The Crestwood Red Devils’ wrestling team reached the top of the mountain when they earned first place at the Rootstown sectional tournament by scoring 180.0 points, crowning four sectional champions, and advancing eight district qualifiers last Saturday at Rootstown High School.
“It was nice,” said Coach Dave Wrobell. “We had a couple of up-and-down moments throughout the year, so we had some challenges but to enter the postseason by winning a sectional championship was huge. It was a compete team effort, we had individuals step up and it was nice to come out on top.”
Crestwood will compete at the OHSAA Division III Independence district tournament for state berths to the OHSAA Division III tournament beginning on Friday evening at the Independence Field House at 5 p.m.
“The money week is this week,” added the 24-year coach. “This is where you really have to step up your game and you are going to have to beat someone that is noteworthy and is a solid wrestler to get down to Columbus.”
On Saturday, Crestwood had five wrestlers reach the sectional championship round and four of them emerged victorious.
The Red Devils’ first sectional champion was junior 126-pounder Rocco Wrobel, who went 4-0 to net his second sectional championship.
“I am sure Rocco was chomping at the bit after not wrestling in last year’s postseason,” said Coach Wrobel. “He was probably really anxious to get out there. He went out and he executed. In the finals, he wrestled a really tough opponent from Columbia that took seventh in the state last year and beat him 3-2 so that was a huge win.”
Rocco advanced to the quarterfinal round on a bye and bested Loudonville junior Josh Brown by pinning him with 22 seconds remaining in the first period, then secured a championship berth in the semifinal round by beating sophomore Kyle Petty from Norwayne by a 13-2 major decision.
In the final, Rocco triumphed against Columbia sophomore Tanner Cochrane, outlasting him 3-2 in an ultimate tiebreaker to take the sectional crown.
Freshman 132-pounder Jacob Morris dazzled in his OHSAA Division III tournament debut, posting a 4-0 record to become the Red Devils’ second sectional champion.
Morris pinned freshman Jaxson Becerra from Norwayne with 32 seconds remaining in the first period of the first round, then pinned Rootstown junior Ayden Moyer with 1:09 remaining in the third period of his quarterfinal match.
The Red Devils’ freshman advanced to the championship round when he pinned junior Jared Merrick-Sierra from Liberty with 13 seconds remaining in the first period of the semifinals and mounted an incredible rally in the third period of the championship match, scoring seven unanswered points to stun Southeast senior Trevor Osbourne 7-5.
“He just kept wrestling; he never quit,” Wrobel said. “He wore his opponent down a little bit, and he ended up getting a key reversal. The key was that in the last five seconds, he got a nice 3-point near fall to win the match 7-5 so it was a huge win. The way that he won it was even better because he never stopped wrestling.”
Junior Tye Berquist won his first sectional title by going 4-0 in the 175-pound bracket to earn another district berth.
“Tye has been our fearless leader all season who has really stepped up and has gotten so much better this season compared to last year,” said Coach Wrobel. “He wrestles an intense, action-packed six minutes all of the time. For a lot of 175-pounders, they are not used to his pace; he goes at a hard pace and an intense pace.”
Berquist advanced to the quarterfinals on a bye, then pinned sophomore George McAleer from Fairview with 23 seconds remaining in the second period to advance to the semifinals where he pinned Crestview sophomore Elijah Scherer with 51 seconds remaining in the first period.
Berquist wrapped up his sectional banner when he defeated Akron Manchester senior Jake Livingston 5-0 in the championship bout.
Senior 190-pounder Michael Berquist compiled a 4-0 record to lay claim to his first career sectional championship.
“He is another one that flies under the radar a little bit like Jacob he is very soft-spoken and doesn’t say much but he has picked it up, is looking good. His confidence is high and he feels good going into the district tournament,” said Coach Wrobel.
Michael automatically advanced to the semifinals through two byes but triumphed against freshman Aiden Long from Rootstown by winning on an 18-2 technical fall and finished his day by besting Southeast senior Landon Durstin on a 19-9 major decision in the final.
Sophomore Levi Daniels went 3-1 to finish as the runner-up in the 113-pound bracket, followed by sophomore 120-pound Tyler Devlin who amassed a 4-1 record to take third place, junior 144-pound Gio Brock tallied a 5-1 record to earn third place, and junior Doug Sipes went 3-2 to finish in fourth place in the 215-pound bracket.
