St. John Arena holds a lot of special memories for Graham wrestling coach Jeff Jordan.

The former home of the state tournament, the venue will host the first state team tournament finals on Saturday. St. John also is the home of the Ohio State University wrestling team.

On Saturday, it will also be a bridge between Jeff’s career and his son Bo’s.

Jeff was 16-0 at St. John in high school when he won four state titles and was 1-0 there while wrestling at Wisconsin. Next season, Bo will wrestle for Buckeyes.

“I haven’t been back there since the early 80s when I was wrestling,” Jordan said. “It will be really neat because the next time I go there will be to watch Bo.”

Balanced Rams roll to state: Ross will enter as the seventh seed in D-II and will face off with second-seeded Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.

Utilizing a balanced lineup, the Rams have yielded just 46 points in four dual matches on their way to the state tournament.

“We have a lot of seniors coming back and we are spread out with talent,” Ross coach Rich Dunn said. “It is nice to have that.”

Team concept key for Elks: Centerville advanced to the state tournament behind the mantra of each wrestler doing their job. In some cases, that means not giving up bonus points — major decisions, technical falls or pins — in a losing effort.

In their regional final win over Mason, Hunter Smith came up with a big win and Brandon Abney did his part by not giving up bonus points. In their last three matches, a different wrestler has clinched the win.

“We really hammer to our kids the team concept,” Centerville coach Alan Bair said. … What more can you ask for. Every kid wrestling does know their job. This has made a huge difference in how we prepare for dual meets.”

Fitting finalists: The most enjoyable part for Versailles coach AJ Bey in its D-III region 24 title win over Coldwater was seeing former coach Bill Roll taking it all in.

Roll was instrumental in the 1980s and 90s in getting discussions started about having a state-wide team tournament.

“He was big in getting this thing going,” Bey said. “It was neat to see his reaction.”

Wrestling begins at 11 a.m. Saturday. Semifinals in all three divisions are slated for 3:30 p.m. with the finals set for 8 p.m.