Staff photo / Preston Byers Garfield’s Keegan Sell points to the sky moments after winning his second state wrestling championship in Columbus on Sunday.

COLUMBUS — Garfield’s Keegan Sell became the first two-time state wrestling champion in school history Sunday with a dramatic 11-6 victory over Xander Myers of Liberty Center in the Division III 190-pound final.

After trailing most of the match, Myers, a state champion at 175 pounds last year, scored a takedown on Sell at the edge of the mat with 11 seconds to go in the third period to tie the match 6-6.

Sell, needing an escape from bottom to win the title, instantly sat out and gained the advantage before quickly backing away to protect his one-point lead. Myers rushed in to try get another last-second takedown, but Sell planted Myers on his back and scored a few more points to secure his second consecutive state championship.

After the match, Sell said he was very relieved the match didn’t go to overtime.

“As you can tell by how tired I am, overtime really probably wouldn’t have gone well if we went into it,” Sell said. “So I decided with 11 seconds to get out of it or lose. If overtime came, I probably would have lost.”

The match was extra special for Sell and his family; his father, Ken, watched the match just feet away in the coaches corner. Both Keegan and Ken became emotional after the match while reflecting on the wrestling journey they have shared together.

“It means a lot because he used to drive me to practice and stuff when I was little all the time, miss work for tournaments and sacrifice his own time for me and my younger brother. It means a lot, especially having him in my corner for my final match,” Keegan said.

Moments after walking off of the mat and into the tunnel, Ken stopped, leaned against a wall and weeped, overwhelmed by a day full of emotions and memories.

“I was upset all day, honestly, because win or lose, it’s his last match,” Ken said. “I miss this, and we’re not going to have this again. That’s what got me emotional during the day. Of course, I wanted him to win, but if he would’ve lost, I would’ve been happy. I’m not crying because he won; I’m crying because it’s over.”

While Keegan will hold on to the memory of sharing these types of moments with his father, the honor and glory of being a two-time state champion do not matter to Keegan.

“I don’t really care about that, to be honest with you,” Sell said. “There’s just a lot of people from our school and community that came to watch me today that really don’t care about wrestling at all. So it means a lot that they came down just to watch me. A lot of people watching the match, whether it’s from their garage or at home, so I’m just happy I could win and hopefully make them proud.”

Sell’s win Sunday was his fourth of the weekend and 54th of his senior season. In addition to his victory against Myers, Sell defeated Pleasant’s Landon O’Donnell, Evergreen’s Grant Richardson and Mechanicsburg’s Ronnie Thomas in Columbus.

Sell, who will now leave wrestling behind, choosing to solely focus on football as he attends Grand Valley State in the fall, will miss a lot of things about Garfield. Wrestling practice isn’t one of them, though.

“I won’t miss practice at all. I hate practice. Wrestling practice might be my least favorite thing of all time, I’m not kidding,” Sell said. “But [I’ll miss] tournaments and stuff like that, bus rides with my teammates, that sort of thing. I like the competition of it. Tournaments, I love. If we go live in practice, I like that.

“But I think it’s gonna be different, a big change. I’ve done it for 13 years. It’s something I’ve done for 90, 80% of my life. So it’s just gonna be a big change. I’ll miss a little bit, I’ll miss it a fair amount, that’s for sure.”

HOWLAND’S HECKMAN FALLS IN STATE FINAL

Howland 132-pounder Adam Heckman lost in the Division II state championship final Sunday to Bishop Hartley junior Aiden King with an 11-7 decision defeat.

King pinned Heckman last year in the 126-pound state tournament, but Heckman gave King a much tougher fight Sunday, as he scored multiple reversals and had King leery of a last-second takedown until the final whistle.

After the match, King said Heckman and his gameplan greatly improved since their match last March.

“He definitely felt a lot stronger. He definitely knew how I wrestled more,” King said. “I faced him twice last year. I faced him before the season started; I pinned him. And then I pinned him at state, but he definitely knows how I wrestled. He knows my style. So they planned against me and you could see that.”

Despite the loss, Heckman won’t let it define him nor his senior season.

“I think I had a great season. You know, stuff happens. You just gotta keep getting better. My career is just getting started,” Heckman said.

Heckman fell behind and trailed 8-2 to start the third period. He began to rally as King appeared to be fatiguing; Heckman scored two reversals in the final period to pull within four points.

Heckman finishes his season with a 44-2 record and the single-season record for takedowns in Howland program history.

EIGHT AREA WRESTLERS PLACE AT STATES

In addition to Sell and Heckman, half of a dozen local wrestlers finished in the top eight in their respective weight classes over the weekend at the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) state tournament.

Howland’s Madison Burns (135 pounds) finished fifth, sparking a joyous reaction from head coach Matt Zakrajsek and assistant coach Mike Burns, Madison’s father. Burns defeated North Royalton’s Sophia Antonio in their final consolation match, avenging a 10-0 loss to Antonio a week earlier at the regional tournament in Mentor.

Mike beamed with pride as he recounted on the setbacks and obstacles Madison overcame to reach fifth place.

“She made the state tournament when it was unofficial her freshman year. Last year, she had a shoulder surgery, so it completely put her out for a season,” Mike said. “She had to fight back this season, come back to where she is. And she’s done an incredible job, getting to where she needs to be… It’s been awesome to watch her get to this point. And hopefully we can do it again next year.”

Burns was joined by Poland’s Ella Thomas (100 pounds), Hubbard’s Emily Flynn (130 pounds) and Nick Bowser (285 pounds), Salem’s Annika Murray (145 pounds) and Girard’s Isaac Griffith (215 pounds) as local state placers. Bowser was the only third-place finisher among the group, while Thomas placed fourth, Flynn and Murray finished sixth and Griffith earned seventh.

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