LIMA – In the previous four wrestling seasons, Tate Hisey and Bo Hertenstein led the way for St. Marys. Hisey was a two-time Division II state champion (2024, 2025) and a state placer in 2022 (fifth) and 2023 (fourth). Hertenstein was a two-time state placer, which included a D-II state runner-up finish in 2024. Upon graduation last year, Hisey headed to George Mason University to wrestle, while Hertenstein went off to Wheeling University to wrestle. With the graduation of Hisey, Hertenstein and four other seniors from last year’s team, longtime St. Marys coach Larry Gruber has worked hard to fill those voids. At Saturday’s Spartan Wrestling Invitational at Lima Senior, St. Marys’ young athletes took a step forward as the Roughriders slipped past Mechanicsburg for the team title, 210-203.5. Lima Central Catholic (195), Allen East (185) and Elida (169.5) rounded out the top five teams in a field of 20. St. Marys’ Cayden McCullough (106-pound weight class) and Zaden Williams (215) won titles on Saturday. “Tate and Bo were big losses,” McCullough said. “We’re all very young (this season). We had a freshman get his first win today. There are a bunch of sophomores starting, and our seniors are doing pretty good.” After winning the title at 106 pounds on Saturday, McCullough has a 10-2 record this season. Last year, McCullough suffered a season-ending injury toward the end of the regular season. This year, McCullough wants to make a deep run in the postseason tournament. “By the end of the year, I want to be ranked top five in the state and I want to place at state (tournament),” McCullough said. Added Coach Gruber, “I think we lost six seniors, and I think three of them were state placers. So, that’s hard to replace. You know there’s going to be years when you’re up and down. With this freshman class, the majority of them never wrestled before. So, we just keep going in the wrestling room and keep working on things. That’s about all you can do.” Gruber is in his 56th year at St. Marys. LCC notches three titles on Saturday Antwain Adams (144), Jordan Neal (150) and Carter Lester (190) all won titles for LCC on Saturday. Adams, who finished runner-up at last year’s Division III state tournament in the 138-pound weight class to Eddie Kessen from Delphos St. John’s, won the title at 144 pounds at Saturday’s Spartan Invitational. Adams won Saturday’s finals with a 17-1 tech-fall over St. Marys’ Dyllan Fink. “It’s crazy, thinking back, that last year I didn’t win this tournament,” Adams (11-2) said with a grin. “I fell short in the finals to Tate Hisey. So, now I want to dominate each match, wrestle good, and just be really aggressive. That’s really just all I was thinking, coming into this week. And I came here and did what I had to do.” Neal, who won last year’s Division III state championship at 144 pounds, won Saturday’s title at 150 over Kenton’s Isaiah Mundy with an 11-0 major decision. “The end goal is to win another state title,” Neal (9-2) said. “Last year, I just went out there and pinned everybody to get me ready for the end goal. Even though I got it (state title), we have to focus on the things that make you uncomfortable. … It’s about being comfortable at being uncomfortable. With tournaments like this, you have to work on things to get you ready for down the road.” Lester, a Division III state qualifier last season, won Saturday’s title at 190 with an 8-1 decision over Mechanicsburg’s Cain Stryker in the championship match. Lester is 10-0 on the season. Saturday’s invitational was Lester’s first since he suffered an injury earlier this season. “(It was) a pretty good day, in my opinion,” Lester said about Saturday’s invitational. “I wish I would have opened up a few more things on top and probably in neutral (position) as well, but I did pretty good.” Allen East puts three on top step of podium Colt Larrison (113), Langston McClain (120), and Miles McDorman (175) all notched titles for Allen East on Saturday. Said Larrison, “I’ve worked hard, and it’s all paying off right now. I’m just going in and doing my thing – run my offense, dominate and just put them away.” Spencerville’s Jacobs named most valuable wrestler Spencerville’s Keaton Jacobs was voted the most valuable wrestler of the Spartan Wrestling Invitational. Jacobs capped off the tournament with an impressive 22-4 tech-fall victory in the 165-pound title match against Allen East’s Jacob Hawk. Other champions at the Spartan Wrestling Invitational Other champions from Saturday’s Spartan Wrestling Invitational included Crestview’s Robert Tyas (126), Elida’s Adrian Timmerman (285), Fostoria’s Anthony Kleinmark (157), Mechanicsburg’s Camryn Runyon (132) and Hayden Smith (138). ...

