Wrestling: Depleted Graham falls to St. Ed’s

Graham High School wrestling coach Jeff Jordan knew taking down Lakewood St. Edward for the sixth year in a row was going to be tough under normal circumstances.

Saturday night at Graham High School, however, was not normal circumstances.

Late-week injuries to defending state champs Mitch Moore (132) and Rocky Jordan (152) altered some matchups and the Falcons fell 30-26.

“You think we could’ve used our two state champs tonight?” Jordan said with a smile. “That just crushed us. We knew it’d take a miracle, but you have to be healthy right now.”

Graham entered ranked first in the state in Division II and fifth nationally while St. Edward, from the Cleveland area, is the top-ranked Division I team and third nationally.

To Jordan, the winner of the annual battle is the king of Ohio wrestling.

“This is just a great dual,” St. Ed’s coach Greg Urbas said. “It is great competition and exciting for the fans and every match is important.”

The match got off to an ominous start for Graham when Tanner Jordan (ranked second in the state) gave up an early five-point move to Angelo Rini in a 5-1 loss at 106.

Jordan Crace got the Falcons on the board at 120, cutting the Eagles’ lead to 10-3, with a 10-6 decision over defending state champion Bryce Andonian.

“Jordan wrestled a real smart match,” Jordan said. “We thought 106 was the key match because we needed to win two of the first four for us to have a chance. We just fell short.”

A technical fall by JD Stickley (138) and 9-4 decision by Joey Sanchez at 145 kept the Falcons down just four, 15-11, heading into the 10-minute intermission.

St. Ed’s picked up bonus points in all three matches it won after the break, but the Falcons had the most thrilling victories.

Ryan Thomas recorded a takedown with three seconds remaining to knock off Mike Carpenter 6-5 at 160 and Gage Braun recorded an escape and takedown in the final two seconds to take a 7-6 win at 182.

Kavan Sarver recorded a pin at 195 to get Graham within 25-23 with two matches remaining, but St. Edward clinched the dual at 220 when Jared Campbell (ranked first in the nation) won by technical fall over Forrest Hyden to push the lead to seven.

“We were hoping he could keep it to a major,” Jordan said. “But Campbell is the real deal.”

Graham returns to action Wednesday when it hosts the opening rounds of the state duals but will be without Moore and Jordan until possibly the Central Buckeye Conference meet.

“Hopefully, we get healed up,” Coach Jordan said. “You’ve got to be healthy right now and if it hasn’t been one thing, it has been another this year.”

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