Experience leads the way for New Philadelphia wrestling

DOVER — The saying is as old as time, but remains ever so true — there is no substitute for experience.

That certainly was the case Thursday night when New Philadelphia's and Dover’s wrestling teams collided before a large crowd in the Crimson Tornadoes’ gym.

The Quakers, who boast a veteran team with 12 seniors on their roster to the young Tornadoes’ two, rolled to a 58-15 triumph.

“I’m really pleased,” said New Philadelphia head wrestling coach Cory Swinderman. “Dover’s a really good team, and their coach is doing a great job, and I told our kids to be ready because they’re going to come out and fight every single match and our kids came out on top and I was really pleased with that.”

“We are (young) a little bit, but you can’t make excuses,” said Dover head coach Gannon Petrullo, a two-time state qualifier during his prep mat days with the Tornadoes. “We just have to be more aggressive. We didn’t take near the amount of shots that we could. We’re just going to get back and improve. I mean part of it is being young, but you can’t make excuses.”

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It marked New Philadelphia’s second straight win over Dover as the Quakers also defeated the Tornadoes 63-14 last season.

“We have 12 seniors on the team and a lot of kids that have a lot of mat experience that I’m really excited about,” Swinderman said. “And we have a good freshmen group that comes in and fights those kids every single practice to push them and make them better, so it’s really good.”

New Philadelphia won 11 of the 14 bouts during the evening. That included five pins, three decisions, two forfeits and one win by disqualification.

New Philadelphia, coming off a 16th-place finish in the rugged 29-team Barnesville Doan Ford Invitational last Saturday, got pins by Camden Richardson (113 pounds), Crespo Reyes (126), Ryan Harris (132), Hector Sente-Mejia (138) and Ezekiel Williams (150) against Dover.

Winning by major decision for New Philadelphia was Edgar Mejia-Ramos (165), while winning by decisions were Landon Lehman (144) and Etnie Richardson (157). Winning by disqualification was Landon Hodkinson (215) and earning forfeits were Jackson Korns (190) and Garrett Dillon-Rine (285).

“I was really excited about the 215 match with Landon Hodkinson and the 157-match with Etnie Richardson,” said Swinderman of those individual wins by the Quakers. “Both of those wrestlers did an amazing job, fought the whole time, pushed the pace and really controlled the whole match which is what we like to do.”

Dover, coming off an eighth-place finish in the Everett Hoppel Memorial Tournament at Beaver Local last Saturday, got pins by Santos Pastor-Perez (120) and Chantzen Frame (175) against New Philadelphia. Earning a win by decision was the Tornadoes’ Brock Reynolds (106).

“Frame came back and got on top and pinned his kid,” Petrullo said. “He’s got some work to do on his feet, but overall he’s showing up every day in practice, and he’s working hard, and I’m very proud of him.”

Petrullo also praised Pedro Valasco Hernandez, who lost his match at 126 but wrestled well against a state-ranked Quaker matman in Crespo Reyes.

“I was really happy with our 126-pounder, he fought really hard throughout his match, and this is his first year wrestling, and he wrestled a great opponent tonight,” said the Dover mentor.

Meanwhile, Swinderman can’t wait to see how the season plays out for his talented New Philadelphia squad. He feels the sky is the limit for the Quakers.

“If all the cards fall into place I’d really like to get six or seven guys to state,” said Swinderman. “We want to keep pushing and pushing and I know six or seven is really a lofty goal, but it’s something that we’ve talked to the kids about and we really want to do that as a program. We want to be the best team in school history, so you have to do something good.”

New Philadelphia will compete in the 21-team Top Dawg Tournament at Canton McKinley next Wednesday.

“Last year we placed third there and I’m hoping to be at the top,” said Swinderman, looking ahead to the Top Dawg Tournament. “There’s a lot of good wrestlers there and a lot of good teams. I know McKinley is bringing a lot back and Barberton is there and they are bringing a lot back, so I’m excited to see that competition.”

Meanwhile, Dover will participate in the Wheeling Park Duals December 27-28.

“We’re hoping to get down there and improve from tonight, of course,” said Petrullo. “Just wrestle hard and get better from going down there. We’re going to get 10 matches, so there will be a lot of mat time, so it will be good for our young team. Some of the mistakes that we made tonight, we just have to continue to hammer and cut them out.”

NEW PHILADELPHIA 58, DOVER 15

106: Brock Reynolds (D) dec. Kyle Beaber, 8-4. 113: Camden Richardson (NP) pinned Frank Ramirez, 3:37. 120: Santos Pastor-Perez (D) pinned Kaydence Sansome, 1:07. 126: Crespo Reyes (NP) pinned Pedro Valasco Hernandez (D), 3:37. 132: Ryan Harris (NP) pinned Kyle Reveal, 3:01. 138: Hector Sente-Mejia (NP) pinned Eulalio Hernandez-Ixcoy, 5:27. 144: Landon Lehman (NP) dec. Caeden Windsor, 6-2.  150: Ezekiel Williams (NP) pinned Aiden Corder, :33. 157: Etnie Richardson (NP) dec. Dominik Ottena Slider, 3-2. 165: Edgar Mejia-Ramos (NP) dec. Adolfo Lopez, 9-0. 175: Chantzen Frame (D) pinned Nicholas Faber, 3:57. 190: Jackson Korns (NP) won by forfeit. 215: Landon Hodkinson (NP) won by disqualification. 285: Garrett Dillon-Rine (NP) won by forfeit. Record: New Philadelphia 2-0.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: New Philadelphia wrestling takes down Dover