LIMA — Against a traditionally physical program such as Ottawa-Glandorf, Sean Powell instructed his team full of football players to carry that mentality onto the court with them. The end result on Saturday night was a 61-34 bully-ball victory, in which LCC outrebounded the Titans 30-16, led by its starters at quarterback, tight end, wide receiver, and tackle in the fall, complemented by leading scorer Jordan Priddy, a pure hooper, who turned in a 31-point effort. “They absolutely manhandled us for 32 minutes tonight,” Ottawa-Glandorf coach Tyson McGlaughlin said after his team fell to 6-1 on the year. “They’ve got some strong, athletic kids, and we allowed them to push us underneath the rim, and they came down with the ball. We tell our guys all the time that we’ve got to be the tougher team, and they were hands down tougher than us today.” LCC’s largest lead of the first half was 16 points after holding Ottawa-Glandorf to one made field goal for a total duration of 10 minutes between the late first quarter and the majority of the second. “We had seven kids who played football, who we’ve been trying to get back to being basketball players,” LCC coach Sean Powell said. “It’s been tough for us early, so I wanted them to go out there and play football. If they did that, then my skill guys, like Jordan (Priddy) and Hunter (Williams), can go out there and play the game and put the ball in the hole, while my football guys can just be as physical as possible.” Priddy turned in his fourth effort of at least 30 points this season with his second 31-point game, shooting 12 of 19 from the floor, including a 10-point first quarter and seven makes on his first eight shot attempts. Xavier Pernell also ended the night in double figures with 12, while Williams added seven points, all in the second half. “You know you’re not going to stop a guy like that completely,” McGlaughlin said of Priddy. “You have to make him earn it by making everything a tough, contested shot. I thought we did that at times but obviously, he’s super talented. There should be a lot of schools (colleges) that should be offering him. He made some big plays and we didn’t respond well tonight.” LCC (5-3, 1-1 NWC) did not allow Ottawa-Glandorf to score more than nine points in any quarter, winning the second half 34-18. The Titans, who shot 25% from the field as a team, didn’t have anyone in double figures, finishing the game with just three players with more than two points, led by Brody Fortman with nine. “I think tonight was probably our best defensive outing this season,” Powell said. “We try to buy into holding teams to 40 points. If you can hold a team to 40 points, we know we’ll always have a shot there at the end of the game.” Score by quarters O-G 9 7 9 9 – 34 LCC 18 9 15 19 – 61 OTTAWA-GLANDORF — Brody Fortman 4-10 9, Brayton Heitmeyer 2-7 7, Jordan Schumaker 3-10 7, Dawson Miller 2-4 5, Carson Yaeger 0-0 2, Nolan Duling 1-9 2, Royce Ellerbrock 1-4 2, Grant Leopold 0-2 0, Adam Maag 0-4 0, Total: 13/51 (25%) LCC — Jordan Priddy 12-19 31, Xavier Pernell 4-10 12, Hunter Williams 3-6 7, Brady Parker 2-6 5, Michael Quatman 2-2 4, Jaxon White 1-3 2, Dom McKee 0-3 0, Cole Mack 0-1 0, Brady Malcom 0-1 0, Total: 24/52 (46%) Rebounds — LCC 30; O-G 16 Turnovers — LCC 6; O-G 6 Records — LCC 5-3, 1-1 NWC; Ottawa-Glandorf 6-1, 2-0 WBL Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on X @Lima_Howell...