Garrettsville – Hunter Andel and Keegan Sell made the 2 hour trip to the Schottenstein Center this past weekend chasing a state title that had thus far been elusive for Garfield wrestling. Each came away succeeding in their goals to become the first-ever state champions for James A Garfield.
Andel, a senior coming in as the District champ out of Perry in the 165 pound weight class and a favorite to win the title, came out and showed he was ready for the task. In his first match of the tournament Friday afternoon, he came out and dominated his opponent with a 2nd period technical fall. His second match, he wrestled a smart match against the eventual 6th place finisher and came away with an 8-2 victory. In his semifinal match on Saturday night, he wrestled well and only gave up a single escape point en route to a 5-1 win that put him in the final against a familiar foe. Wrestling for the 3rd time this season against Cody Coontz from Rootstown, Andel didn’t give up a single point the entire match for the season sweep against Coontz and the first State Title in Garrettsville history, 3-0.
About 15 minutes later, Sell, a junior and also a district champ out of Perry in the 190 pound weight class, made it 2 for 2 for the G-Men after wrestling a hard fought match in winning the title 6-4. In his first match Friday night, Sell came out and got a major decision against his first opponent 9-1. In his second match, he completely dominated his opponent 11-0 to send him to the semifinals where he would then match up against the favorite of the weight class. In the semifinal, Sell would get 2 takedowns and only give up 1 escape to win 4-1 sending him to the final.
The two G-Men titles were enough to put them in 7th Place as a team in the Division 3 standings, making them the highest scoring team in Northeast Ohio in the division.
Congratulations Hunter and Keegan, we are proud of what you accomplished. Keep up the hard work!
