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Wrestler dropped 50 pounds for shot at state title

Centerville senior Nick Miller started losing weight during football season

Slimmed-down Centerville High School wrestler Nick Miller takes an undefeated record into the Division I state tournament in Columbus this weekend.

Staff photo by Jan Underwood Slimmed-down Centerville High School wrestler Nick Miller takes an undefeated record into the Division I state tournament in Columbus this weekend.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 12:11 AM Thursday, March 4, 2010

CENTERVILLE — At his heaviest, during the middle of the Centerville High School football season as a talented fullback, Nick Miller weighed about 240 pounds.

The senior with a family legacy of state wrestling success then spent half of the season dropping more than 50 pounds to participate in the 189-pound division. Once he did, Miller continued in his state-level form.

Even though his long weight-cutting made him consider quitting the team, Miller spent two months dropping pounds and is now undefeated at 17-0 entering the state wrestling tournament, which begins today, March 4, at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center. It’s his third trip to state after placing sixth at 189 pounds as both a sophomore and a junior, and Miller now wants to make his brutal workouts and diet pay off.

“It’s funny, I didn’t have to cut much weight this week, so I’m feeling great,” Miller said, sitting in the Centerville wrestling room Wednesday afternoon. “I’m in good shape, maybe the best I’ve been.”

That could be a fortunate result of the massive work to get there. Elks coach Alan Bair said Miller, whose brother, Roger, won a state heavyweight wrestling title for Chaminade Julienne in 2001, had dropped between 25 and 30 pounds in his previous two seasons, but the extra work to get to 189 as a senior has made him a more-prepared athlete.

“This is the best shape he’s been,” Bair said.

And, as Centerville football coach and athletic director Ron Ullery knows, Miller already has inherent athletic skills.

“You look at this 5-8, 235-pound guy (as a football player), and you don’t think he’s the athlete he is, but then you start asking him to do tumbling,” Ullery said. “He’s doing cartwheels, back flips, and he turns into an athlete real quick.”

Contact this reporter at

(937) 225-7389 or knagel

@DaytonDailyNews.com

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