Thirty teams at Fitch tourney

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Hubbard's Tyler Lias (171)

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Liberty's Justin Hideg (152)

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Hubbard's Nick Nadeja (152)

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Hubbard's Mitch Perry (125)

By John Bassetti

bassetti@vindy.com

AUSTINTOWN

Boardman will be a first-time Josh Hephner Memorial Invitational participant when the 30-team event is held Friday and Saturday at Austintown Fitch High.

“We’re excited about our first year,” said Dom Mancini, Boardman’s 10th-year coach. “Any team would love to get in the tournament. The Austintown community comes together. It’s bigger than a wrestling tournament. It’s something special to be a part of.”

Mancini said that he remembers watching Hephner wrestle in the local Division I district tournament in the winter of 1993.

“I remember him wrestling as a sophomore,” Mancini said of what would have been the last high school season for Hephner, who died in a car accident that summer.

This is the 18th year for the Hephner tournament.

Medina is defending champion, while Medina Highland, Copley, Grand Valley and Poland are also new additions. After an absence, Canton South returns as a one-man team with a state-ranked representative at 112 pounds.

Fitch coach Brett Powell believes that Lake, Medina, Medina Highland, Copley are favorites with Massillon Jackson another possible top five finisher.

Boardman is coming off a 19th-place finish at the 41-team Top Gun tournament in Alliance.

John Dillon won the 125-pound weight class, while Nick Mancini placed fifth at 103.

Dillon, a junior, improved to 15-1, while Mancini, a sophomore, is now 17-2.

Dillon is Boardman’s top returnee. As a sophomore in 2010, Dillon was fourth at state at 125.

Other promising Spartans are junior Nico Graziani (14-5 at 152), senior DeVoun Fletcher (10-9 at 171) and sophomore Peter Ryan (9-11 at 112).

“We’re a decent tournament team because we have some good individuals, but we struggle in duals because we have some young kids in the lineup,” Mancini said.

With just seven wrestlers, Hubbard finished 26th in the 45-team Bill Dies tournament at Akron Firestone.

Tyler Lias (15-5) placed seventh at 171, but the senior also registered the tournament’s quickest pin in the consolation quarterfinals. Lias posted a 5-2 record at Firestone. In his final match, Lias scored a 14-2 major decision.

Seniors Mitch Perry, Nick Nadeja and Zach Chaney are Hubbard’s other top wrestlers. Perry (125) is 17-3, Nadeja (152) is 12-2 and Chaney (140) is 13-7. Junior Thomas George (112) is 7-7 at 112. Perry was a district qualifier last year.

Liberty’s Justin Hideg (152), Josh Rivers (160) and Fred Clark (285) placed third at the Howland Invitational, which included several Div. I teams, including Eastlake North.

The Div. III Leopards who competed in 12 weight classes, finished seventh out of nine teams.

Hideg, a senior, is 17-3, while juniors Josh Rivers and Clark are 13-9 and 15-5, respectively. Junior Ty Banks is 9-4.

Liberty has been at all of the Hephner events except the inaugural, said Liberty’s 28-year head coach Jim Hideg.

“If you place in the top six, you’re doing well,” he said. “It’s stiff competition.”

Poland coach Tony Stellato’s top wrestlers are freshman Max Prizant (103, 15-8); sophomore Tad Duran (112, 15-7); junior A.J. Shields (119, 12-6) and freshman Mike Audi (152, 14-9).

Host Fitch has the junior trio of Ken Jameson (24-3, 171); Lennie McGeachy (18-7 at 285) and Corey Balog (17-8 at 189).

At Top Gun, Fitch was 25th on the strength of a sixth-place finish by Jameson and eighth-place finishes by Balog and McGeachy (285).

Jameson and Balog are juniors and they’re 24-3 and 17-8, respectively, while McGeachy, another junior, is 18-7.

Powell said that the tournament committee also recognizes John Moritz, who organized the first Hephner event. Moritz passed away a few years ago.

“He was the parent of another boy on the team and he wanted to do something for Josh,” Powell said.

The first day format is pool-play style, from which winners qualify to an eight-man bracket on the second day.