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Kostik, Figueroa, Scott post KO Drugs wins
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
The second round of the 22nd Annual K.O. Drugs High School Boxing Tournament had a little bit of everything Friday at the ITAM Banquet Center.
The 26-bout card featured six TKOs, seven split decisions, two retirements and the debut of the tourney’s first foreign exchange student.
“This was just another great show with a great crowd and absolutely great fights,” said Chuck Nelson, tournament founder. “The action has definitely heated up as we come down to the final two weeks.”
Three of the TKOs and three of the split decisions came on the underclass card, with Edwin Figueroa of Poland High, Ryan Scott of Lakeview High and Joe Allen of East High preventing their opponent from going the distance.
Dave Kostik of Struthers, who failed in two attempts last year as a junior middleweight, won a unanimous decision over Cody Haas of Beaver Local in super lightweight action for his first win.
Kostik said an escalated training regimen the past five weeks was the key to his victory.
“It feels great to win because I really want to win the belt this year,” Kostik said. “He [Haas] was throwing hard punches so I just tried to use the ropes to my advantage.
“I’ve been training really hard the last five weeks, but won’t let this one win change anything that I have been doing to get ready for this year’s fights,” Kostik said.
Daitzel Moore of Girard, last year’s runner-up in the super middleweight class, moved to 7-1 overall with a split decision victory over Austintown Fitch’s Chris Ruffner.
“I did a lot of running and also do that for football as well, but this was a lot tougher on me,” Moore said. “Chris [Ruffner] is a wrestler; tough and in excellent shape so I just wanted to get through the final round”.
In upperclass action, Cardinal Mooney gridders Karrington Griffin and Sam Congemi scored victories in their canvas debuts.
Griffin defeated Springfield Local’s Edwin Centofanti by split decision in a light heavyweight battle while Congemi stopped Nick Ramsey, also of Springfield Local, by unanimous decision in a heavyweight scrap.
Campbell Memorial’s Zak Kountz and Martin Pederson, a foreign exchange student from Oslo, Norway, also had successful initial forays into the ring.
Kountz, a junior welterweight, won a split decision over Columbiana’s Mardell Halas while Pederson stopped Rich Newsome, also of Campbell Memorial, 14 seconds into the third round for his first glove victory.
“My game plan was to simply do what I do best and that was just to go at him [Halas] and fight,” Kountz said. “I felt like I lacked concentration so next time out I will concentrate a little more and throw straight punches.”
Pederson, a student at Hubbard who only participated in Muay Thai boxing (a hard martial art from Thailand), was pleased.
“I wasn’t relaxed and really felt nervous, but I feel like I did alright for my first time ever in the ring,” Pederson said, I felt like I needed to go after him and that is exactly what I did.”
In the female division, Shayla DeMar of Fitch and Warren Harding’s Juliana Currier Queen won their junior welterweight semifinal bouts and will square off against each other next week for the tourney championship.
DeMar, a two-time champion who moved to 7-0 overall in tournament action, stopped Brookfield’s Nicci Beatty by unanimous decision while Currier-Queen also won by unanimous decision over Kash Pearson, also of Brookfield.
Currier-Queen, who was 1-2 last year but is undefeated in two tries this year, used her reach to her advantage.
Next Friday, 20 boys semifinals bouts and six female title bouts are on tap at the ITAM Banquet Center.