As Easy as 1, 2, 3: Solon Wrestlers Thompson, Collica and Hoff Headed to States

Months of grueling workouts in the wrestling room and hundreds of hours of conditioning come down to precious minutes of wrestling in the district tournament.

In the blink of an eye, a wrestler can either realize his dream or see it shattered.

The dream lives on for three Solon wrestlers. The Comets send sophomores Brandon Thompson (103 pounds), Anthony Collica (130) and junior Nate Hoff (285) to this weekend’s state championships at the Value City Arena in Columbus. Both Thompson and Collica have been picked as favorites in their respective weight classes, while Hoff is wrestling his best at the right time of the season.

Thompson won the 103-pound title, Collica was second at 130 and Hoff came up with a gutsy effort in the consolation rounds to finish third at 285.

“All three of them can do a lot of damage down there (Columbus),” said Comet head coach Tony DiGiovanni.

As a team, the Comets placed fifth with 79 points at the rugged Mentor Meatgrinder Division I District.

Thompson cruised into his finals match after a pin at 1:24 in the first round, an 8-2 decision in the quarterfinals and a pin at the 48-second mark of his semifinal bout. In the championship match, Thompson held off Perry’s David Bavery for a 3-1 decision and a top seed in Columbus.

“Brandon wrestled sloppy in the finals but got the win,” said DiGiovanni. “He has to go out relaxed to wrestle at his best."

Collica was equally impressive in his weight class, pinning just 36 seconds into his opening round bout, rolling to a 10-1 decision in the quarters and posting a 9-1 decision in the semifinals. That set up a highly anticipated rematch with Mayfield’s Mike Carlone, who avenged a recent loss to Collica at the NOC championships by pinning the Solon grappler at the 2:34 mark.

"I told Anthony I wanted an active match with as many points as possible and he was up 4-0 before he was pinned," DiGiovanni said. "He has not been on his back all season and that might have stunned him a little.”

Hoff took the long way to the podium at Mentor. He opened with a pin at 1:50 and followed that up with a pin at 4:27 to make it to the semifinals before falling by a tight 3-1 decision. Hoff pulled out a hard-fought  3-2 decision over Aaron Pipkins of Maple Heights to assure himself a spot at state and then won his consolation final bout by pinning Vincent Morgan of John Adams at the 1:51 mark.

“Nate wrestled great, he got his head back together after losing and he is getting better by the minute," said DiGiovanni. "He really grew up this weekend."

In first-round matchups Thursday at Columbus, Thompson (43-2) takes on Chris Mullucey (37-8) of Dublin Coffman, Collica (41-3) battles Angelo Amenta (42-8) of Oregon Clay and Hoff squares off against Pat Elflein (34-7) of Pickerington North.

Shawn Williams (125), Anthony Restifo (135), Ben Galun (140) and Shiloh Smalls-Moore (160) also competed for Solon at Mentor.

Williams was eliminated in the second round of consolations, Restifo made it to the consolation semifinals before falling, Galun went out after a first-round setback and Smalls-Moore was sidelined in the consolation quarterfinals.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a corrected version of this story. The previous version incorrectly stated the last time Collica defeated Carlone.