A sunny day in Northeast Ohio brought a full parking lot to Cardinal High School.
Match photos click here.
A sunny day in Northeast Ohio brought a full parking lot to Cardinal High School.
A craft show was in one part of the high school building, and the gymnasium featured high school wrestlers from 14 area schools who put on some pretty crafty displays of their own for wrestling fans and supporters.
When all was said and done, Benedictine walked away with the team trophy by a large margin, but locals Cardinal and Berkshire were right there, with the Huskies scoring 90 points for 10th place and the Badgers coming in at 13th place with 44 points.
Cardinal Coach Dakota Ward saw many positives for both his team and the meet itself.
“I’m really happy with how things went for us today,” Coach Ward said. “Last weekend we were at the meet at Hawken against some really good talent, and we may have been a bit intimidated by it all. Today we were much more relaxed in our own gym, it showed, and we had some really good efforts from several kids.”
Clayton Carman at 113 and Ben Bolton at 150 took third place honors for the Huskies to lead their team.
Clayton was an aggressor all day, winning three times in four attempts on the mat via pin. He took third place with a pin of Peter Dalton of Benedictine in 44 seconds for his third place finish.
Bolton also finished third at 150 when he flattened Taj Slanadadeen of Cleveland John Adams in 5:08.
At 138, Angelo Kozelko claimed fifth place when he pinned Keegan Ellison of Garrettsville Garfield in 2:10.
The Huskies did well against some top-notch opponents, but possibly their happiest wrestler was junior Rylee Leichtman, who stepped on the mats as one of only two females to compete in the meet. Both she and Tamya Bouie of Cleveland John Adams gave good accounts of themselves, and ended up being pinned in each match they contested, but showed good skill sets nonetheless.
“When I was younger, I used to go to watch wrestling all the time to see my brothers wrestle for Ledgemont,” Leichtman said. “It was just a lot of fun, and I’ve kind of missed it at times, so I just wanted to give it a try here, and it’s worked out very well for me.
“Some guys can be a problem wrestling a girl, but I just try to work hard and deal with it as best as I can.”
Her coach sees growth in her attitude and skills each day.
“Rylee has just been so good to have as part of our team,” Coach Ward said. “She really works hard, and her attitude about it all is amazing. She loves to compete as well, and she is not outclassed when she steps on the mats.”
At his lower weight class, Carman is the starting engine to get the Huskies moving, and his trio of pins in this tournament are what younger wrestlers need for inspiration.
“Wrestling is just such a great sport for an individual to compete in,” he said between his efforts leading teammates to one mat or another all day long in the Cardinal gym. “With wrestling, things can really happen so fast, you can’t understand what’s happening at times. You can be losing, catch the guy in a mistake or off balance, and you get him. It’s great.”
The senior was busy all day long supporting his young teammates, too.
At 132, Troy Champlin had a solid day as well for the Huskies.
“This is becoming a really good tournament for our school and for our team,” he said as he prepared for his next match.
The results were not what he wanted, as he came up on the flat side of a pinning hold after a tough match, but his positive leadership was clear for everybody to see.
The Berkshire Badgers were represented well in the Huskies gym, a place they would revisit Dec. 20 in a matinee matchup before a full house — a rare effort to bring high school wrestling to kids who may not know what really goes on in the sport.
Preston Garling took second place in the 190-pound weight class when he was pinned by Major Grant of Twinsburg in 1:24.
Logan Wolford took fourth in the 106-pound class.
