If there was any doubt how much the Crestwood Red Devils’ wrestling team had grown since last year, they erased those concerns with a competitive dual against Hudson. The Red Devils took Hudson down to the wire before losing 42-31 in their regular season finale last Thursday evening at Mantua.
“To see us compete and come down to that final match was big,” said Coach Dave Wrobel. “That’s all I ask from the kids. Go out there and compete and leave it all on the mat and whatever happens, happens. If you come up short, you come up short but if you come out on top than that is a testament to you as well.”
Trailing 36-31 heading into the 285-pound bout, the Red Devils needed senior Blake Baumgardner to pin junior Jake Clapper to score the decisive six points, but the Red Devils’ senior was overpowered by Clapper and was pinned with 40 seconds remaining in the first period.
Although Hudson’s victory was determined by the final match, the 24th-year coach noted his team missed several chances to earn bonus points in the lightweights and the middleweights.
Although the Red Devils won four of the first six matches, only two of their victories were by pins with the other two being by technical falls.
“We always talk about that,” Coach Wrobel acknowledged. “We need to get bonus points and we can’t give up bonus points. In our case, our two best wrestlers, J.P. Wrobel and Drake Rennecker, won by technical falls but if they get the pin, that is an extra team point. I’m not blaming it on those two obviously but that is what it can come down to with a match like that.”
Despite losing the dual, it was a much more competitive battle than last year’s dual against the Explorers, when they dominated Crestwood and only lost two matches.
“Last year we lost 60-12,” said J.P. “This year we only lost 42-31 so that is improvement. This whole entire week we were preparing for it and just thinking about the 60-12 defeat last year. We were unable to beat them, but we gave them a good fight.”
The teams traded pins when 106-pound Hudson freshman Caden Havens pinned freshman Jack Becka with 1:17 left in the first period to go ahead 6-0 but 113-pound freshman Rocco Wrobel returned the favor when he pinned Hudson freshman Devin Niaura with 22.7 seconds left in the second period, evening the score at 6-6.
120-pound freshman Gio Brock pushed the Red Devils to a 12-6 advantage when he pinned junior Gavin McKenna with 25.8 seconds left in regulation of the third period, but Hudson rebounded when 126-pound senior Grayson Polak pinned freshman Jakob Devlin at the 46.4 second mark of the first period, tying the score at 12-12.
J.P. recorded the Red Devils’ third victory of the dual when he dominated senior Adam Dzierwa in the 132-pound match and ultimately won 26-11 by a technical fall, propelling Crestwood to a 17-12 lead. It marked the 150th career victory for J.P., who checked off another milestone in his senior year as he is now second on the list of all-time victories for a Crestwood wrestler, first with the most pins in a season, pins in a career and takedowns in a career.
“It feels good knowing I have got that many wins,” J.P. said. “It means a lot knowing all of my hard work has paid off and now that I have got the milestone and it is one down and just one more to go which is to win a state title this year.”
Although J.P. controlled the match from the beginning, Dzierwa refused to go down easily and J.P needed to wrestle almost the entire match to beat him.
Coach Wrobel said it was nice to see J.P. wrestle almost a full six minutes instead of his usual tendency to try and finish off his opponents quickly.
“He’s going to need that because come postseason you are not going to be wrestling kids that are inferior,” he added. “You are going to be wrestling kids that are pretty solid and you are going to need to go six minutes.”
138-pound Crestwood freshman Nick Lukart was pinned by junior Cole Hill with 17.5 seconds left in the second period, but 144-pound freshman Tye Berquist defeated junior Lukas Dirker by an 8-2 decision and 150-pound senior Drake Rennecker beat junior Connor Buterbaugh by a 15-0 technical fall, pushing the Red Devils ahead 25-18.
157-pound junior Michael Berquist edged sophomore Brennan Funyak 13-8, extending Crestwood’s advantage to 28-18 but the Explorers won four of the next five matches to seal the victory.
Up next, the Red Devils will compete in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III sectional tournament at Rootstown High School on Saturday morning beginning at 10 a.m.
