Youth may have defined the Crestwood Red Devils’ wrestling team all season, but they grew up in a big way at the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III sectional tournament. The Red Devils crowned two champions and qualified 10 wrestlers to the district tournament to score 156.0 points last Saturday at Rootstown High School.
“I was happy with the kids and how the kids responded,” said Coach Dave Wrobel. “We got off to a little bit of a rough start and then the early draws were not favorable. We rebounded and came out wrestling well so I was really happy because 9 of the 10 kids are returning next year and eight of the 10 are either freshmen or sophomores so the future really is looking good.”
Crestwood’s wrestlers will battle for state berths at the OHSAA Division III district tournament at the Independence Field House starting on Friday evening at 5 p.m.
Freshman 106-pound Levi Daniels was the Red Devils’ first champion, winning his bracket with a 2-0 record.
“He has been through it before,” said the 24-year coach. “We pushed him pretty hard as a freshman, we didn’t cut him any slack. We expect a lot out of Levi and he knows that and he puts a lot of pressure on himself already but we try to get the most out of our athletes and Levi definitely rose to the occasion.”
Daniels earned a bid in the championship bout when he pinned Rootstown freshman Logan Wilson with 18 seconds remaining in the third period of his semifinal match then clinched the championship when he pinned freshman Akilles Vang from Akron Manchester at the 1:54 mark of the second period.
The Red Devils’ second champion of the tournament was freshman Tyler Devlin, who went 2-0 to capture the 120-pound title.
“I was really happy with him,” noted Wrobel. “Tyler is one of those kids that comes in with a very modest .500 record and has wrestled some solid competition throughout the year. I told him that our goal isn’t just to get to the district tournament but we are here to win the sectional tournament so you can give yourself a nice draw for the district and he took advantage of that.”
Devlin won his semifinal bout against Kirtland junior Preston White when he pinned him with 51 seconds remaining in the first period and finished his day by pinning sophomore Tyler Davis from Rootstown with 1:04 remaining in the second period to take first place.
The Red Devils had one more wrestler advance to the championship round as sophomore 126-pound Gio Brock tallied a 2-1 record to finish as the runner-up.
After winning his quarterfinal match against Mineral Ridge freshman James Jordan by a technical fall of 17-2, the Crestwood sophomore earned his district berth with a dramatic comeback victory against sophomore Thanasi DiRienzo of Poland Seminary in the semifinal.
“He probably wrestled one of the crazier matches of the day. He was down 14-0 heading into the third period and ended up tying the match 16-16 with about 20 seconds to go,” said Wrobel. “Gio ended up wrestling a great third period. He never gave up and ended up fighting back and getting a big win after being down 14-0, that is what I was really proud about him that he never gave up.”
Brock won the match when he pinned DiRenzo with only 11 seconds remaining on the clock to wrap up a district bid, but fell in the championship match against Rootstown junior Alex Ely, who pinned him with 52 seconds remaining in the first period.
Freshman 132-pound Chris Mory took third place by going 2-1.
The Red Devils’ freshman was ousted from the championship bracket in his quarterfinal bout, getting pinned by senior Trevor Kusmits from Akron Manchester at the 1:23 mark of the second period but battled back in two wire-to-wire matches to extend his season another week.
First, Mory survived an overtime match against East Palestine junior Blaine Thompson by winning 11-8 in the consolation semifinal, then bested Poland Seminary sophomore Erich Zwicker in double overtime by a 7-6 score.
“Back-to-back overtime matches, he won them both and I was really happy with him so he was one of those freshman that really stood out,” Wrobel said. “I thought that was one of the better tournaments he wrestled.”
Crestwood’s other district qualifiers included sophomore 144-pound Jakob Devlin, who took fourth place despite going 0-2 because there were only four wrestlers in his bracket, freshman 150-pound Robby Georger earned fourth with a 1-2 record, sophomore 157-pound Tye Berquist earned a district bid by going 2-1, junior 175-pound Michael Berquist wrapped up third place with a 2-1 record, senior 190-pound Brenton Mason posted a 2-1 record to finish in fourth place, and sophomore 215-pound Doug Sipes went 1-2 in his matches to take fourth.
