Four area standouts place at Brecksville Invitational

Jan. 2—BRECKSVILLE — The Monroeville wrestling team was the highest-placing Division III team at the prestigious Brecksville Holiday Invitational held on Dec. 29-30.

The Eagles scored 77.5 points to place 18th in the 43-team field with schools from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

Two state-ranked wrestlers led the way for Monroeville, as Ashton Homan placed fourth at 132 pounds and Hunter Vogus was sixth at 138.

Homan is the top-ranked wrestler in Div. III at 138 according to the latest borofanohio.net rankings, while Vogus is No. 4 at 144.

Homan (18-6) went 4-2 over the two days, which also saw him win his 100th career match. He opened with two pins over Cleveland Benedictine's Lucas Dolan (3:05) and Louisville's Dylan Rhoads (5:41) before posting a 9-7 decision over Kaden Chinavare (Dundee, Mich.) in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinal round, Homan lost a 4-2 decision Brady Ison of Brownsburg, Ind. He responded with a 3-0 decision over Massillon Perry's Brock Christian, then lost in sudden victory (4-2) to Barnseville's Dakota King.

Christian and King are currently ranked No. 1 and 2 at 132 in Div. III.

Meanwhile, Vogus (17-9) went 5-3 to place sixth. Vogus opened with a 15-0 technical fall over Cleveland St. Ignatius' Max Patsouras, then lost a tough 2-1 decision to Blake Cosby of Dundee, Mich. in the third round.

Vogus responded with four straight wins to reach the consolation semifinals. He pinned Marysville's Zachary Pfarr (1:45), won by injury forfeit, then posted a 6-1 decision over Brownsburg's Parker Reynolds and a pin in 2:11 over Mentor's Antonio Shelley.

He then fell 7-2 in a rematch with Cosby before falling 4-2 in the fifth-place match to Div. III No. 3 Skyler King of Barnesville.

Also for the No. 11-ranked Eagles, No. 9 Brencyn Evans (165) went 3-2, while Landen Roeder (144), Ian Patchen (150) and Peyton Barnhart (285) each won two matches.

For No. 2-ranked Edison, Kohen Horvath placed second at 150, while Max Hermes was fourth at 120. Both wrestlers are ranked No. 1 in the state in their weight classes in the most recent borofanohio.net rankings.

Horvath (17-4) received a bye, then opened with a pin in 1:03 over Noah Silva from Berea-Midpark. He followed with an 11-2 major decision over Dublin Coffman's Hash Wordlaw, then pined Cincinnati LaSalle's Colin Woolridge in 3:46 in the quarterfinals.

Horvath advanced to the finals with a 5-4 decision over Kole Katschor (Dundee, Mich.), and fell in the finals in a 3-1 sudden victory thriller to Perrysburg's Wynton Denkins — the top-ranked wrestler in Div. I.

Hermes (20-4) also had a bye, then beat Toledo Whitmer's Peyton Webber by pin in 1:45 and Broadview Heights' Cayden Pluhar with a 10-1 major decision, followed by an 8-6 win by decision over Cincinnati Elder's Joey Thamann in the quarterfinals.

The defending state champion then lost a 2-0 decision to Jackson Blum of Lowell, Mich. — a two-time state champion who is ranked No. 16 nationally — before beating Mentor Lake Catholic's Div. III No. 4 Joey Romano with a 4-1 decision to reach the third-place match. Kade Kluce (Dundee, Mich.) topped him with a 7-3 decision.

Plymouth eighth at Harding Classic

MARION — Led by individual champion Colton Sparks, the Big Red placed eighth out of 32 teams at the Marion Harding Classic on Dec. 28-29.

The Big Red totaled 112 points and placed five wrestlers among the top eight at their weight class, respectively.

Cam Wagers (113) and Andrew Miller (126) each finished third, while Ben Trimmer (132) and Hunter McClure (165) both took eighth.

