COLUMBUS — The 2026 OHSAA state wrestling tournament did not go the way either Ella Thomas or Gabe Miller wanted.
A year ago, both were almost as high on the podium as possible. Thomas, a sophomore, improved upon her fourth-place finish in the girls 100-pound weight class as a freshman by earning third. Meanwhile, Miller, also then a sophomore, sliced through the Division II 190-pound championship bracket en route to the state title match, where he narrowly lost.
But this past weekend was a battle of wills for both.
For Thomas, her first match proved successful in that she put away Badin’s Teegan Herrington in the third period via pinfall. However, she left the mat in pain, grabbing at her right shoulder while in visible discomfort.
In each of her remaining four matches, Thomas sported pink KT tape on her shoulder, but it seemed to do little to relieve the Poland junior, who constantly shook her right arm and grimaced when a coach or referee would touch her shoulder or raise her hand in victory.
“It’s definitely not the best going into state with a hurt shoulder right now,” Thomas said after her consolation semifinal. “We don’t really know what it is, but just gotta battle through it. It hurts, but I’m just battling.”
Despite her injury, Thomas managed to advance to the championship semifinals with a 20-5 technical-fall victory against Marysville’s Avery Riley. Then, she met an old rival: Tinora’s Bella Graziani.
When Thomas was a freshman and Graziani a sophomore, they met in the 100-pound consolation semifinals. Thomas won the match 9-4 and advanced to the third-place match, while Graziani dropped to the fifth-place match, which she lost to finish sixth.
Last year, like this weekend, they met in the 100-pound championship semifinals, where Graziani avenged her loss with a third-period pinfall win. Graziani ended up placing second, and Thomas, who rebounded with back-to-back convincing win in the consolation bracket, finished third.
On Saturday evening, in their third state tournament match in as many years, Thomas went down 7-0 in the first period, only to mount a comeback by scoring eight straight points to take the lead in the second period. With 10 seconds left in the second, though, Graziani re-took the advantage, which she held for the rest of the match en route to a 12-8 win.
“It was a great match,” Poland head coach Jordan Beadle said. “Tough opponent, they’ve battled all over their careers. A position here and there difference, and it’s a different match. I thought Ella wrestled great, Graziani wrestled great. Outcomes are outcomes. It was a good match.”
Unlike last year, Thomas was unable to finish the tournament with another bronze; after cleanly and decisively beating Herrington again by pinfall in the consolation semifinal, she lost 11-4 to Watkins Memorial’s Mila Cruz while wrestling through noticeable pain to place fourth.
After three straight top-four finishes, the Poland standout, who surpassed 100 career wins this season, will have one more shot next year to finish atop the podium.
“She just keeps growing technically,” Beadle said. “She just keeps adding new things to her arsenal, and she is becoming a complete package.”
STATE FINALIST STRUGGLES
Like Thomas, Miller certainly felt as if he could improve on a second-place performance a year ago. But a back injury played a major factor over the last two months of the season.
At the massive, mid-January Top Gun tournament in Alliance, Canfield head coach Craig Shaw said Miller hurt his back badly enough that he was kept out of matches for the rest of the regular season.
For more than a month afterward, Miller rested as much as he could ahead of the postseason. And the plan worked well enough, as he won the 190-pound sectional title at Canal Fulton Northwest and, despite a 5-0 loss to Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy’s Paul Tepley, finished third at the Kenston district to make it back to state.
Miller’s trip to Columbus was not nearly as successful as it was a year ago, though.
Following a win against Boden Ballinger of Perkins on Friday, Miller suffered a first-round pinfall defeat against Miami Trace’s Tyler Stevens, ending the Canfield junior’s state title bid early on Saturday.
Fortunately for him, he grinded out several close matches in the consolation bracket; he beat Tri-Valley’s Aedin Seward 11-10 in an ultimate tiebreaker to place before beating Westfall’s Eli Wright 7-3 to inch closer to a potential third-place finish. However, early on Sunday, Miller was pinned for a second time this weekend in a second-period loss to Kenton’s Isaac Blevins. He suffered a second straight and third overall pinfall defeat in the fifth-place match against Eaton’s Presley Stewart to earn sixth.
“Honestly, we were just happy to get back here and get on the podium at all,” Shaw said. “…He’s had to battle through that [injury]. It was a difficult season for injuries for him, and it’s just sad knowing how good he is and he couldn’t compete to his truest capabilities. But a 60% Gabe, 50% Gabe making the state tournament and ending up on the podium is impressive.”
Shaw said that the training for next year would begin whenever Miller is “100% healthy.” When that will be, though, remains to be seen, as Shaw said the recovery would likely take more than simply rest.
Regardless, Shaw praised the maturity and leadership qualities Miller exuded, particularly in the aftermath of his injury. And the Canfield coach, who pointed out after Miller’s finals loss last year that he had two more tries to win a state championship, again appeared confident that a healthy Miller could cash in as a senior next March.
“I hope he learns that even facing that adversity, he still did the best as possible with it,” Shaw said. “Adversity’s gonna happen every step of the way in life, but he was able to maintain his composure and his grit and placed as well as he possibly could have. He has a lot to be proud of, even if he doesn’t feel that way.”