Austintown’s Greco, Miller to defend wrestling titles
Fitch, along with West Branch and Rootstown, will host this weekend’s wrestling tourney.
AUSTINTOWN — Louis Greco (32-3) and Chris Miller (31-4) of Fitch High School will defend their individual titles at the Division I sectional wrestling tournament.
Fitch, the tournament host, was the 2008 sectional champion and Greco took the 152-pound title. He has dropped down to 145 this season and won that title at the Eastern Ohio Wrestling League tournament and finished second at the Josh Hephner event.
Miller was EOWL champ and he was second at Hephner. The Falcons will also be counting on Shaun Ague (25-6) at 103 pounds, Scott Satterlee (22-11) at 125, Dustin Welsh (15-10) at 135, Jake Peterson (30-8) at 140; Alex Jakovina (13-9) at 152 and Bobby Phillips (14-9) at 215.
Boardman athletes expected to contend are Jerry Pasquale (22-4) at 119, Chris Lorimer (19-9) at 125, Rick Zupo (21-11) at 130 and Weston Rajkovich (19-7) at 160.
Among the Canfield athletes entered are Alex Benedict (28-8) at 112; Robby Reed (29-8), who decisioned Pasquale for the 119 EOWL title; Dylan Frost (22-10) at 130; Joel Amendolara (20-9) at 140; Aron Brenner (33-3), the EOWL champion at 152, and Cody Hartman (28-8) at 189.
Division II
West Branch is expected to challenge for titles in 12 weight classes coming off EOWL and Northeastern Buckeye Conference championships.
Some of the anticipated matches will have West Branch’s Chad Hupp (25-7) and Howland Kyle Descenna (24-10) at 112 and Kai Yanci (20-11) of Howland and J.P. Hoopes (22-6) of West Branch at 125.
Eric Rogel (23-7) of West Branch and Robbie Klose (20-11) met in the EOWL championship at 145 with Rogel winning 6-0. They’re headed for another matchup along with Alliance’s Adam Walker (22-7).
At 160 a strong field includes Joshua Hideg (22-9) of Liberty, Alex Oesh (20-7) of Alliance, Bryce Tricker (21-13) of Howland, Anthony Nadeja (15-10) of Hubbard and Adam Lamancusa (24-7) of West Branch.
Five contenders at 275 are Joe Howes (22-4) of Southeast, Randy McElroy (19-9) of Liberty, Cody Reesman (13-5) of Howland, Nathan Gabone (18-10) of West Branch and Joe Meissner (14-9) of Salem.
Division III
Brookfield, Girard, Jackson-Milton, South Range, Warren JFK and Western Reserve will be represented in a field of 13 teams at Rootstown High School.
Jackson-Milton’s title favorites are Tim Wiseman (26-2), the Hephner champ at 112; Jon Matacic ( 33-4), the EOWL champ at 125; Vinnie Pizzuto (31-6) at 103; Santino Pizzuto (33-4) at 119; Alex Tomaino (27-11) at 135; Dylan Tomaino (23-12) at 140, and Dan Clawson (19-6) at 215.
Girard’s top athletes are Josh Barnes (18-12) at 103, Jacob Carpenter (22-7) at 119, Tony Cardiero (31-3) at 130, Daniel Gainey (28-8) at 135, Nico Francis (31-4) at 152, Tallen Birmingham (19-18) at 160 and Alex Saunders (22-14) at 189.
Also expected to contend for district berths are Brookfield’s Tyler Thompson (27-10) at 119 and Dann Miller (25-5) at 140; South Range’s David Huffman (16-12) at 145 and Beau Bowden (23-3) at 171 of South Range, and Warren JFK’s Kyle Mariani (17-11) at 145, John Seifert (20-14) at 160 and Pat Lyell (19-13) at 215.
miller@vindy.com