Sparks is now 14-0 and has had just two matches go the full distance. That included a 7-3 win in the finals over Lancaster's Kody Hoffman. He opened the tournament with a pin in 50 seconds, followed by a default win, and a fall in 1:28.

Wagers had falls in 32 seconds and 1:48 before a 14-4 major decision. He suffered a pin to Lancaster's Braylon Young in 5:20 in the semifinals, then won 9-4 before a pin of Highland's Brendan Lester in 2:48 to place third.

Miller opened with a 23-second pin before falling by decision (11-7) to Black River's Joe Dennis in the quarterfinals. He responded with pins in 3:45, 33 seconds and 4:02 to reach the third-place match, where he then pinned Dennis in 52 seconds.

"I was proud of how all my wrestlers performed," Plymouth head coach Jeremiah Balkin said. "Colton has been lights out this year. His leadership and desire to be on the podium has rubbed off on the team.

"Andrew was upset earlier in the meet and pinned the Black River kid who beat him in the finals. Cam is now 13-2 and battled back to an impressive pin in the finals."

Fox, Ware each fifth for Norwalk

KENSTON — Two Norwalk wrestlers each earned fifth place at their respective weight class on Dec. 28-29 at the 57th annual Kenston Invitational tournament.

At 126, Austin Ware won by pin in 3:30, then advanced to the third round where he fell to Geneva's Ayden Gillespie.

Ware then rebounded to score two wins in the consolation rounds before rebounding past Gillespie with a pin in 2:42 in the in his final match to place fifth.

Ryan Fox also placed fifth at 175 for the Truckers. He reached the semifinal round by pinning Holy Name's Evan Stracensky in 53 seconds, followed by a 2-1 win over West Geauga's Nasir Levy.

In the semis, Fox fell to Cody Coontz of Roosttown by pin in two minutes. In the consolation rounds, he lost to Hudson's Brooks, 5-2, then posted an 11-2 major decision over Madison's K. Pinion in the fifth-place match.

Willard placed two at Border War

DEFIANCE — Jose Figueroa placed fourth for Willard at 106 at the 30-team Tri-State Border War tournament held on Dec. 28-29 at Defiance.

He won three straight matches over Aizik Myers (Allen East), Cohen Lewis (Bowling Green) and Joshua Strickland (Findlay) to reach the semifinal round, where he fell by fall.

Figueroa beat Myers by pin (1:35), Lewis by tie-breaker (7-5) and Strickland by decision (10-4). He rebounded with a 7-2 decision over Perkins' Marco Muratori to reach the third-place match, where he fell by fall (2:26) to Berkshire's Colin Hering.

At 132, Willard's Luke Slone placed fifth after going 5-2. He won by fall over Swanton's Walker Klingler (2:47), Franklin's Davis Anderson (3:38), Elmwood's Peyton Schafer (1:30) and Noah Villarreal (4:18). He also had a victory in the fifth-place match over Dylan Health with an 11-5 decision.

St. Paul competes at WJ

WEST JEFFERSON — Ty Glavich at 126 was 4-4 for the Flyers and Tristan Nickoli went 3-3 at 175 at the West Jefferson Invitational.

Also for St. Paul, Niko Cuturic went 2-5 at 106 to finish seventh in the weight..

The Flyers are scheduled to visit Toledo Woodmore this weekend.

SWIMMING

St. Paul competes at Cloverleaf Stampede

WOOSTER — The Flyers competed at the 35-team Cloverleaf Stampede at Wooster High School on Friday.

"What a great new meet for us," St. Paul head coach Stacy Stoll said. "So many talented swimmers giving our swimmers new competition."

Aaron Schaffer scored points for the Flyers in the 100-yard breaststroke, placing eighth in 1:10.44. Stoll said Ethan Juntunen dropped six seconds in the same race.

The girls did not score points, but Stoll noted Sam Gocsik dropped times in both the 50 freestyle and 100 free.

"The athletes swam great and got to watch some fun, fast races," Stoll said. "Now that we know how this race is run, I look forward to coming back there next year."