Hillsboro junior Lane Cluff (45-4) traveled to The Jerome Schottenstein Center on the campus of the Ohio State University to take part in the 2018 Division II Individual State Wrestling tournament.
Lane took on Travis Kuttler in his opening round match at the State level. Kuttler entered the match with a 41-7 record on the year and advanced to the State tournament courtesy of a third place finish in the District tournament held in Claymont.
The Hillsboro junior was unable to gain any momentum against Kuttler and was pinned in 1:09. Cluff has the opportunity to advance to the second day of the tournament if he can overcome Bobby Grothjan of Lima Shawnee in the consolation bracket. Grothjan was 31-6 on the year entering the State tournament and lost to Jack DelGarbino via a 13-0 major decision in the first round.
In his second match of the evening Cluff was matched up with Grothjan in the first round of the consolation bracket. Cluff went on to lose by pin-fall at the 2:02 mark of the match.
Hillsboro’s head wrestling coach Greg Rhoads provided comments about Cluff’s performance.
“In the first match we were pumped up and ready to go before the match. Once the match started we weren’t very effective at clearing ties with the guy. By not clearing ties the guy was able to go upper body with us and throw him to his back.
The last match was a much better match and something to build off for next year. Lane got to his takedown that we have been trying to get him to do all year. Even when he missed it he went right back to it and was able to hit a nice takedown. Then we got rolled to our back because we were out of position. He went down in the second and was unable to get his feet and in doing so made a mistake that lead to us going to our back.
I think he wrestled well for the most part and myself and the other coaches are encouraged by what we saw out of him in the second match,” said Rhoads.
Cluff returned to the Schottenstein Center for the second year in a row. Cluff lost in the opening round of the 2017 tournament and subsequently lost in his first match in the consolation bracket to finish his first trip to the State tournament 0-2.
Reach Ryan Applegate at 937-402-2572, or on Twitter @RCApplegate89.
