‘Super hard workers’: Four freshmen already making huge impact for Arrows

ASHLAND – They were once fixtures in the lineup for Ashland, whose wrestling program has been very good for a very long time.

But now that they’re back at their alma mater, running the show, Tommy Bauer and Wade Miller find themselves being upstaged by their sons.

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Junior high All-Americans Mason Bauer and Guardian Miller are two of the four heralded freshmen – along with Max Ohl and Isaak Wickman – who give Ashland a shot in a couple of weeks to regain the Ohio Cardinal Conference title it last won in 2021.

The younger Bauer and Miller are the reigning J.C. Gorman Invitational champs at 106 and 132 pounds, respectively. Bauer is ranked sixth in the state at his weight and Miller is ninth at 126, and that speaks volumes because Ashland is Division I and one of the smallest “big” schools in the state.

If the Arrows were Division II, both would likely be ranked in the top three, while Ohl (113) and Wickham (132-138) would be getting their just due in the rankings as well.

Their records after Tuesday’s 46-30 win at Strongsville: Bauer 30-1, Guardian 29-5, Ohl 19-9 and Wickham 17-8.

“They’re still young, they’re still underclassmen, they still get jitters,” said Wade Miller, who came back to Ashland this year as an assistant when Tommy Bauer was tabbed to replace Sean Seder as head coach. “But most of them have been wrestling in front of family and friends for years.”

This winter has been a bit of a role reversal for the two coaches. Bauer was an assistant for Miller at Clear Fork, with the Colts winning a Gorman crown in 2011. That title snapped a four-year reign by Lexington, which promptly went on to win four more in a row from 2012-15.

Seder won five OCC titles and a record five straight Gorman championships in his nine years at the helm for Ashland, but he also had responsibilities to the AHS football team as head coach. Bauer and Miller, by comparison, are all wrestling, all the time, and their sons, in turn, treat it as a 12-month sport.

Mason and Guardian, along with Isaak, have been wrestling since they were 5, training at a gym owned by Wade Miller and competing on the national circuit. Their travels have taken them all over, including North Dakota, South Carolina, Iowa and Pennsylvania.

That’s why their first Gorman was not too big a stage for them.

“Some of this feels new, but when it comes to the actual wrestling I feel like a seasoned veteran,” Guardian Miller said. “I’ve been in arenas with 40-plus mats on the floor, so even though the Gorman is a big tournament, when it comes to size, it’s not super intimidating.”

Two top five finishes for the Arrows

As a team, the biggest highlights for the Arrows have been their fourth-place finish at the 32-team Gorman and their runner-up performance in their own Sarver Paving Invitational to kick off the season. Bauer, Miller, Wickham and senior two-time state qualifier Cayden Spotts (215) all won titles at home while junior Cooper Smith (190) was runner-up and thirds went to Ohl and senior Noah Fant (150).

There was no bigger training ground for the Gorman than the prestigious 30-team Medina Invitational Tournament over the Christmas holidays. Bauer won the 106 title with four first period pins and a technical fall and Miller went 5-1 for third. Ohl and Wickham were both 2-2, with Wickham’s losses to the first- and third-place finishers.

“It’s like it’s always been this type of environment for us,” Wickham said, alluding to the exposure the freshmen got at a young age. “And in the practice room it's like a big family.”

It also helps that Tommy Bauer – a two-time Gorman champ and three-time All-American for Ashland University – has assembled an all-star staff. In addition to reuniting at the varsity level with Wade Miller, they’ve also brought aboard Brandon O’Neill and Jesse Palser.

O’Neill was a three-time Gorman champ and state runner-up for Miller at Clear Fork and Palser, the former head coach at Mansfield Senior, was a state runner-up for the Tygers.

The freshmen aren’t the only ones who have benefitted from their expertise. Spotts is a senior captain gunning for a third trip to Columbus and spot on the state podium. He’s ranked ninth in DI at 215 and owns a 28-7 record.

“I wish I had been interested in the sport when I was younger because I see the stuff that’s happening this season,” said Spotts, who had only one year of wrestling experience before joining the varsity in ninth grade. “Every day at practice is a grind. I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in. We go hard every day and there’s a lot of drilling, too. Last year there was a lot of live wrestling, and it gets you in shape. But repetitive drilling is what’s really getting you better.”

Spotts is learning from the freshmen, too. They’ve brought a different energy and vibe to the room.

“At the beginning we were in neutral territory, but as time went on we became more comfortable with each other and it all kind of clicked,” he said. “They’re all super hard workers. They know (success) doesn’t come easy and that you’ve got to work hard for what you want.

“They’re there every day putting in the work like everybody else. Yeah, their dads are coaches, but their dads don’t give it to them easy. They make them work hard for it, and I really like that about them.”

