jmetcalfe@delphosherald.com

COLDWATER — In such a physically demanding sports such as high school wrestling, coaches will speak a lot of getting grapplers healthy and keeping them there.

That was never more true than Wednesday during the first-ever OHSAA State Team Dual Tournament at The Palace in Coldwater High School.
St. John’s and Spencerville were scheduled to wrestle Coldwater and Bath in the first match, with the winners to battle later that night.
Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, injuries have taken a severe toll as they only had six healthy wrestlers, thus forcing them to forfeit out.
The Bearcats had enough — with bumping people up weight classes to do so in an effort to compete — but fell 46-30 to the Wildcats. Later on, the Wildcats fell 37-30 to Coldwater.

“We bump guys up weight classes because we felt we could be competitive and for the most part, we were. We voided two classes and got one back,” Spencerville coach Tom Wegesin explained. “We won five matches and our heavyweight (Jake Bellows) was in good shape but got caught in a move and was pinned. This was a nice opportunity to get another match and see what we need to work on.”

For Bath coach Clayton Westerbeck, his team also had to survive.