Springfield sophomore credits practice with brother a difference-maker

Waiting for Tressel Cochran during every wrestling practice at Springfield High School last season was older brother and senior Joe Cochran.

Uh-oh.

“It got me a lot better,” said Tressel, a promising sophomore who won two matches at 220 pounds during Thursday’s Greater Miami Valley Wrestling Association Holiday Tournament at Butler’s Student Activities Center. “That definitely helped me improve.”

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The 48-team event resumes at 11 a.m. Friday at the SAC. The championship matches are scheduled for 5 p.m. Friday.

Graham leads the entire field and has 95 points after the first day. The Falcons advanced 10 into Friday’s quarterfinal championship matches.

Also advancing without a loss were Tecumseh junior Lucas Rodgers (132), Kenton Ridge junior Bryce Stamps and Tecumseh junior Cyle Wells (both 138) and Greeneview senior Devan Hendricks (145).

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Unseeded, Cochran put a 15-4 major decision on Centerville junior Jacob Goetz and followed that with a 10-6 decision of Ian Hughes from Simon Kenton (Ky.). That padded his season start to 14-3 with 10 pins.

It also was as good as his father, Wildcats coach Joe Cochran Sr., could have hoped for.

“We’re really young,” he said. “Our best guys are the two sophomores and a freshman. We’ll just keep working hard.”

That’s what Tressel has done ever since he broke into the Springfield varsity lineup last season as a freshman, going 17-16 with seven pins at 195 pounds. Older brother Joe capped an outstanding career by going 35-3 and placing in the D-I state tournament for the second straight year with a third at 220.

“I want to beat his records,” Tressel said. “He’s got a lot of them and I’m ready to beat them.”

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• Chaminade Julienne’s Isaiah Wortham is on another collision course with Nick Moore of Graham. That figures. The underclassmen have been sizing each other up since both were youth wrestlers.

“He’s beaten me three times but that’s counting junior high,” Wortham said. “I haven’t really taken him deep (into a match) yet. I just get caught and it’s a pin.”

Moore is top seeded at 132 pounds and Wortham a No. 2 seed. Both easily passed their championship third-round matches and barring upsets, will meet again in the championship.

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Moore was one of 10 Graham wrestlers to sweep both first-day matches and advance to Friday’s championship quarterfinals.

A month into the season, this annually is the first big meet for area teams to contend against each other deep into a two-day tourney.

A junior, Wortham is seeking his third berth in the Division II state tournament after placing eighth at 126 last season. Bettering that effort has fueled him this season. He also is counting on Moore, a sophomore, waiting for him at Columbus, too. Moore was a state runner-up at 126 last season.

“That fuels me a lot,” said Wortham, who excelled in the CJ peewee and the renowned independent Catalyst youth programs. “I know who’s in my weight class and what all the rankings are.”

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• Coach John Roth has quickly made Walton-Verona (Ky.) into a Bluegrass small-school state power since the program debuted in 2010 and he credits Ohio with a big-time assist.

Walton-Verona has placed runner-up in the combined Divisions II and III division at the holiday tourney the past two seasons and will do well to match that again behind Graham. This is one of four big Ohio invitationals Walton-Verona will travel to, including Harrison, Fairfield and Western Brown.

“We’ll spend 80 percent of our time across the (Ohio) River,” said Roth, who wrestled collegiately at Defiance University before that program was discontinued. “This is the reason we come here, to have our kids challenged. Our kids know this is the level they need to be at. It’s good for them.”

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High school wrestling is a tough sell in the Commonwealth because of the immense popularity in basketball. There were about 110 varsity Kentucky programs last season. Unlike Ohio’s three divisions, all Kentucky teams are bunched for the state championship.

• Gary Baumgartner is the numbers cruncher behind the popular baumspage.com. That’s the website that produces many of Ohio’s major event results and statistics, including wrestling.

When he was a match teacher and assistant football coach at Middletown High School, Baumgartner dabbled in what was then the infancy of computer programming. He wrote his first program – for wrestling - in 1970.

“We started it so we wouldn’t have to type in names and call it in for sports writers,” said Baumgartner at his familiar mat-side position. “We figured if we can do a bracket, we can post results.”

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Every pairing and result of this event – as well as many others throughout the state this season - can be found on baumspage.com under the subject wrestling. It’s the same for track and field, cross country and golf, regular season and postseason.

The Ohio High School Athletic Association defaults to baumspage.com for those postseason results, including wrestling.

“They pretty well have confidence I know what I’m doing, finally,” said Baumgartner.

There is no advertising on the site. Gary’s son, Toby, converted all the programing to a Windows-based rewrite five years ago.

“I enjoy seeing tournaments run the way they’re supposed to,” said Gary, who estimated he posts 12-13,000 events annually. “If they can keep moving with not too many delays and I can do my part, that’s our goal.”

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• Just one top seed and one No. 2 seed failed to move into Friday’s championship quarterfinals. No. 1 seed Gage Kerrigan of Covington (195) defaulted to unseeded Jacob McCloskey of Delaware Hayes in the third round. Unseeded Centerville junior Alexander Taylor (126) stunned No. 2 seed Deacon Sawchuk of Hilliard Bradley 9-8 in the third round.

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