KENT, Ohio — With the graduations of Cole Baxter and Michael Crawford, the duo is now a part of Butler's wrestling past.

But what happened this week allowed the GoldenTornado program a glimpse at its future.

Baxter, the school's only WPIAL champion and all-time wins leader, received a wrestling scholarship to Kent State University and Crawford, who captured more than 100 wins, will be trying to walk on and earn a spot of the team.

The Butler program was at the Ohio campus this week and took part in the 29-team Kent State Tournament and came away with a runner-up finish, falling only to WPIAL power Kiski Area 30-18.

“We went 10-1 and got all the way to the finals,” said Butler coach Scott Stoner. “With the hotbed of wrestling Ohio is, I don't have a problem losing out there to a western PA team.

“It was a tough match with Kiski. There were a couple of tight matches and it could have gone either way.”

The tournament was broken into two segments this week: a team tournament, then an individual one the following day.

Butler had four wrestlers capture titles and four more finish second.

From the team standpoint, Butler defeated Delaware (Pa.) Valley 60-0, and Chartiers Valley 40-10, then Ohio opponents Canton South 35-11, Jackson-Massillon 39-10, Marysville 27-15, Cuyahoga Falls 28-18, Austintown-Fitch 51-6 and Stebbins 45-0 to reach the final round of eight teams.

Butler then dispatched Brunswick 29-15 and Kenston — both from Ohio — 40-12 before falling to the Cavaliers.

Winning individual titles were Blake Caudill at 126 pounds (10-0 in the team tournament, 13-0 overall), Nick Sutton at 132 (9-1, 12-1), Jesse Spohn at 156 (17-3, 10-3) and Dakoda Collins at 162 (10-1, 15-1).

Spohn actually weighed in at 145 pounds but wrestled to the higher weight.

“Jesse wrestled smart the whole time,” said Stoner. “He lost three tight matches against three of the best kids.”

Finishing with silver medals were Cody Houston at 119 (9-1, 11-2), Korey Caudill at 123 (12-0, 14-1), Mike Fritz at 128 (7-5, 9-6) and Zach Reges at 146 (7-3, 9-4).

Fritz had to face a familiar opponent in the finals — his teammate, Blake Caudill.

Others taking part included Connor Faust (106 pounds, 7-3, 9-4), Zach Hutchison (117, 9-3), Zach Collins (132, 8-2), Grant Ferrari (147, 8-3) and Doug DeFrancisis (151, 8-2).

“They touted us as a good team and that's something very motivational,” Stoner noted. “We want to build and see how we'll jell. You go out there for three or four days at a big tournament and see things building.”