Long before the regions for the first Ohio High School Athletic Association state team tournament were announced, Centerville wrestling coach Alan Bair eyed the first goal.

Make it to the final eight in Columbus.

The Elks took another step, handing Miamisburg a 53-23 setback, moving into a Region 7 final next Wednesday against either Fairfield or Mason.

“We wear that on our sleeve every day,” Centerville senior Corey Jones said after clinching the regional semifinal win with a 11-2 major decision at 182. “We talk about it every day in the weight room and wrestling room.”

Centerville jumped to a quick 22-6 lead over Miamisburg on the strength of a pin by Josh Scanlon (132) and a major decision by Troy Barklay (120), but the Vikings came back with a technical fall by Jordan Branham at 138 to cut the lead to 22-12.

In their semifinal win over Fairmont, Branham had started a run that pushed the Vikings into the finals, but Colton Hale claimed a 4-3 win at 145 for Centerville as the Elks won four of the next five matches to ice the win.

“Centerville is so tough,” Miamisburg coach Willie Wineberg said. “To go from a high like pulling off something as big as we did, it was difficult to duplicate that; we were looking for good individual performances and we saw some fight out there.”

Centerville won eight of the 12 matches wrestled, claiming bonus points in seven of them, including five pins.

“We had made it a point before the match to tell our kids that Fairmont had beaten Miamisburg earlier in the year and if we were not careful and didn’t take care of business it could happen to us. Just because we beat them once, didn’t mean we were going to beat them again.”

Miamisburg 42, Fairmont 24: The second-seeded Firebirds started out on an 18-0 run, getting bonus points from Colin DelValle, Josh Parrett and Matt Denlinger, but Miamisburg ran off 42 straight in avenging a 55-17 defeat two weeks ago.

Jordan Branham started the run for the Vikings, which included a big win by Grant Pittroff over returning district qualifier Brandon Boykin at 152, to move into the finals.

Centerville 44, Butler 21: Fourth-seeded Butler put a scare into the top seed early, jumping to a 18-11 lead after a win by Armand Etienne at 145, but the Elks didn’t lose another match until 285 in roaring back for the win.