Ready High School sophomore wrestler Bobby Smith might have a little more on his plate in the coming weeks than at this time a year ago, but that might not be a bad thing.

During a season in which he ended up fifth in the Division III state tournament, Smith often found himself cutting significant weight to get down to 103 pounds.

As his body and understanding of wrestling have matured, he’s found that improving his technique has been more of a worthwhile — and healthier — concentration.

Smith, who was 26-2 heading into the CCL tournament Feb. 11, is expected to compete at 126 during a coming postseason in which he’ll be one of the state’s top contenders.

“I’m not cutting a bunch of weight like I was last year,” Smith said. “I definitely need to work harder because I didn’t achieve what I wanted last year. What I hope to accomplish is a state title. My conditioning has got to get a little bit better and I’ve got to work on my setups a lot more, like having better hand control and working on m\y lower-level shooting.”

Last season, Smith burst onto the prep scene by losing just one regular-season match. He won a CCL title and helped the Silver Knights score 256.5 points to win the team championship over DeSales (183.5), St. Charles (150), Hartley (137) and Watterson (48).

Smith then followed with a sectional title and a third-place finish at district.

This season, his first loss came Dec. 17 in a championship match during the 31-team North Canton Holiday Invitational, when he fell 2-1 to Canonsburg (Pa.) Canon-McMillan’s Colt Shorts at 126. Canon-McMillan won the team tournament title.

In a championship match during the 30-team Catholic Invitational Tournament on Jan. 15 at Cincinnati Elder, Smith lost to Parma Padua’s Bobby Mason, the tournament’s top seed, 3-0.

Smith was named Most Valuable Wrestler of the Ready Winter Classic (Dec. 28 and 29) and the Olentangy Orange Meatgrinder Invitational (Jan. 7).

Another highlight came during the semifinal round of the CIT when he beat Tyler Ziegler of eventual team champion and Division I power Cincinnati Moeller 3-2.

Smith was first in last week’s area coaches poll at 126. Ready was fourth in Division III behind Amanda-Clearcreek, West Jefferson and Galion Northmor.

Also ranked first in the area for the Silver Knights were sophomores Dalton Scott (120) and Patrik Garren (heavyweight).

Ready and Northmor will be among the field at the Cardington sectional, which will be held Friday, Feb. 17, and Saturday, Feb. 18. The top four finishers in each weight advance to the district tournament Feb. 24 and 25 at Heath.

“I think (the heavier weight) is healthier for Bobby because instead of worrying about his weight, he can work on improvement, which is going to help him in his goal to win state,” coach Chance Van Gundy said.

•The girls basketball team won’t enter the Division III district tournament with a winning record, but coach Joe Lang isn’t necessarily worried about what could be considered a cosmetic issue.

The Silver Knights won five of seven to close the regular season, including beating the second seed for the Division II district tournament, Hartley (37-34 on Feb. 4). Their losses were tight setbacks to DeSales (51-45 on Jan. 25) and Watterson (35-31 in overtime on Feb. 1), which are the top two teams in the CCL.

After playing a schedule that included several Division I and II teams, Ready received the 10th seed in the district and chose a match-up with fifth-seeded Johnstown on Saturday, Feb. 18 at New Albany.

The winner will play Feb. 25 against Columbus School for Girls, which Ready beat twice during the regular season.

Seventh-seeded Marion Pleasant or eighth-seeded West Jefferson would be the likely opponent in a district semifinal Feb. 28, with top-seeded Africentric likely looming in a district final March 3.

Ready’s last district-final appearance came in 2007.

The win over Hartley was the final home game for seniors Nikki Brown, Ciara Carr and Caitlin McAndrew. Junior Kim Lloyd made two 3-pointers and led the way with 15 points for Ready, which had lost to the Hawks 37-34 on Jan. 7.

“The Division I teams probably have three things that Division III teams don’t have,” Lang said.

“They’ve all got size, they’ve all got depth, and nine times out of 10, they’re better skilled. I told them that we’re not going to see any teams like DeSales or Watterson in the district tournament, but sometimes it’s hard to get them to buy (into that) when we’re losing.”