CHESAPEAKE — Shane Pelfrey has a date to perform on the big stage.

The Chesapeake senior — now 28-4 on the season — finished second in the district tournament at Heath High School last Saturday and will wrestle in the state tournament to be held Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Ohio State University Schottenstein Center.

Pelfrey finished second in the 160-pound division when he lost in an 11-3 major decision to Kody Crooks of Barnesville.

The path to the finals wasn’t easy. Pelfrey beat Nate Anderson of Ridgewood 3-2 in the semifinals after topping Parker Cole of Sandy Valley 5-3 in the quarterfinals. He won his first round match 8-3 over Matt Hochstetler of Sugarcreek Garaway.

“He won two really tough matches against two really tough opponents to get to the finals,” said Chesapeake coach Phil Davis.

“Against (Anderson), he was down 2-1with 30 seconds left and scored two points. That was something you just don’t see.”

Pelfrey is the first Chesapeake wrestler to qualify for the state tournament since Doug Wiley in 1999.

The Panthers’ Justin Pitts lost 5-4 to Sean Regoli of Bloom-Carroll in the 103-pound division quarterfinals. At 119 pounds, teammate Alex McDonald lost in the first round when he was pinned by Eric Carbenia of Sandy Valley.

“Our kids wrestled really well,” said Davis.

Also in the quarterfinals, Fairland’s Garrett Wireman lost 6-0 to Nathan Blackwell of West Jefferson. Wireman won his first round match as he pinned Alex Minnillo of Grandview Heights.

Fairland’s Nathaniel Brewer was pinned in the first round by Sam Groff of Sandy Valley in the 171-pound division.