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Howland’s Whisler ends career as state champion
By ERIC MAUK
COLUMBUS
David-Brian Whisler couldn’t help it.
Everything he had ever been taught as a wrestler for Howland High School screamed at him to compete until the whistle. Two minutes each period, three periods each match. That’s how you win.
But with just 72 seconds between Whisler and an Ohio High School state wrestling championship, he couldn’t help himself Saturday at Ohio State University’s Value City Arena.
He snuck a look at the clock.
Then he did it again seconds later, and once again before reality forced his hand in the form of a desperation shot from Bellbrook’s Benjamin Schram.
But Whisler not only countered the last-ditch shot, he turned into a takedown of his own to seal his first state title with a 5-2 win to claim the Division II 170-pound championship, but he admitted that the last 70 seconds of his high-school career felt like it took an hour as he protected a narrow 3-2 lead.
“I looked at the clock and it said 1:12 and we wrestled for what felt like 30 seconds and I looked again and it said 1:06,” Whisler said. “Then we had a stoppage with 43 seconds left and I asked the coaches if I should starting playing defense.
“But I knew that there are good officials at the state tournament and they won’t hesitate to call stalling on you in that situation, so I tried to stay aggressive.”
Wellsville’s Seth Bloor came just two points shy of claiming his own state championship in Division III as the 285-pound senior dropped a narrow 5-3 decision to Chance Veller of Delta.
Whisler remembered a similar match he had with Schram two years ago, when the Bellbrook wrestler made a late move to steal third place at the state meet. It was the only time Schram had beaten Whisler in four previous meetings, and the Tiger showed that he had learned his lesson.
Down 3-2 with less than 10 seconds to go, Schram reached for Whisler’s arm and tried to pull him down, but it was to no avail.
“I knew he was going to come at me late,” Whisler said. “He beat before in that situation when I got anxious and I put my hands out to stop him. This time I was more patient, let him come to me and I caught him.”
Whisler used an aggressive move to score his first takedown, as he shot and captured Schram’s left leg, then used a standing leg sweep to knock Schram off his feet and onto the mat, where Whisler pounced for the two points that set the stage for the win.
“I knew right when I got the first takedown that it could be the difference in the match,” Whisler said. “I wanted to come out fast and score early. Now is not the time to change your style and I wanted to stay aggressive.”
The victory earned Whisler his first title and the fourth in school history for Howland, and was a title that Head Coach Matt Zakrajsek felt was built around Whisler’s relentless appetite for training.
“In that situation, doubt only creeps into you mind if you haven’t put in the work,” Zakrajsek said. “It’s easy to over-analyze it, but there is no doubt that he put in the work and it paid off.”
Whisler, who will wrestle at the University of Maryland next year, worked throughout the year and made regular drives to Pennsylvania and around Ohio to train, with the goal of winning a state title in mind.
“I knew 100 percent coming into the tournament that I was going to win,” Whisler said. “Not being cocky, but I knew that I could believe in my training, because we had done it the right way.
“The mindset going into this whole year was to be the state champ. I put in so much time for a six-minute match but nothing feels like this.”
Bloor was down just 1-0 after two periods, but after starting the third period in the top position, Veller hooked Bloor’s left leg and cradled him to his back, earning two near-fall points. Bloor recovered but Veller was able to do it again, building a 5-0 lead.
Bloor escaped to earn a point, then used his speed to turn a possible Veller takedown into one of his own, closing the gap to 5-3 with 32 seconds left. The orange-clad Bloor tried to turn Veller and nearly rolled him with two seconds left but had to settle for the silver medal after a two-point defeat.
“[Veller] was good, he had a lot of length and that was a problem for me. There were a couple times where I reached him, but he could extend and get away,” Bloor said. “I’d like to wrestle him again, I just made a mistake in the middle of the mat, left a leg open for him and gave up back points. But this is good for our program, hopefully some of the younger kids will see how hard an worked and inspire them to do the same thing.”