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Rounding things out
Several area grapplers advance in Division I tournament
Austintown
Twinsburg leads the 11-team field at the Div. I wrestling sectional, while Madison stands second and Howland third.
Howland picked up points in the last two weight classes where Chuck Sayre (215) and Cody Reesman (285) won their championship round one matches.
In all, 80 bouts were contested, 56 of which were championship two matches.
One-hundred forty-two wrestlers were entered on Friday and the same number continues today starting at 9 a.m. when consolation round two is held. Championship round three matches and consolation round three matches follow before a break prior to the start of finals at 3 p.m.
John Jones is tournament manager.
Both Reesman (25-9) and Sayre (29-11) are Howland football players.
Reesman beat Twinsburg’s Sam Sims, 5-3, while Sayre pinned Fitch’s Alex Jakovina in 3:23.
Reesman and Sims were 0-0 heading into the second period when Reesman let Sims have bottom.
“If he wants to work that hard, let him work,” said the burly, blond-haired Reesman.
“I let him up because I don’t like being on top,” said the Howland wrestler. “I knew he was going to try to shoot because he was desperate and didn’t want to go overtime, so he kept trying. I just watched until he made the mistake of not going all the way through with a shot. That’s when I caught it, took it and fell out of bounds with him.
“Then I just countered his weight when he came head-on at me. I stuck my foot in front of his and took him on his back,” Reesman said of the end of the second period with a 2-1 lead.
Reesman started on the bottom and Sims quickly tied it, 2-2, before Reesman took a 5-2 lead.
“Every time he went to shoot, he put his arms up, so I caught him around his head, flipped him again and put him on his back. I let him up and we kept going [until the finish].”
Sayre was wrestling Jakovina for the first time because the Howland athlete said he fractured an ankle on Fitch’s original 215 entry during a match in December.
“My plan was to get as many points as I could, so I could, hopefully, finish him off in the second period,” Sayre said of Jakovina. “My first takedown helped, then he was fighting my Oregon,” Sayre said of trying to get Jakovina’s arm out across Jakovina’s back.
“He [Jackovina] was not letting me have it, but cranking on his shoulder is painful.”
Sayre thinks Jackovina tired out early in the second period.
“I think he just tired out, so I took it over and hammer-locked and finished him.”
Fitch coach Brett Powell has four wrestlers headed into championship semifinals (championship round three): freshman Camran Rezapourian (160) and juniors Jamie Jameson (171), Korey Balog (189), Lennie McGeachy (285).
He also has a bunch in consolations.
“Tomorrow’s a different day, so they’re going to match up with guys at their level,” Powell said of those who lost on opening night. “Hopefully, we’re going to pull some guys through for the districts with these other ones [Rezapourian, Jameson, Balog, McGeachy].”
Some others winning on Friday were Boardman’s Nick Mancini (103), John Dillon (119) and Nico Graziani (152) and Howland’s J.R. Perry (112), Gabe Stark (125), Alex Cornicelli (130), Cody Davis (140), Robby Klose (145) and Bryce Tricker (160).
Jameson (37-4) beat Stow’s Gage Finegan by technical fall, 18-3. “I caught him with a couple early takedowns, but then I got sloppy and he reversed me,” the Fitch wrestler said of Finegan pulling within, 7-3. “Then I reversed him to his back again with another 5-point move,” Jameson said of going up, 12-3.
Jameson wrestles Chardon’s Matthew O’Hara today.
Tricker (26-7) is intent on winning since he was a runnerup the last two years.
On Friday, he pinned Chardon’s Markus Znidarsic in 2:49.
“I was ahead trying to get takedowns and back points,” Tricker said of taking a 7-0 lead. “That’s when I saw an open move and hit it,” Tricker said of finding a place to grab under Znidarsic’s arm that led to the pin.