By Cort Reynolds

MARYSVILLE – Ada freshman standout Marley Bulerin finished third at the girls regional wrestling meet in the 125 lbs. weight bracket at Marysville on Sunday, March 5, to become the first Bulldog female to qualify for the inaugural OHSAA state meet.

Bulerin ended up third out of 20 girls in the 125 lbs. bracket at the regional competition.

“Marley wrestled a really good tournament, she went in as the five seed and out-performed that, as we were confident she could,” said Ada head wrestling coach Eric Perkins.

After getting a first round bye, Bulerin won her first match over sophomore Olivia Wheeler of Greenview at regionals by a  15-0 decision. 

In the quarterfinals, she pinned Napoleon’s Evanie Shank at 2:55 of the second period while leading 7-0.

In the semifinals, Bulerin was pinned by defending state champion Josie Davis of Sidney at 1:31 of the first period. Undefeated senior Davis (21-0) was the eventual regional champion, winning the title bout in 12 seconds.

In the consolation semifinal round, Bulerin bounced back to beat Findlay senior Taylor Nichols by an 8-3 decision.

Bulerin then won her third-place match by default over Marysville senior Malia Burkhardt due to a medical forfeit to finish 4-1 on the day.

“Marley can win matches a variety of ways and is really good at playing to her strengths,” said Perkins. “Aside from the match she lost against an undefeated returning state champion, she really controlled every match she wrestled all day from start to finish, even if some of the scores don't show it.”

Bulerin has authored a 35-5 record this season, going 30-5 vs. girls and 5-0 against male competition.

“Clayton (McClain) is our third state qualifier, and Marley is our fourth in the school’s wrestling history,” Perkins noted. “Marley is our first girl.”

A top-four finish advances a wrestler to the state meet in Columbus at the Schottenstein Center March 10-12. This is the inaugural OHSAA state wrestling meet for girls at Ohio State University.

“We are very excited for the girls to wrestle in the same environment at the Schottenstein Center that the boys do,” said OHSAA executive director Doug Ute. 

“We have been working through the logistics of having both state tournaments held alongside each other at the Schott, and we are pleased that it can be done. The excitement and energy will be incredible,” he added.

The Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association had conducted the girls wrestling state tournament since 2020 at Hilliard Davidson High School. 

In January 2022, the OHSAA announced that girls wrestling and boys volleyball would be added as sanctioned sports beginning with the 2022-23 school year.

A total of 224 girls qualified for the 2023 state tournament, with 16 wrestlers in each of the 14 weight classes.