The Garfield G-Men wrestling team may have been short-handed at the annual Division III Classic Tournament at Waterloo High School last weekend, but they showed their mettle as two G-Men wrestlers finished as champions, and the team finished in fourth place with a score of 299.5 points in Atwater Township.
“We are making do with what we have,” said Coach Dan Andel. “Clearly from what we have, Camron Lewicki, Luke Kaufman and Landon Andel are the backbone of the team. We have a lot of positive things to look at and we will keep working and putting the time and effort into the kids that are there and want to make it to Columbus.”
On Friday, the G-Men wrestlers competed in a round robin-style format, as several weight classes were divided into four pools with the top two records of each pool advancing to the placement bracket while the bottom two records in each one moved on to the consolation bracket.
On Saturday, the G-Men had six wrestlers advance to the placement bracket and three wrestled in the championship round.
Junior 138-pounder Kaufman was Garfield’s first champion of the tournament, going 6-0 over the weekend to collect his second consecutive individual title.
“Luke was ready to wrestle, and he didn’t make any mistakes and that led to a position in the finals to basically open up the kid,” noted the 10-year coach. “He did very well. He won all three positions in that finals match and the match was managed really well, so I thought he wrestled great.”
On Friday, Kaufman went 3-0 in Pool “D” to advance to the placement bracket and on Saturday, he added three more victories and another championship to his resume in the early season.
In the first round, Kaufman pinned Tuslaw freshman Landon Piccari with 1:01 remaining in the second period and continued dominating in the semifinal when he pinned Brandon Wheeler from Connotton Valley with 21 seconds remaining in the first period.
In the championship bout, Kaufman ended his weekend with a perfect record as defeated Sandy Valley sophomore Owen Simpson 6-3.
The G-Men’s other champion of the weekend was junior Landon Andel, who posted a 7-0 record in the 144-pound bracket to also earn his second straight individual championship.
“I think he is doing well. I don’t think he has given up an offensive point in the season yet,” Coach Andel said. “He has always been good. He is younger as well so coming into 138 last year as a 15-year-old he made it to the state tournament and almost placed. That is a toll on a young kid. I think with him being 16 now he is mature, and he is going to be tough to beat at that weight.”
On Friday, Landon amassed a 4-0 record in Pool “D” to qualify for the placement bracket.
On Saturday, Landon continued to excel as he pinned Trenton Brophy of Mogadore with 47 seconds remaining in the first period in the first round.
In the semifinal bout, Landon controlled the entire six minutes of the match to defeat Tuslaw junior Chance Grim 4-1 and wrapped things up with a dominating performance in the championship round, pinning Bailey Bumgarner from Akron Manchester with 37 seconds remaining in the second period.
Senior 120-pounder Camron Lewicki was Garfield’s last wrestler to appear in the championship bout, going 5-1 over the weekend to finish as the runner-up.
“Camron is a small 120, he is going down to 113, he will fill out that weight class; he is a competitor, so he wrestled well,” added Coach Andel. “He just fell short in the finals, but it is early in the season, and we will get back to the drawing board and correct the mistakes that he had and just try to keep driving forward.”
After going 3-0 in Pool “A” on Friday to qualify for the championship bracket, Lewicki returned on Saturday and conquered Malvern sophomore Bowen Irwin in the first round, winning by a 19-6 major decision.
In the semifinal round, Lewicki overcame an early deficit and pinned junior Colton Oaklief of Tuslaw with 56 seconds left in the fourth period but fell to Sandy Valley junior Asher Crissey as Crissey pinned him at the 1:04 mark of the first period.
Senior Carter Hoover had a 4-1 record to earn third place in the 126-pound bracket, junior 150-pound Keaton Ellison went 2-2 to finish in fifth place, junior Cole Porter posted a 2-2 record to take sixth place in the 157-pound bracket, and junior 165-pound Griffin Kline recorded a 5-1 record to take fourth place.
The G-Men will return to action to compete in the Brecksville Holiday Tournament at Brecksville-Broadview Heights on Dec. 29 at 9 a.m.
