A Don McCormack column: Catching up with men of the mat

DON McCORMACK

Paying a collegiate wrestling visit to the variety store...



Super soph

As one of only four individuals to ever win three Star Beacon Ashtabula County Player of the Year honors in a single sport, Kyle Gilchrist is certainly used to success.

A three-time Star Beacon Ashtabula County Wrestler of the Year during his days at Jefferson, Kyle Gilchrist a breakout sophomore season for Columbia University.

The son of Iain and Debbie Gilchrist, led the Lions in victories, posting 24, in 34 decisions while wrestling at 125 pounds for coach Brendan Buckley’s squad.

Perhaps even more impressively, Gilchrist was one of three Columbia students to earn Student-Athlete of the Month honors in January for the prestigious Ivy League university, sharing the recognition with Judie Lomax and Nicole Ross, who halved the women’s honor for the month.

Gilchrist had a monstrous January, going 8-1, posting three wins by pin and two more by major decision.

Winner of 175 matches in a stellar four-season career at Jefferson, Gilchrist stunned the 19th-rated 125-pounder in the country at the Pitt Duals, whipping Pitt’s Anthony Zanetta on his own mat.

A history major, Gilchrist’s first season at the New York university was pretty much a break-even slate as he went 12-11 in matches at 125 pounds and also wrestled three matches up at 133 pounds, finishing 12-14 all together.

However, with his team-best 24 victories this season, including four pins — and not having been pinned himself — to go along with five major decisions, Gilchrist has established already established himself as a core wrestler for Buckley’s Lions, who finished 8-10-1 in dual meets this season in his first two seasons on the mat.

A feature story on Gilchrist will appear on these pages later this week.



Laying foundation

Speaking of former Jefferson wrestling stars, Ben Stehura just wrapped up his second season at the helm of the Cleveland State University Vikings.

A 2000 Lock Haven graduate, Stehura, a 1996 Jefferson graduate, knew it would take some time to get the Vikings back on their feet on the mats when he took over.

The Vikings, which sport an extremely young lineup, just wrapped up their 2009-10 season at the Eastern Wrestling League championships at West Virginia University. They finished with a dual-meet record of 2-17. In Stehura’s first season, CSU went 4-13.

Stehura had 18 freshmen on his roster this season, including former Geneva heavyweight Ricky Williams (96-22 in four seasons for coach Dwight Fritz’s Eagles during his high school days), to go along with six sophomores on a roster that numbered 30, meaning 24 of Stehura’s 30 grapplers were freshmen or sophomores. Williams wrestled two varsity matches this season.

Stehura & Co. defeated John Carroll University at home and Appalachian State University at a quadrangular match at Ohio University this season.

Hired at CSU in August 2008, Stehura was a graduate assistant coach for the Vikings from 2001 through 2003.

Before returning to Northeast Ohio, Stehura spent five seasons at the helm at Division II Limestone College, located in Gaffney, S.C., where he built the program in a powerhouse. At Limestone, he coached one NCAA national champion, three NCAA All-Americans, five NCAA national qualifiers and eight NCAA All-Academic team members, not to mention three U.S. Senior Open All-Americans, four Olympic team trial qualifiers and two Olympic team alternates.

In other words, give Stehura some time at CSU.



Getting it going

Four other guys are just beginning to make their marks, competing as freshmen at the collegiate level.

Former Conneaut star Lance Zappitella is at Tiffin University, which competed as a club team this year but will be a Division II squad in the 2010-11 season.

Former Edgewood standout Kody Severino is at Mount Union, a Division III school. He went 10-11 with six pins while competing at the 149-pound division for the Purple Raiders.

Multi-time state qualifier Nate Westfall of Perry and former Madison standout Andrew Gasper are at Notre Dame College, an NAIA school.

Also, former Riverside star Alex Denman is a sophomore at 184 pounds for the Falcons.



McCormack is the sports editor of the Star Beacon. Reach him at donmac@suite224.net.

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