Austintown’s Satterlee sweats extra in win

By Eric Hamilton

At home, the Falcon wrestler was happy to combine shedding weight with his favorite varsity sport.

AUSTINTOWN — Fitch High’s Scott Satterlee needed to lose a few pounds in order to make weight for today’s second day of the Joshua Hephner Memorial Tournament.

So instead of going on a late-night run or a stint on the stationary bike, he found another way to shed the excess weight.

In his third and final match of the night, he had the opportunity to pin his opponent in the first period. Instead, he let the match go a little longer in order to sweat a little bit more.

Ultimately, he pinned his 125-pound foe from North Royalton to finish off a perfect 3-0 day that included three pins.

“I have to lose a little for tomorrow, so I waited a little bit,” Satterlee said. “Now I just have to get ready for my two pool matches tomorrow and then the bracket.

“I tried not to look ahead to who I might meet later in the tournament and just wrestle as hard as I could today. In the bracket, I’ll just take it one match at a time.”

Satterlee’s pool includes six competitors, so he could be in for a long day today with two more pool bouts, plus a maximum of three more matches if he advances to the finals.

The bracket tourney should be a challenging one that will include state champion Logan Stieber (Monroeville) and state placer Jake McCombs (Marysville).

Regardless, he’s content with being part of the Hephner, a tournament that he says is special to his team and the visiting schools.

“It’s all 100 percent respect for Josh,” Satterlee said. “We’re wrestling for Josh and trying to win it for him. It started as a small tournament, but now there are a bunch of teams here and they all respect what we’re doing this for.”

Satterlee and the rest of the Falcons had a solid first day of competition, piling up 107 team points and lead the tournament after three rounds.

The rest of the top five teams through three rounds are Lake (91.5), Louisville (81.5), Medina (80.5) and Marysville (79.5).

After the first day of competition, Marysville made the three-hour trip worth it. The Monarchs are in the hunt for the team championship, piling up 79.5 points, good enough for fifth place.

“I love the format,” Marysville coach Shawn Andrews said. “I like the concept of getting multiple matches in for our young kids and our veterans. We like the mix of top teams and good individuals here and we’re able to get good competition.”

Each weight class is divided into four pools for five rounds of round robin matches. The top two in each pool advance to today’s eight-man bracket, where they will wrestle to eight places.

Wrestling will begin today at 9 a.m. with Round 4 and 5 pool matches. The finals of the eight-man bracket will begin at 6 p.m.