TOLEDO, Ohio — Northwest Ohio is the home of two of the newest national champion wrestlers.
Whitmer High School's Savannah Isaac and Perrysburg High School's Marcus Blaze each won a national championship earlier this afternoon at the U.S. Marine Corps Junior and 16U National Championships in Fargo, North Dakota.
Isaac, the top seed in the 200-pound freestyle class, defeated No. 2 seed Mariyah Brumley of Missouri's Lebanon High School in 20 seconds to win the 16U Freestyle National Championship.
The sophomore has shown dominance over the course of her career. Last year, she won a national title at the 2021 National High School Coaches Association wrestling tournament in Virginia Beach. She has also won two Ohio state titles.
Despite having won before, Isaac was still amazed by the moment.
"It felt pretty good," Isaac said. "It hit me right away, but after an hour, I was like 'oh crap, I just won that.'"
Isaac's coach, Jeremy Fowler, said he is proud to see women's wrestling receiving the spotlight and the glory.
"She's been in our elementary school program since she was eight years old, and at that time there wasn't much girls wrestling," Fowler said. "So for her to be continuously training and working towards a goal that at that point, wasn't even talked about ... to see her work towards that goal and see her obtain that was really, really special."
Blaze had a similar story of dominance en route to his championship win. The freshman had a 55-0 record heading into a state title this past season.
Wrestling in the 120-pound class, Blaze defeated Anthony Knox of St. John Vianney High School in New Jersey to take home his first national championship.
The match, unlike Isaac's, went to the final second. After falling behind 1-0 in the first round, Blaze responded with a two-point takedown early in the second round to take the lead 2-1. After a force-out to take a 3-1 lead, Knox made a strong attempt to come back, forcing Blaze out twice in the last 30 seconds to even the points at three apiece. However, due to the takedown being an advantage score, Blaze was declared the winner in the tiebreaker.
For Blaze, the moment is still surreal.
“Growing up winning national tournaments, I’ve had the national champ next to my name a couple times,” Blaze said. “This one means a lot because this tournament is so big because there are so many kids from other states and the tournament is so tough and it means a lot.”