D-III District Wrestling: Columbia's Bodey Gibbs impressive in taking title at 113 pounds

INDEPENDENCE — Sometimes familiarity is a good thing.Columbia's Bodey Gibbs won a pair of rematches in becoming Lorain County's only Division III district champion Saturday, winning the 113-pound draw with a 20-1 technical fall against Lorain County League rival Noah Huston of Clearview in the championship.Gibbs also got a taste of what could be waiting for him in the state final against Lake Catholic's Chance Wuhr. The sectional champions threw down in the semifinals in arguably the match of the tournament. The only points scored in regulation were escapes from each wrestler after choosing down in their respective period.Overtime was a stalemate, and Wuhr went down to start the tiebreaker. Gibbs did not let him up, then was able to escape in his half of the tiebreaker and hold on for the final 14 seconds.Gibbs is the defending state champion at 106. He and Wuhr met in the state quarterfinals last season with the Columbia sophomore winning a 6-2 decision. Wuhr took fifth in the state."It feels great," Gibbs said. "I showed them what I did here and what I'm about to do in Columbus this year. I just stayed focused, kept to my attack and my moves. I really tried to stay really calm while I was wrestling and that overall just helped me stay composed and win the match."Six area wrestlers at the Independence district qualified for the state tournament, which begins Friday and concludes Sunday at Ohio State. Waynedale won the team title with 237 points, while defending champion Lake Catholic finished runner-up with 174.5. Columbia was the highest-scoring area team, finishing sixth with 78 points.Huston was the only other wrestler to reach a final. The sophomore had an impressive tournament with two technical falls and a major decision in his previous three bouts.Columbia's Michael Frye did not have the same luck in his semifinal rematch at 120 against Trinity's Derion Williams, who took third at 113 last season. The pair met three times at 106 in the 2024 postseason with Williams winning the sectional and district finals but Frye winning the state final.Frye missed last postseason with an injury, but their semifinal matchup was reminiscent of their tight matches in the 2024 postseason. Tied at 1 entering the third, Williams escaped with a minute left and held on for a 2-1 win. Frye bounced back in the consolation semifinal with a technical fall and ultimately took fourth.Clearview's Kameron Williams also had to shake off a semifinal loss to qualify, doing so with a win against Garrettsville Garfield's Luke Kaufman in the 138-pound consolation semifinal. Tied at 1 with 1:03 left, Williams secured a takedown with 46 seconds left. Kaufman scored a reversal with 15 seconds left, but Williams did not allow him to score any back points."Just knowing that was about to be my last match ever, it just came down to who wanted it more," said Williams, who finished fourth. "I didn't want to go out like that so I went for it in the third period. I've been trying at this for the last couple of years, so to finally get it my senior year feels good."Keystone's Justin Rounds had an unfortunate end to his season, losing his semifinal 7-1 to Mapleton's Lukus Jenkins. His consolation semifinal was scoreless midway through the second period when he had to forfeit with what looked like a left leg injury. He was helped off the mat and could not place weight on it. He also defaulted his fifth-place match.All six Black River wrestlers made it to Saturday, but all six had to win three consolation bouts to advance. Two of them did just that as Kayden Hendershot (165) and Mason Koberna (190) won tense consolation semifinals.Hendershot scored a late reversal and held on with 1:30 left, while Koberna scored a late escape to take a 4-2 lead and held on for the final minute. Koberna also needed a tiebreaker in his third consolation bout just to reach the semifinals. Hendershot ultimately finished fourth while Koberna took third."It's amazing," Koberna said. "This is an exciting feeling. It's one of the best feelings ever, honestly. One match really doesn't matter because I had another day to come in, work hard and show myself. I wanted to go to state, I worked all summer, I pushed myself and now I'm here."Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.