The climate in high school wrestling has changed over the years. No longer are seasons determined by simple dual meets leading up the tournaments at the end of the year.
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The climate in high school wrestling has changed over the years.
No longer are seasons determined by simple dual meets leading up the tournaments at the end of the year. More frequently, today’s teams meet new competition via holiday tournaments, and the Kenston Invitational Tournament is now the second oldest in the state.
The 52nd edition was completed this past weekend, and host Kenston Bombers battled hard to take second place among 36 schools entered.
But four other Geauga schools also had their grapplers put on some awesome efforts, proving that wrestling in this county is still in peak condition. Notably, Chardon rallied from eighth place in the semifinals to claim fifth overall.
Strength in the lighter weight classes keyed the Kenston efforts. Nick Nastasi got things rolling in the championship round by squashing Jake Hamulak of Chardon via technical fall, 16-0, in a battle of freshmen that rolled through preliminary matches on both Friday and Saturday’s finals.
After Peyton Roth “only” took second by falling to Jaivon Jones of Shaker Heights by a 10-2 score at 113, Carl Richter took fourth place at 126 when he was pinned in the finale for third place.
Chris Pavone won the title at 132 with a 5-2 decision over Collin Troutin of Twinsburg, and Joe Koplow snared fourth place at 160 when he fell, 5-2, in his finale.
Chardon completed its rise to fifth as Sam Rocazella won the title at 160 with a resounding 14-4 win over Alex Kachenko of Crestwood in the title match. Matt Klingbergs followed that up shortly thereafter when he dropped a 2-0 thriller to Abdullah Silmi of Norwalk on a reversal with only eight seconds left in their match for the top spot.
Newbury, one of the smaller schools in the event, put on quite a show as well. Tom McKale at 170 took third place with a pin in 4:57 of Brad Crislip of Ravenna. His teammate, Kade Marker at 220, finished strong after learning a huge lesson in his semifinal matchup with Klingbergs of Chardon, winning third place with a pin of West Geauga’s top finisher, Kyle Gallagher, in 2:30.
Berkshire’s top dog of the day was its smallest dog in the fight, 106 pounder John Kumher. After falling short behind Hamulak of Chardon and Nastasi of Kenston, Kumher took third place with a pin in 1:32 of Geneva’s John Wayslaw.
Marker of Newbury summed up a huge part of the fun in wrestling, conditioning, after his fine finish against Gallagher. He had lost a heartbreaker to Klingbergs of Chardon earlier, the victim of a two-point reversal with just a few seconds left before falling, 4-3. The pain and anguish showed, but once Marker recovered his composure, he settled in to finish with a flourish.
“Losing to Klingbergs made me realize that I need to run a lot more and to work much harder on my conditioning,” the Black Knight senior said. “Losing was tough, but then I tried not to think about it any more, to just focus on the match ahead of me. I also found out that it would help if I was working a little faster, keeping pressure on the guys I was fighting.”
There were many intense Geauga matches. Klingbergs agreed that the match with Marker was huge.
“That match was intense every second,” he said. “It only takes a split second for things to change, and in that match it went my way.”
His loss to Silmi in the title matchup was scoreless until that final toss at the end, but he felt good about how his event had gone.
“I’ve been blessed to have really good coaches here at Chardon, ” he said. “These coaches not only work hard with us in practices, but the outside help they find is amazing. They’ve helped me to work to get an NROTC scholarship to Miami of Ohio, and they were able to get Nick Salantino to come in to help me with things as well. So I’m just so blessed and appreciative of everything here. Chardon’s program is a long and great one, and I’m thrilled just to be part of it.”
One Chardon coach, Scott Bulvan, was busy both days running between matches; Chardon was one of the few teams that fielded full rosters.
“I have been blessed to have great assistants who help the kids work hard in practice,” he said Friday.
Near the end of the day, he stopped, smiled, and could say only one thing after his team’s fifth place finish was on solid ground: “This is just great, the way the kids battled back today. Our goal was to get fifth at least, and we did it.”
Kenston coach Ricky Deubel was also a very busy man over the weekend. On Friday, he had a little concern, but nothing serious, and Pavone was able to proceed through the tournament as he hoped.
“The key is to finish strong here for me, so I can get into districts and, hopefully, then on to state placing down the road,” Pavone said. “All of our guys are working hard, I’m working hard, and I think we can do really well the rest of the season.”
Adam Lange, Kumher’s coach at Berkshire, didn’t have many wrestlers in the tournament — five freshmen and four younger competitors — but Kumher provided plenty of highlights.
“I’ve really been pleased with how the kids have worked to get to this point,” he said. “Anthony Surace, a freshman, is as hard-nosed a kid as I’ve seen in a long time; it’s just a matter of learning more about the game and growing into their skill set. John (Kumher) is a senior who is strong for his size and has great skill sets. I think he’s got a good shot to go to state this year.”
West Geauga coach Joe Marino, a 29-year veteran of local mat wars, was also not disappointed with his team’s efforts.
“I think we have done about as I expected,” he said. “Programs are not like they used to be, but some of these kids really work hard and I’m proud of them.”
Alex Lampert of Newbury didn’t make the final rounds , but he enjoyed himself after a season of football that saw him named All-Ohio.
“This has been a lot of fun,” he said. “Now we all have a better idea of what it will take to win later.”
Also said Newbury head coach Doug Ule mid-Friday, “Now the wrestling will get better the farther they go along, but our kids have used the success they had in football this year to overcome any adversities they may face, and the determination is great.”
The Marker-Klingbergs matchup was able to draw one of the biggest audiences of the tourney, and there also was a huge crowd around Nastasi and Kumher when they battled.
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Team totals
Crestwood 180.5
Kenston 167.5
Shaker Heights 145.5
Madison 145
Chardon 133
Twinsburg 132
Boardman 126.5
Pymatuning Valley 125
Parma 104
Ravenna 100
Lakeside 93.5
Geneva 93
Norwalk St. Paul 92
Columbiana 86.5
Newbury 85.5
Norwalk 84
Strongsville 84
Chagrin Falls 72
Bedford 68
Riverside 64.5
North Olmstead 53.5
Field 49
Beachwood 46
Reynoldsburg 45
Berkshire 43
Garfield Heights 39.5
University School 37
Kirtland 36
West Geauga 35
Kent 28
North 14
Rocky River 12
NDCL 3
Brush 2
