Chardon finishes third as a team.
The Bombers' Brady Baran and Hilltoppers' Caden Foley and Will Vucetic finished the Kenston Invitational Wrestling Tournament Dec. 29 at the top of the podium, and the Chardon Hilltoppers placed third as a team.
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The Bombers’ Brady Baran and Hilltoppers’ Caden Foley and Will Vucetic finished the Kenston Invitational Wrestling Tournament Dec. 29 at the top of the podium, and the Chardon Hilltoppers placed third as a team.
In order to take home the first place trophy at his school’s invitational, claiming the 113-pound weight class title for Kenston, sophomore Baran had to win four straight matches.
After a first round bye, Baran pinned his Field opponent late in the first period.
In the quarterfinals round, Baran defeated a Kenston teammate to advance to the semifinals.
In the semifinal match, Baran won a 15-0 major decision over his Riverside opponent.
In the finals match, Baran pinned his Valley Forge opponent 15 seconds into the third period.
After his victory, he talked about winning the tournament.
“It means a lot because it’s a home tournament,” Baran said. “It feels good to get back and get a victory.”
Baran said he had a tough first match, then wrestled his teammate in the quarterfinals.
He said he went into the final match focused on the things he does best and stuck to his plan.
A major part of that strategy was to use the tilt move.
Soon after Baran won his title, Foley and Vucetic won theirs.
Foley won four straight matches to win the title in the 144-pound weight class, defeating opponents from Kirtland, Strongsville, North Olmsted and Norwalk. After pinning his opponent from North Olmsted in the semifinals, Foley won the title match over the Norwalk wrestler, 8-4.
“I have been placing second at a bunch of tournaments,” Foley said. “That’s all fun, but today was a great confidence boost for me, placing first.”
Vucetic won the 175-pound weight class by pinning his first four opponents from University, Boardman, Valley Forge and Pymatuning Valley. He had his first period pins in the first three matches, with all of the matches lasting less than 1:37.
In the semifinal match against the wrestler from Pymatuning Valley, Vucetic pinned his opponent with 20 seconds left in the second period.
In the finals match, Vucetic won a 9-0 major decision over the wrestler from Madison to win the title.
“It was a good tournament, lots of takedowns and points scored,” Vucetic said. “Overall, I thought I had a pretty good tournament.”
Vucetic felt his most effective moves were the blast double, which he said he used on every takedown.
He is currently ranked 11th in the state, and undefeated this season.
Tournament title victories by Foley and Vucetic helped lead the Hilltoppers to a third place finish at the Kenston Invitational Tournament.
Chardon Head Coach Nick Salatino talked about his team’s performance. He told his wrestlers they were ready to have an excellent tournament.
“We have been building this program for the last couple years,” Salatino said. “We were young two years ago, and now we got a bunch of juniors in the lineup that are scoring a lot of points for us. They believe in themselves, and they wrestle really hard.”
Kenston would next wrestle against Mayfield Jan. 4. Chardon would return to the mat Jan. 5 for the Perrysburg Invitational.
