When Brian Nicola was hired as coach of the Olentangy Orange High School wrestling team prior to its inaugural season in 2008, he hoped to lead the Pioneers to their first league title by the end of their third season.

Thus, Nicola was pleasantly surprised to see his squad clinch the OCC-Capital Division title in a dominating fashion on Feb. 11, beating Watkins Memorial 51-17 and crushing Franklin Heights 80-0, to finish 7-0 in league dual matches.

"We wanted to win the OCC by our third year, so it's exciting to see that we're kind of a year ahead of where we thought we'd be," Nicola said. "Once we beat Mount Vernon (43-17 on Jan. 14), we felt really good about our chances, because they killed us (71-0) last year. This championship says a lot about how hard our athletes have worked and how much they've improved in one year."

Senior heavyweight Josh Winn said ending the regular season by winning the OCC-Capital should give the Pioneers a boost of confidence heading into the Division I sectional tournament on Saturday at Westland.

The top four placers in each weight class from each sectional qualify for the district tournament on Feb. 26-27 at Hilliard Darby.

Last season, Orange finished eighth (82 points) in the 12-team Division II sectional at Amanda-Clearcreek, behind champion Canal Winchester (191.5). The Pioneers had four district qualifiers in Jonathan Edwards (103 pounds), J.J. Jurcisek (112), Josh Toprani (135) and Winn (heavyweight).

"Winning the OCC was a big accomplishment and it definitely gives us a boost going into sectional," Winn said. "We're confident that we can handle the move up from Division II to Division I, because we wrestled in the North Canton Hoover Invitational (Dec. 18-19) and the Brecksville Holiday Tournament (Dec. 29-30), and the caliber of competition we faced in those tournaments was better than most central Ohio wrestlers. Coach told us we could get nine or more guys through to district if we wrestle well as a team."

Ten of the Pioneers' starters enter the sectional with a winning record: Edwards (29-4 at 103), Jurcisek (20-11 at 119), Toprani (23-7 at 140), Winn (23-7 at heavyweight), Dan Dawson (18-13 at 130), Frank Hu (13-10 at 125), Dakota Taylor (14-12 at 189), Artem Timchenko (29-6 at 112), Dan Waldron (24-9 at 145) and Jarrod Winn (16-10 at 160).

Mike Moore (10-19 at 152), Jake Selbe (12-12 at 171), Dante Ventresca (12-15 at 135) and Yun Yang (11-19 at 215) also will represent Orange at sectional.

Nicola believes the Pioneers, seeded 10th, will be competing in the toughest of the three sectionals, given that the site includes five other teams seeded in the top 10 in Pickerington North (first), Dublin Coffman (fourth), Hilliard Davidson (fifth), Hilliard Darby (sixth) and Grove City (seventh).

"In wrestling, the seeded teams pick where they want to go in reverse order from last to first, and our sectional was pretty friendly-looking when we chose to go there," Nicola said. "But just like you see when you place a bet in Las Vegas, all of the sudden the tables turned and all hell broke loose. We'll have the best competition at our site, but we know we can compete with these teams. Our better kids should get through and the kids who are on the bubble can still get through if they wrestle well."

At a glance

Below are the recent results and coming schedules for the Liberty, Olentangy and Orange wrestling teams:

LIBERTY

Saturday -- At Division I sectional at Pickerington Central

OLENTANGY

*Feb. 11 -- Defeated Westerville Central 49-30; Def. Westerville South 52-16

Saturday -- At Division II sectional at Amanda-Clearcreek

*OCC-Cardinal match

ORANGE

*Feb. 11 -- Def. Franklin Heights 80-0; Def. Watkins Memorial 51-17

Saturday -- At Division I sectional at Westland

*OCC-Capital match