MV duo finish careers at state wrestling tournament

Mavrik Gregory and Luke Mullins have ridden this ride before.

The state wrestling tournament — An emotional roller coaster. All the ups, downs, turns and flips that make you excited, delirious, and maybe even a little nauseated.

The Mount Vernon duo was able to run through that gauntlet again, Gregory for the fourth time and Mullins in his third. Gregory was finally breaking through the glass ceiling and earning a spot on the state podium.

Gregory, a senior, finished sixth overall at 157 pounds and got a chance to finally stand on the podium as one of the state’s best.

“(That was) definitely one of his (Gregory’s) goals. Super proud that he goes up on our wall and we’ll be able to see his name up there. we refer to that wall a lot during the season. So just proud of him reaching that goal of being a state placer,” said Mount Vernon coach Corey Firebaugh.

Gregory won three matches over the weekend at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center. He started the tournament off with a nice, 7-5, victory over Kolten Hmel of St. Edward. A tough, 6-2, loss in the quarterfinals sent him to the consolation bracket and the idea of another early exit.

The senior, though, bounced back with two straight victories to earn a right to stand tall with the best in his weight class. Now, it was just a matter of how high he’d go.

The first problem came in Eli Esguerra. The Dublin Coffman junior had beaten him in the district championship match last week and once again, took down Gregory.

In the match for fifth place, Gregory faced a familiar foe in Lukas Jordan of Uniontown Lake, whom Gregory had beaten earlier this season. The MV senior took the lead after getting a takedown, but was flagged for a hands violation. He trailed by one early in the third period, but was unable to get the takedown needed and fell, 4-3.

“Mav getting on the podium was big. Would have liked to have gotten that last one for fifth,” Firebaugh said. “Obviously, that kid had a little extra motivation. The match didn’t quite go like a normal Mav match would go. He got reversed on a fluky little thing where the kid hipped into him. So gave up a two. He recovered from that and got the takedown. Then that locking hands was tough. I think there was a 1:20 left, so there was a quite a bit of time and I didn’t know if we could ride him the whole time so we just went neutral to give ourselves a whole period and half to take him down and couldn’t quite do it.

“He had a tough draw and for him to win three matches and get on the podium was good.”

Mullins got his state tournament started with one of the stranger matches at OSU. The senior and Francesco Salvino of Massillon were duking it out, almost literally, for most of the match when an aggressive Salvino was flagged for a violation. Mullins led 9-5 late in the third when Salvino was disqualified after another violation.

“He was keeping his pressure back, so I can’t really shoot on him. It was definitely tough with him keeping his pressure back for me to score, but I figured out my ways to score and I got it done,” Mullins said.

In the quarterfinals, Mullins was right in his match until a desperation move ended up costing him some big points and he fell, 21-6, to Frankie Pieffer of St. Edward. Mullins ended up falling, 15-4, to Cameron Fiasco of Lakota West, in the match to make it on the podium.

“I thought that two we brought competed well and wrestled hard. Luke didn’t quite reach the podium like his goal was, but even that match he lost, he was right in it until the end. He had to do a desperation move and so the score looked worse than the actual match was. I think both competed well and represented our school, community and program well,” Firebaugh said.

Gregory finished his senior campaign with a 44-8 record. He wrapped up his high school with the eighth most wins in school history at 144.

Mullins, wrestling in his third state tournament, finished his senior year with a 35-15 record. He ended his high school career with 123 victories, good enough for 15th in school history.

“They’ve been our staples the last four years of their career,” Firebaugh said of the two seniors. “These guys all came through our youth program, which shows those younger guys, ‘Hey, if you stick with this, you can do this in the future.’ We’ll miss them for sure. Very hard to replace.

“Hopefully, the younger ones, they always looked up to them, but hopefully they can replicate some of the habits that they have – hardworking, doing off-season stuff, lifting weights, getting stronger. Good examples to the younger guys.”