KARL PEARSON
MENTOR — A strong first day was enjoyed by area teams at the Division II sectional wrestling tournament at Lake Catholic High School, but their coaches know the really serious wrestling takes place today.
Twenty-three area wrestlers battled their way into the championship semifinals this morning. Action begins at 10 a.m. with the third round of consolation wrestling, with the championship semifinals expected to begin at approximately 11 a.m.
The winners of the semifinal matches are guaranteed two of the four berths to the district tournament at Akron Firestone High School on Feb. 22-23 awarded at each weight. The other two spots will be decided in later consolation wrestling. Championship and consolation finals will be contested at 6:30 p.m.
Perry led the contingent of area teams with six wrestlers in the championship semifinals and was also third in the team standings with 65.5 points. Only West Geauga with 93.5 and University School with 88.5 led the Pirates.
Edgewood also put six wrestlers in the semifinals and was sixth in the team standings with 53. Geneva was actually higher in the team standings with 54 points for fifth place, but had just five semifinalists.
Conneaut and Jefferson each placed three wrestlers in the semifinals. The Spartans were in seventh place with 39 points, while Jefferson was eighth with 37 points. Harvey pushed two wrestlers through into the semifinals and was ninth in the team race at 36.5 points.
Nate Westfall, the projected Division II state runner-up at 112 pounds, got Perry started, even though he didn’t have to wrestle a match. He was followed into the semifinals by Tom Shaw (125). Then the Pirates produced semifinalists in four straight weight classes as Josh Mullins (152), Dustin Sarosy (160), Corey Wheeler (171) and John Sill (189) made the grade.
Perry coach Dave Rowan was pleased with the Pirates’ first-day efforts.
“It’s been a good day for us, but we’re been trying to save all our energy for (today),” he said. “I thought the boys really wrestled well. We lost some tough matches to some very tough kids, so I hope those kids can bounce back. Our kids that we felt should have won did, so we’re pretty happy with that.”
Edgewood’s strength in the lower weights was on display again as all six of its semifinalists came by the 145-pound weight class. Ashley Keenan led the way at 103 pounds and was followed by Christian Severino (119), Thomas Butryn (125), Kody Severino (130), Jordyn Dickey (135) and David Rodenbacher (145).
Warriors coach Greg Stolfer was quite pleased, too.
“I actually thought the kids wrestled pretty well, today,” he said. “Our lighter weights have done it all year long, and it continued today. We got six kids into the semis, which I was pretty happy with. For the first day, I was pleased, but now we have to keep it going.”
At the other end of the spectrum, Geneva’s first semifinalist was Leon Phillips at 145 pounds. From there, the Eagles also pushed Steve Meier (152), Mike French (160), Josh Buckey (189) and heavyweight Ricky Williams ahead into the championship round.
Geneva coach Dwight Fritz said his team took a while to get going.
“We started off kind of slow and picked up momentum as we went along,” he said. “We got five through to the semifinals and hope to get a couple more back through the consolation rounds. We have to wrestle with more intensity and we have to be strong (today).”
Jefferson’s semifinalists were spread throughout its lineup. It started with two-time state placer Kyle Gilchrist at 119 pounds, moved forward to Eric Hargesheimer (145) and ended up with heavyweight Jed Miller, who pulled the upset of the tournament so far by rallying to pin third-seeded Mac McGinty of University School.
“Jed really came through in that match,” a smiling coach Tom Avsec said. “That was kind of a punctuation mark on the night. I felt real good about his, Kyle’s and Eric’s matches today.”
Conneaut’s semifinalists were also spread out. Lance Zappitella got the Spartans started at 130 pounds. He was followed by Mitch Bidwell (152) and Tyler Rice (171).
“I thought the kids did a pretty good job and wrestled hard,” coach Rich Shields said. “We only had one disappointment and we’ve still got a shot to come back there. You have to beat the best to be the best around here. I thought Lance, Mitch and Tyler all wrestled well. Now they have to keep it going.”
Harvey coach Jeremy Patty was the only coach who really was disappointed in his team’s first day. The Red Raiders advanced Daniel James (215) and heavyweight Ian Jones into the semifinals.
“So far, so bad,” Patty said. “We lost a couple really close matches that hurt. I thought Dan and Ian wrestled well. We just have to try and fight our way back at some other weights now.”
