As young and inexperienced as the Crestwood Red Devils’ wrestling team may be, they still pack quite a punch. Crestwood demonstrated its depth when it took second place in the Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division meet and seventh place overall in the tournament by scoring 103.0 points last weekend at Berkshire High School.
“There are 24 teams in the Chagrin Valley Conference so to place in the top third was nice,” said Coach Dave Wrobel. “Our goal coming in was that maybe we were looking at a top five finish. We were as high as third or fourth but we dropped down a little bit in the last round. We did not really have the best finals round, we ended up going 1-4 overall so it hurt us a little bit, but it was respectable.”
Crestwood had five wrestlers place and two finished as runners-up, and each of the five wrestlers were underclassmen. Despite being one of the youngest teams at the tournament, the Red Devils showed that their time is coming soon.
Sophomore 113-pounder Rocco Wrobel once again led Crestwood by finishing as the runner-up by posting a 3-1 record.
“You want to have good competition and he had three quality matches, both in the quarters and the semis and then again in the finals,” noted the 25-year coach. “Again you want those matches and again you want to get those matches in so that you are challenged before the postseason. You want to see those kind of matches and have to make sure you have good quality opponents that you are facing throughout the year and this was a good tournament for Rocco.”
On Friday, Rocco advanced to the semifinal after winning his first match by pinning Cardinal freshman Robert Wojtasik with 1:08 remaining in the first period then defeated sophomore Mitch Meyer from Independence 6-5 in the quarterfinal.
Rocco returned on Saturday and earned a championship berth when he overpowered Madison senior Aidian Pastor 8-1 in the semifinal but was defeated in the finals when 2024 Division III 106-pound champion Derion Williams pinned him with 13 second remaining in the third period.
Crestwood’s other wrestler who finished in second place was 157-pound sophomore Tye Berquist, who went 3-1 over the weekend.
“He has been coming into his own,” noted Coach Wrobel. “The week before at Berkshire, he took a respectable second. The kid in the finals that we wrestled, we were very familiar with so we wrestled him last year. We knew his style, he is very sound. It was a good match and then Tye ended up making a mistake by turning into a half and trying to roll through it and that was not a good move.”
On Friday, Berquist dominated junior Talon Duncan from Cardinal by pinning him with 43 seconds left in the first period and then overpowered Beachwood junior Aaden Condor to win by a 17-2 technical fall to reach the semifinals.
On Saturday, Berquist conquered senior Patrick Seibel from Orange by a 14-6 major decision to earn a bid in the finals but was pinned by Perry senior Drew Smith in the championship match with 47 seconds remaining in the second period.
Freshman Levi Daniels took fifth place in the 106-pound bracket with a 4-2 record.
“He had some nice wins,” said Coach Wrobel. “He ended up getting pinned in the finals against the Madison kid, but he had a couple of pins throughout or a couple of big points. He was constantly scoring points which was good, so I like to see that because he is the one that energizes us and he is the igniter that gets us going so it is nice to see Levi not only place but place in the top five and get that win in the finals.”
On Friday, Daniels advanced to the quarterfinal when he pinned Edgewood freshman Malachi Nelson with 21 seconds left in the second period but was ousted from the championship bracket when freshman Jimmy Trentanelli pinned him with 57 seconds left in the first period.
On Saturday, Daniels earned a consolation semifinal bid when he pinned freshman Max Galliazzo with 1:13 remaining in the second period but lost in the consolation semifinal round when Harvey junior Gael Aranda defeated him by a 9-1 major decision. Daniels finished strong when he dominated Madison freshman Leonard Lucaj by a 17-1 technical fall to earn fifth place.
Freshman 120-pound Tyler Devlin and 132-pound Chris Mory each took sixth place by posting 3-3 records. respectively.
Following a home dual meet against Kenston on Thursday night, the Red Devils will face CVC rival Trinity and Northwestern in a tri-match in Garfield Heights on Feb. 6 beginning at 6 p.m.
