Oak Harbor’s lone state wrestling participant, senior Sean O’Brien, was unable to advance past day one of last weekend’s double-elimination Mat Classic XVII.

Battling a recently separated rib and knees that were surgically repaired just three months ago, O’Brien lost his first-round, 171-pound match 7-6 to Joe Temus of Rogers.

“Unless you have had separated ribs, you don’t know the extent of the pain,” OHHS head coach Mike Crebbin said. “Breathing hurts — laughing and coughing kill.”

O’Brien fell behind in his first match and couldn’t recover. An early penalty point for grabbing Temus’ head gear ended up being the difference.

O’Brien battled back in his second match of the day to beat Shorewood’s Tim Hester 7-6. He earned a penalty point in the match that went in his favor.

In order to move on to day two, O’Brien had to win one more. Unfortunately for the senior, he fell victim to another one-point match, losing 3-2 to Brandon Kiehn of Pasco.

Kiehn jumped out to an early lead and sat on it, countering all of O’Brien’s attempts.

“While Sean didn’t place, I was not only proud, but amazed by his effort,” Crebbin said. “In a perfect world Sean would not have had injuries and most likely would have wrestled in the finals, but the world isn’t perfect and Sean took what was dealt to him.”