Thatcher finishes third overall

COLUMBUS — It may have taken three trips, but Loudonville senior Ryan Thatcher finally made the podium at the Division III State Wrestling Championships. Thatcher beat Bridgeport’s Bryan Skoff on a 5-1 decision for third place in the 152-pound weight class.

“Yea, it was a good thing (to place). I didn’t really think about what place it was for. I just wanted to go and wrestle up to my potential. I knew if I did that, things would take care of themselves,” said Thatcher.

Thatcher’s third-place finish marked the last time the senior would walk off the mats wearing a Loudonville singlet.

“I guess it hasn’t really set in yet that that is the last time I’ll ever get to wrestle for coach (Steve) Furlong and the rest of my coaching staff. I just want to say thanks to anyone who has ever helped me and being supportive of my entire wrestling career. I just want to thank them and thank my coaches for putting up with me for four years,” said Thatcher.

“He had an awesome career — to be down here three times I think the last couple of years. We told him to go out as a senior with only one loss. He had two or three losses last year,” said Furlong. “Overall, you can’t ask for much more effort from a kid than the way he worked for me. He did everything we asked him to do. He had his ups and had his downs, but he always kept coming back.”

His journey to the consolation finals was no easy task. Thatcher faced a couple twists in his bracket draws, starting with the semifinals. His draw put him up against Jedd Moore of Marion Pleasant, who won out to become the 152-pound Division III state champion. Moore, a transfer from Mount Vernon, placed second in the Division I 140-pound weight class last year.

“We knew coming in that him (Moore) and I were the best two kids in the weight class. It just happened to work out against me that I had to wrestle him in the semifinals. That one is over and done and you just move on from there,” said Thatcher.

After his loss to Moore, Thatcher moved on to compete against a familiar face — Geary Gallik of Northmor.

“We’re friends, we wrestled each other a lot in scrimmages and practices and we wrestled in the Gorman finals once. He is a great kid and a great opponent. It was just a grind out style. Our styles really collide and it was just one of those matches that whoever was better that day won,” said Thatcher.

Thatcher edged out Gallik with a 3-2 decision

“It was just another bad draw for each other and I came out on top today. I would have liked to have seen someone else that was familiar. It’s just unfortunate that we had to wrestle each other today.”

Furlong is happy for Thatcher, commenting that it’s sometimes harder to finish third than first at the state level.

“I was actually more proud of him today after last night going through the semis and you know we always talk about how sometimes it is harder to get third than it is first. You have to come back through and grind out every match and he was able to do that. That showed a lot of character out of him and I was very proud of his effort,” said Furlong.

Thatcher hasn’t decided on what a collegiate wrestling career might hold for him, but there’s a good chance he’ll be hitting the mats at the next level.

“I’m just going to take my time and figure that out as it comes,” said Thatcher. “As more offers come, we’ll sort them out and figure out what I want to do.”