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CELINA - Both Payten Staugler and Cash Patrick had fine seasons for the Celina wrestling team.
Now, the pair will represent Celina on a national level when they compete at the United States Marine Corps Junior Nationals that begins this weekend at the FargoDome in Fargo, North Dakota.
Nearly 7,000 competitors, both boys and girls in two age divisions - 16U and Junior - will compete over the next two weeks.
Staugler and Patrick are the first Celina wrestlers to get the opportunity to compete in this tournament.
Celina wrestler Payten Staugler will compete at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals that runs July 12-19 in Fargo, North Dakota.
"It's pretty cool," said Staugler during an open mats session at the CAPT Building at Celina High School on Tuesday night.
"It's cool being the first ones to do it," said Patrick. "I hope we have a good showing out there."
Staugler, who won the Western Buckeye League title at 138 pounds this past season and finished second at sectional, will compete in the Junior division in the Greco-Roman style, which prohibits holds below the waist and focuses on throws. Staugler earned his berth to nationals after finishing third at the state competition to join Team Ohio.
"Wapakoneta started a team that was promoting the out-of-season wrestling (Freestyle and Greco-Roman) that's different from high school (Folkstyle, which is based in Freestyle)," said Staugler, who will be a junior this fall. "Ryan Wickline, from St. Marys, started helping me wrestle and got me into this."
Making the move from Folkstyle, which does allow holds below the waist and using the legs to get takedowns, to Greco-Roman has not been a big challenge.
"I converted pretty easy," said Staugler. "It's just different with locking hands (wrestlers lock hands to start the match). You're not used to it with Folkstyle, but they do it in Freestyle and Greco. That's about the only difference."
Although the tournament gets underway this Saturday, Greco-Roman competition does not get underway until July 17.
Celina wrestler Cash Patrick will compete at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior Nationals that runs July 12-19 in Fargo, North Dakota.
Patrick, who won the 285-pound WBL title as a freshman this past winter, will compete in the 16U Freestyle class. Patrick represents the Celina Wrestling Club as part of the Ohio contingent. Patrick finished second at the state competition to earn his berth to Fargo.
"There's not much difference (between Freestyle and Folkstyle)," said Patrick. "I wrestle (Freestyle) like it's Folkstyle).
"I put in a lot of work," continued Patrick. ""Countless hours, tons of work in being consistent."
Patrick heads up to Fargo on Friday with his competition beginning on Monday.
The two have solid goals for this week.
"It's the best in the nation. There's probably going to be 128 (competitors) in the bracket," said Staugler. "You have to win four matches to make it to the next day. It's a long process. I just want to go out and wrestle as hard as I can. It'll be good to get the win, but if I go out there and work as hard as I can, I can be proud of that."
"The goal is All-American," said Patrick, a reference to finishing in the top eight.
