Girard, Jackson-Milton have six each in semifinals

ROOTSTOWN — Girard High’s Tallen Birmingham won his match by pin in eight seconds to highlight area wrestlers at the Division III sectional tournament, hosted by Rootstown High School, on Friday.

Birmingham, at 160 pounds, stopped Garrick Ochoa of Rootstown to advance to the championship semifinals. He is one of six Girard wrestlers to get to the semifinals, helping the Indians to 44 points and third place in the team standings.

Jackson-Milton, also with six wrestlers in the semifinals, is fourth with 43 points.

South Range (fifth, 33 points), and Brookfield (ninth 27.5 points) each sent four wrestlers to the semifinals, and Warren JFK (10th, 24.5 points), has three wrestlers in the semifinals.

Also advancing from Girard were Tony Cardiero (130), Daniel Galney (135), Nico Francis (152), Alex Saunders (189) and Craig Frankford (285).

In the semifinals for Jackson-Milton are Vinnie Pizzuto (103), Tim Wiseman (112), Santino Pizzuto (119), Johnny Matacic (125), Alex Tomaino (135) and Dan Clawson (215).

For South Range, Jared Miller (119), Max Brooke (130), Beau Bowden (171) and Christian Bowden (189) advanced.

Also, Tyler Thompson (112), Cody Thompson (135), Dann Miller (140) and Jake Underwood (145) from Brookfield made it to the semifinals, as did JFK’s Kyle Mariani (145), Pat Lyell (215) and John Drummond (285).

Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy led the team standings after Friday’s first two rounds with 59 points, followed by Woodridge with 48.5. Girard and Jackson-Milton were followed by Garrettsville Garfield (36.5) in fifth place.