Graham freshman Alex Marinelli doesn’t believe in the adage that older is better.

The 14-year-old 152-pounder entered the Greater Miami Valley Wrestling Association Holiday tournament as one of six freshmen seeded under new criteria and walked off with the title.

“I am a young freshman, but age doesn’t matter,” Marinelli said after knocking off two defending Kentucky state champs in succession to capture the title. “It matters if you train hard and how hard you train.”

After dispatching Campbell County’s Stephen Myers 6-3 in the semis, Marinelli handed two-time Kentucky state champ Kevin Cooper of Simon Kenton a 3-2 setback in the finals.

“It was tough,” Marinelli said. “But six minutes isn’t that much (time). When you practice two times a day, six minutes is nothing compared to what you do to prepare for it.”

Teammate and classmate Brent Moore finished second at 120 while Urbana’s Jack Harris, third of the six seeded freshmen to reach the finals, became the second freshman to win a title, claiming a 5-2 win over Greeneview’s Armani Robinson in the 182 final.

Best of the best: Bellbrook and Graham split Most Outstanding Wrestler honors.

Cameron Kelly was voted the Most Outstanding Wrestler in the lower weights after capturing the 113 title while Graham’s Bo Jordan earned the upper-weight honor in cruising to the 160 title.

We meet again: After squaring off in a battle that went to ultimate tiebreak in the second round, Chaminade Julienne’s Lyle Plummer and Greeneview’s Logan LaCure met again in the third-place match at 120.

The rematch followed almost the same script. Each recorded an escape in regulation and the match headed to overtime tied 1-1. However, this time LaCure was able to counter a Plummer scoring attempt in the sudden victory portion of overtime to take a 3-1 win.

Plummer had won the first meeting 3-2 in the ultimate tiebreaker.

Race for the cutoff: The top 20 teams automatically qualify to return to the Holiday tournament. Anyone below the magic mark has to reapply, and the race for that last guaranteed spot was closer than the one at the top of the board.

Entering the finals, Urbana was 20th with 75 points, but Bellbrook, Covington and Springfield were close behind.

Urbana held off Covington to finish tied for 19th with 81 points, two ahead of Covington.

Welcome new class: Prior to the finals, the GMVWA inducted its new Hall of Fame class. Jim McDonald, who coached at Indian Lake before spending 25 years at his alma mater Bellefontaine, and longtime Beavercreek assistant Tim Pinkerton were inducted.