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Willis, Crawford in line to repeat

By Joe Simon 5 min read

COLUMBUS -- They're both returning state champions, but in the minds of Pymatuning Valley's Gaige Willis and Canfield's David Crawford, they're wrestling for their first state title.

That's the mindset they've created for themselves as they aim for a second-straight championship at the OHSAA Individual Wrestling State tournament. So far, so good.

Willis, a 220-pound senior, won his Division III semifinal, 2-0, and will face Chris Kuhn of St. Mary Central Catholic in tonight's state championship at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus. It's the third straight finals match for Willis, who won a title at 195 pounds last year, finished runner-up as a sophomore and eighth as a freshman.

The Edinboro University recruit said he refocuses by doing his best to forget about past accomplishments.

"Basically, I'm still trying to win that first one again," Willis said. "I'm trying to forget about what I did last year. ... My mentality is I just want more."

Willis has been dominant the last two years.

He is now on an 89-match winning streak. He has been taken down just once the entire year (in last week's district final) and he hasn't been scored on at the state tournament. Now 43-0, his last loss was in the 2016 state final. He doesn't want another one before heading to Pennsylvania to wrestle for one of the better wrestling schools in the country.

While he's confident and on a roll, he knows not to overlook the 6-foot-4 Kuhn (43-4).

"He's tough -- definitely tall," Willis said. "I've got to place my shots well against this kid. Otherwise I'm going to get stuck underneath him. He loves front headlocks."

The finals start at 5:30 p.m.

Crawford is quite familiar with the big stage. He was there last year, when he won a Division II, 170-pound title in overtime. Moments before his match, he watched his teammate, Georgio Poullas, lose in OT as he attempted to become the Cardinals' first two-time state champion.

After Crawford beat Norwalk's Gabe Phillips, 12-9, in his 182-pound state semifinal Friday, he now has a chance to earn that distinction. Similar to Willis, Crawford said he hasn't thought much about last year -- even going as far as hiding the medal and bracket he was awarded.

He said the feeling of being so close to his goal hasn't changed.

"I'm definitely still excited," said Crawford, a University of Pittsburgh recruit. "It's still the same hunger that I had last year to want to go out and get it."

He'll be facing a familiar foe in Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary's David Heath. He beat Heath in a district final match last weekend, 7-3. He also beat Heath in last year's district championship, but that match was much closer as Crawford needed a last-second reversal to pull off the one-point victory.

Canfield coach Steve Pitts said he anticipates some changes from Heath after Crawford won decisively last week. What those changes are will be impossible to know, but the experience of Crawford will help him adapt, Pitts said.

"I'd imagine that (Heath) will do something different, but for us to try and predict it is tough to do, and you'll run yourself crazy doing it," Pitts said. "What makes David (Crawford) good is that in a match, he'll make those changes. We can try to gameplan for him, we know what (Heath's) go-to stuff is, but in that moment, we may have to change our plans.

"We can do that with David, he's been wrestling so long. We can't do that with every kid. He's not going to get flustered if things aren't going as he envisioned. He's just going to make the right changes and go from there."

ANOTHER FINALIST: Crawford will have company in the finals. Teammate Tyler Stein, a 220-pound junior, also reached the state final. He beat Mikey Addis of Norwood, 7-1, in his semifinal.

Stein (48-3) qualified for the state tournament last year, but he said he didn't wrestle his best and ended up not placing. That disappointment has been the driving force during a spectacular junior season.

"I had this goal in my mind, but last year, I was more like, 'I want to win a state title.' But during this whole tournament, it's more like, 'Just win this match,'" Stein said. "That's what's gotten me here. Now there's just one more match, and I'm excited for it."

Canfield is in third place overall with 58 points, just one point behind Steubenville. St. Paris Graham, which has won 17 consecutive Division II team titles, is in first with 199 points.

Other soon-to-be state placers for the Cardinals are Anthony D'Alesio, who lost a 170-pound semifinal to Ashton Eyler of Claymont, 3-1. He wrestles today to determine if he competes for third or fifth place. Nick Crawford, David's younger brother, is in the same position at 195 pounds. He lost his quarterfinal match, but then won twice in the consolation bracket. Wrestling starts at 10 a.m. today, and there will be a break before the finals begin at 5:30.

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