Streetsboro Rockets’ wrestling Coach Mark Skonieczny acknowledged that being snake-bitten at the midway point of the season is not ideal. The Rockets competed hard in the Twinsburg duals but finished with a 2-3 record last Saturday afternoon at Twinsburg High School.
“We battled in the losses,” said the first-year coach. “My lower weights all wrestled well and went on to pin their guys. They were competitive and went out and tried to pick up bonus points in the matches to make the difference up but some of these teams are just too good to be able to do that against.”
Entering the Twinsburg duals, Streetsboro was missing three starters, with 106-pound freshman Jarreau Walker nursing a rib injury, 190-pound freshman Nate Estep having an ankle injury and 215-pound senior Joey Neal suffering a season-ending knee injury.
According to Skonieczny, those injuries put the Rockets in a bind and they forfeited all three matches in each dual.
“Our depth will get better in the future because we have a nice group of kids coming up from the middle school but our depth in the upper weights was paper thin,” he added. “With those kids going down we are forfeiting those weight classes now.”
Streetsboro won its first dual of the tournament, dominating neighborhood rival Twinsburg 61-18. Despite missing three wrestlers, Streetsboro was still a deeper squad than the Tigers.
“We pinned and dominated the matches,” noted Skonieczny. “They had a couple of forfeits where we had forfeits, so it did not help them or vice-versa, but we dominated Twinsburg and wrestled well out of the gate. It’s always special beating the neighborhood teams.”
The Rockets then overpowered New London 64-12, improving to 2-0 on the day.
Skonieczny said his squad wrestled well against the Wildcats and earned bonus points whenever they could, including having some of their younger kids perform well.
Despite missing their 106-pounder, the rest of the Rockets’ lightweights and middle weights still gave Streetsboro momentum at the beginning of the tournament to start off with an undefeated record.
Sophomore 126-pounder Anthony Sindelar ignited his squad by going 5-0 in the tournament.
“He is a sophomore and he looked fantastic,” noted Skonieczny. “He hit the pavement running. In each match he went after his guys, and he dominated his matches. He had a fantastic weekend.”
Streetsboro suffered its first loss when it fell to Waynedale by a 60-9 margin.
Skonieczny acknowledged that surrendering 18 points on forfeits against the Golden Bears put his squad in a deep hole and despite some matches that went down to the wire, the Rocket wrestlers fell short.
“Those matches could have flipped either way and giving up the 18 points just really put the dagger in any chance,” he said. “When you are wrestling a team like Waynedale and you give them 18 points, your chances are between slim and none. They are hard to beat and you are not getting bonus points against those kids and we lost some heartbreaking ones.”
During the dual against Waynedale, Streetsboro’s injury woes continued when 150-pound sophomore Cam Ragowski suffered a shoulder injury and had to withdraw from the competition for the rest of the day, meaning the Rockets were now at a 24-point disadvantage for their final two duals.
Streetsboro ran into another buzzsaw and lost 51-18 against Division I powerhouse St. Edward’s junior varsity squad.
Skonieczny said that even though Streetsboro wrestled against the Golden Eagles’ junior varsity team, St. Edward’s back-ups could still fill out most high school varsity wrestling squads. He added that while there were no consolation prizes in the losses against Waynedale and St. Edward, he was encouraged by how many of his wrestlers took their opponents down the closing seconds.
“Even if you wrestle one of their top guys and take it down to the wire and lose, it’s still heart-breaking and wrestlers look at it differently but at least on the coaching aspect of it, you have a better feeling than the athlete does,” Skonieczny said.
Streetsboro lost its third straight dual when it was defeated by Barberton 39-33.
“We outwrestled them in my opinion,” Skonieczny said. “At this point in the season, we have got guys that are out that are waiting to get back and it is what it is. We are just trying to strap on our shoes and keep wrestling until we get healthy.”
Despite surrendering 24 points on forfeits to the Magics, Skonieczny said his wrestlers still wrestled hard but could not overcome their lack of depth, especially in the heavyweights.
Following a dual match against Metro Athletic Conference foe Rootstown on Wednesday afternoon, the Rockets will return to action when they host MAC rival Ravenna on Feb. 1 at 6 p.m. and will then compete in the Ohio High School Wrestling Coaches Association Division II Garfield Heights district dual meet at Louisville High School on Feb. 3 beginning at 10 am.
