The Chagrin Valley Conference held its wrestling tournament over the weekend on Jan. 30 and 31 at Hawken, and by the time it was all said and done, two Geauga County teams impressed amongst the rest.
The Chagrin Valley Conference held its wrestling tournament over the weekend on Jan. 30 and 31 at Hawken, and by the time it was all said and done, two Geauga County teams impressed amongst the rest.
Berkshire and West Geauga brought home team CVC championships on Saturday from the Valley and Lake division competitions, respectively.
Starting with the Badgers, Berkshire posted 168 points, good enough for third overall in the boys tournament, with Caden Klingman and Danny Tiller claiming CVC titles in the 132- and 190-pound weight classes.
“The guys trusted themselves and their training. They had the goal of winning the Valley Division, and they were able to focus on that,” Berkshire Head Coach Dave Malkus said.
One of the great stories on the second day of the tournament was Klingman, who was the fourth seed in his bracket, pulling off the double upset over the top two seeds in the semis and finals, James Stalling of Trinity and West Geauga’s Nikita Vlasenko.
In his first-ever championship match, Klingman bested Stallings with a 21-6 tech fall, then took Vlasenko down with a 10-1 decision for the crown.
“I love it — I was not expecting this today,” Klingman said. “The rankings don’t mean anything; you can beat anybody if you put everything into it.
“I just had to keep moving, get these guys out of their comfort zones where they can’t keep up with me.”
Coach Malkus didn’t mince words when talking about Klingman’s accomplishment:
“He’s trusted the process and his bumps in the road. He knows he is a good wrestler, and we always try to get him the best match because losses are good and we can learn from them.
“He took down Stallings, the number one seed, and I was impressed by his match against Vlasenko. With 30 seconds left, I asked (Caden) if he could get a takedown, and he went and got it for some team points.”
Berkshire’s second individual champion was Danny Tiller, who was in a stalemate with Crestwood’s Michael Berquist before making a swift move and securing a takedown with two seconds left for the 4-1 decision and CVC title.
“(Michael) has great defense, I’ve wrestled him before, and it’s always a tough match to wrestle the same guy twice in a season,” Tiller said. “I tried a couple of Mike takedown (moves), it didn’t work, so I just relied on my defense in the last five seconds and got the victory.”
Placing in the top five of their weight class were also Berkshire’s Alex Sustin in the 106-pound class, Danny Auth in the 113, Jacob Ulatowski in the 120, Matthew Fultz in the 126, and Estevon Huesca in the 157.
Meanwhile, West Geauga’s Wolverines dominated with an astonishing 274 points, winning the Lake Division and the entire CVC tournament, and seven of their wrestlers competed in the finals on Saturday.
This was West Geauga’s first outright CVC tournament title since 2008.
“This shows that we came ready to wrestle and did what we thought we could do,” Head Coach Joe Joltin said. “The kids showed up, battled, scored points, attacked, and kept to our brand of wrestling. When we do those things, I feel like we’re as good as anybody.”
The Wolverines totaled 10 placers, seven of whom were competing for the top two spots, including four individual winners.
“This shows how hard they’ve worked, how much growth they’ve had over the year, and everything they’ve put into it to get that moment to compete for a CVC title or a top four finish,” Coach Joltin said.
Winners included Caden Kaleal in the 120-pound class, followed by Zander Joltin in the 138-pound class. Danny Sizler won the next CVC title in the 144-pound class, and the day ended with Brian Denaman’s CVC title in the 165-pound weight class.
Joltin and Denaman also achieved a special moment 24 hours before being crowned CVC champs, becoming the program’s all-time leaders in wins. Both surpassing the 157-win mark set by Adam Walters, with Kaleal close behind as the third Wolverine to surpass that mark.
“To have three guys over the 150-win mark is just an incredible thing, and it just shows the amount of hard work all three of those guys put in,” Coach Joltin said. “Brian and Zander both placed sixth in the state meet last year, and Caden was one overtime match away from being a state placer, too.
“Those are three guys in the room just continuously work at it, lead by example, and they’re amazing students who put in the work even when nobody’s looking. Having three guys like that leading this program is awesome.”
Now the state meet is on the minds of this West Geauga team, knowing they could send a pack of Wolverines down to Columbus when the time comes.
“Winning the CVC is great, and it was a goal, but it was just a building block goal,” Coach Joltin said. “We check it off, celebrate it, but on Monday we’re back to work, and it’s onto the next goal.
“There’s going to be a time and place to celebrate everything, but we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves or overemphasize one thing. We believe that we can have seven, eight, nine guys that can make a run to the state tournament this season, and we’re relying on those three guys (Zander, Brian, Caden) to help our younger guys make that jump. We can lean on those guys a lot to help our younger guys along, and we’re going to continue our process.”
Vlasenko took second in the 132-pound weight class, as did Daniel Russell in the 150, followed by Austin Wheatley in the 175.
Dean Horvath took third in the 157, as did Blake Welker in the 190, then Maveric Milnar took fourth in the 285-pound weight class to round out the day.
