The West Geauga Wolverines led Geauga County at the OHSAA District Wrestling Championships at Kenston High School on Feb. 28 and March 1 with three wrestlers punching their ticket to the State Championships.
The West Geauga Wolverines led Geauga County at the OHSAA District Wrestling Championships at Kenston High School on Feb. 28 and March 1 with three wrestlers punching their ticket to the State Championships.
Winning the 120-pound OHSAA District Title for the Wolverines was junior Caden Kaleal.
After finishing sixth at districts last season, Kaleal said that this year he was highly motivated to qualify for states. In fact, this year, he also had aspirations of winning the district title.
“I always try to go for the best that I can and I knew I had the capabilities to win this,” Kaleal said.
To win the District Title, Kaleal won four straight matches against some of the top wrestlers in Northeast Ohio.
First, Kaleal pinned Dominick Jazek from Salem 56 seconds into the match.
In his quarterfinals match, Kaleal pinned Quinn Gaca from Canfield in the second period.
In the semifinals, Kaleal defeated Perry’s Landon Rusnak, 9-4.
For Kaleal, the victory over Rusnak was a main highlight for him on his run to the district title.
“I lost to him before, he’s a great wrestler, Landon Rusnak, and being able to come back and beat him now is an amazing feeling,” said Kaleal.
Heading into the finals, Kaleal said he felt calm and relaxed since he knew that he had already secured a spot in the state championships.
In fact, this is a mindset that Kaleal strives for as he emphasized that staying relaxed and keeping pressure low are keys to successful wrestling.
“That’s really the name of it, the least amount of pressure you can have in a match the better,” Kaleal said.
Taking this relaxed mindset into the title match, Kaleal defeated John Paul Hatgas from Holy Name, 21-5, to win the District Title.
Afterwards, West Geauga Head Coach Joe Joltin said that Kaleal has been wrestling extremely well this postseason.
“Caden has really turned it on in the postseason,” said Coach Joltin. “He’s peaking at the right time. (He had) a great sectional finals against a tough kid from Canton South. And then he just dominated the entire district (championships). He wrestled his best wrestling of the year.”
Along with Kaleal, also qualifying for the OHSAA State Championships for the Wolverines were juniors, Brian Denamen (2nd place – 165 pound division) and Zander Joltin (3rd place – 126 pound division).
In addition to the Wolverines sending three wrestlers to states, Berkshire, Chardon and Kenston each had two wrestlers qualify.
Representing Chardon at the State Championships will be Caden Foley (3rd place – 144 pound division) and Alex Ash (3rd place – 157 pound division).
After qualifying for states, Ash talked about how meaningful it was to have accomplished his goal.
“Qualifying for states has been my lifelong dream since I started wrestling,” Ash said. “The 100th career win (at districts) was like the cherry on top. It happened in my first match here at districts. I worked so hard, I’m just so thankful for all the people who helped me get to this moment. It’s a dream come true and it wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for my supporters, so I want to thank them.”
Joining Ash at the OHSAA State Championships will be Preston Garling (Berkshire – 175 pound division – 4th place), Danny Tiller (Berkshire – 190 – 3rd place), Carter Baran (Kenston – 113 – 4th place), and Brady Baran ( Kenston – 126 – 4th place).
Hawken’s Will Greenberg, the number one ranked Div. II wrestler in the State of Ohio also qualified for the State Championships as he won the 285 pound division District Title.
Greenberg said that he felt dominant at districts and is looking forward to competing at the State Championships.
“My mind has always been on next week all season long,” said Greenberg. “Last year it was kind of like an emotional roller coaster going through districts, but this year it was just set straight, just dominating and that’s what I am looking to do next week as well.”
The OHSAA Wrestling State Championships will be held from March 7 to 9 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.