No stone unturned

One of the reasons Mason Bauer and Guardian Miller are so advanced is because they go above and beyond in their preparation. They both work with mindset coaches through wrestlingmindset.com. Mason’s coach is Dr. Tony DeVary and Guardian’s is Beau Tillman, the director of operations for the website.

That training came in handy for Bauer when he found himself going into overtime against Ontario sophomore Aidan Ohl in the Gorman’s 106 finals. Bauer scored the decisive takedown with 15 seconds gone in OT and turned it into a four-point move for a 5-1 victory.

Ohl was the first freshman medalist in Ontario program history last season and is ranked No. 1 in Division II this season, so that is probably Bauer’s biggest victory to date.

“What (my mindset coach) will have me do (in that situation) is hit a reset button, like a deep breath, or maybe go into a deep squat,” Bauer said. “Breathe in and breathe out. I’m ready to go.

“I have calls with him every other Monday. Wrestling mindset is a big thing and there are a lot of wrestling mindset coaches around the U.S. right now.”

Max Ohl, like Mason and Guardian, has DNA working for him. His dad, Perry, and uncle, Monty, were state champions for Ontario. His brother, Sid, was a state runner-up for Ashland, and his cousins – Aiden Ohl and his older brother, Jacob – are returning state medalists for Ontario ranked 1 and 2 in DII at their respective weights.

But Max also has less mat time than his freshman pals. He would pop into Wade Miller’s gym from time to time, but he didn’t fully buy in until about sixth grade.

“If I had started when (Mason and Guardian and Isaak) did, it would have just about been perfect,” he said. “My dad tried to get me into it, but I wasn’t super motivated when I was a little.”

Well, look at him now. The Arrows traveled to Mount Vernon recently for a dual meet with the reigning OCC champs, stunning the home team 34-29. Ohl was a 4-1 winner over returning state medalist Brock Blankenhorn, ranked No. 1 in DI.

“Most of our team are freshmen (there are 14 on the roster), so by the time we’re seniors it’s going to be ‘on,’” Ohl said. “It’s pretty intense in the room. Me and Mason go at it pretty hard.”

‘This is fun’

Other than some hand fighting with his son at home, Perry Ohl is pretty hands-off, letting the coaches do their thing.

“We didn’t have as many opportunities when I started,” he said. “We did little youth things in elementary school. We didn’t have places to go until I got to junior high, where we had more structured practices.

“But this is fun. The sport was always seasonal (at Ashland). Now there are open mats from April on and the kids are buying into it and getting better. I have complete confidence in Tommy and Wade. Their coaching is at a level that is way above (most).”

He’ll get no argument from Lonnie Miller, Wade’s dad. Lonnie spent years as a coach in the Ashland system, bringing up Wade and his other son, C.J. (a Gorman champ and state qualifier) and eventually taking over as head coach for three years in the Nineties after they graduated. He came out of retirement to help Wade at Clear Fork, but now is content to watch his grandson from the first row of the stands.

“I’ve been in (the practice room) a few times, but I don’t want to interfere with what they’re doing,” Lonnie Miller said. “They passed beyond me long ago.”

He likes how his son and Tommy Bauer handle their own boys. Mason and Guardian will look to the other parent during a match.

“It works together that way during the heat of a match,” Lonnie Miller said. “You’ve got to be fair with your kids. Sometimes it’s hard to talk to a son. You can’t always have Tom dominating Mason and Wade always dominating Guard.”

Guardian gets it.

“A father and son might say the same thing, even at the same time, but you might hear it different coming from your dad,” he said. “Hearing a different voice, from a different person, it might click more.”

There’s also something to be said for the telepathy between a father and son.

“My dad and Wade have cornered me for years, so I’m familiar with how they’ll talk to me during a match and what they’ll do,” Mason Bauer said. “I can almost guess what they’re going to say without even looking at them.”

To see his son add a third Gorman championship to the family title collection meant a lot to Tommy Bauer, especially since it was a big part of an encouraging performance by the team. Only third-place Ontario, the defending Division II sectional champion, finished higher among north central Ohio teams.

“I thought we competed really hard,” he said. “I’m excited about how we did. There were some tough losses, some matches we left out there, but overall I thought we competed pretty tough.”

With only three seniors in the lineup, it’s only going to get better over the next three seasons for the Arrows. And Guardian Miller knows his late brother, Hunter – his guardian angel – will be there every step of the way.

Hunter passed away when he was five months old. He would have been a high school senior this year.

“My mom (Suzanne) and dad were at the U.S. gymnastics Olympic Trials and there was one gymnast with the name Guard,” he said. “My parents thought that was a good name for me and then they made it Guardian to stand for guardian angel, for my older brother.”

Great name. Great tribute. Great story – which Guardian and the Arrows should be writing for quite some time.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Ashland Arrows wrestling tracking toward Ohio Cardinal Conference title