowing him to be an alternate for the state tournament. Whaley lost in the consolation semis to Kobe Cunningham in 2:35 in the match that would have put him position to get to state.

Sims also fell one match short, falling in the consolation semis to Kyle Gigandet of Versailles 4-2. The winner of the consolation semis goes into the top four, which automatically qualifies them for state. Sims then wrestled for fifth and defeated Jeremy Heglin of Deer Park in 2:11.

Also at districts, Seth Douglas was beaten in the third consolation, falling on 2:04 to Cameron Coffman of Dixie.

Northwestern- Also in the Division Three event, the Warriors had two wrestlers attempt to qualify for state. At 132, Ben Boggs lost his opening match to Justin Hixson of Bethel-Tate 5-1, forcing him to battle back through the consolation round to qualify. Boggs then defeated Brandon Hopkins of North Union 5-3 and Sam Muhlenkamp of Coldwater 4-1 before being eliminated by Chase Summer of Ada 7-3.

Nathan Bills at 182 also had to take the long road, losing his opening match to Wyatt O’Neil of Bethel Tate in 3:13, but Bills fought back. He defeated Austin Weekley of Heath in 45 seconds, then beat Kolton Dillon of Preble Shawnee 6-2 before falling 13-6 to Brandon Magee of Covington.

Tippecanoe- Ferrell recorded four pins on his way to the district title, as he defeated Colvin Turner of Franklin in 1:33 in the finals. Along the way, he also pinned Cory Higginbotham of New Richmond in 53 seconds, Benito Guerrero of Circleville in the second round in 1:27, then advanced to the semi-finals, where he pinned Jeremy Rosenblum of Ross in one minute.

He is joined at the state meet by Peura, who had three solid matched before falling in the finals to Davey Tunon of Clinton Massie 5-3.

Peura opened the districts with a 15-0 win over Riley Gullino of Mariemont, before recording a 13-6 win over Austin Lovett of Miami Trace.

The Tipp senior advanced to the semi’s, where he earned a hard fought 6-3 win over Malichi Marlow of Western Brown which set up his match with Tunon, who came in 37-1 in the season. Peura fought him tough but fell short.

Also for Tipp, Caleb Blake went 2-2 on the day at 145 pounds, and Russell Ramsey at 113 finished 1-2 for the weekend.

Tecumseh- In the Division One district meet at Fairmont, the Arrows saw both of their district qualifiers fall short of advancing to the state meet.

Gage Whitt opened up his day at 138 with a pin of Abdoulaye Guisse of Princeton in 4:37 before he dropped into the consolation bracket with a 7-1 loss to Jake Meridieth in the second round. Whitt earned another win in the consos with a 5-2 win over DJ Whiles of Edgewood, but was eliminated from district play with a 12-1 major decision loss to Sam Meddings from Fairfield.

Also missing out on a trip to state was Blake Biteman at 132, as the Tecumseh senior was a top seed going into the districts, and he won his opening round match via a 17-3 major decision against Jimmy Murphy from Milford. Biteman then suffered a second-round loss to Zach Donathan of Mason 16-3, dropping him into the consolation round.

Biteman fought back and won his next match against Noah Gast of Sycamore 11-6 before seeing his season come to an end with a loss to Dylan Buis of Oak Hills in a pin of 2:08.

Troy- Finally in Division One, three wrestlers from Troy attempted to qualify for state, with each of them falling short of their goal.

At 132, Kobe Scott lost his opening round match to Edward Collins of Hamilton in a hard-fought battle 17-13, sending Scott to the consolations, where he picked up a win against Kody Konicki of Beavercreek 18-1 but then lost and was eliminated by Nino Salamone of Elder 5-2.

Frankie Quintero at 145 earned a pin in the first round of districts, pinning Alex Curry of Fairfield in 4:19, but Quinero then suffered a rough 19-3 loss to Cornell Beachem of Winton Woods sending Quintero to the consolation round. There, he lost 6-0 against Alex Burger and was eliminated.

Finally at 220, Christian Nation won his first round match via pin, but lost his next two matches to be eliminated in the consolation round.

The state tournament will start tomorrow in Columbus.