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Poland’s Audi savors victory
By TIM CLEVELAND
AUSTINTOWN
After so many disappointments in wrestling tournaments, Saturday’s victory was a long time coming for Poland’s Mike Audi.
After multiple second-place finishes, the Bulldogs’ 170-pound senior earned his first weight-class victory in a tournament, winning the title at the Josh Hephner Memorial Tournament at Fitch High School.
“It’s awesome. I ended up getting fifth place here last year,” said Audi, who improved to 26-4. “This is my first tournament win.
“I’ve gotten second at Top Gun, second in the EOWL last year,” Audi said. “[There’s] been a bunch of second places and now it’s nice to finally get it my senior year.”
Audi broke a 2-2 tie in the third period with a takedown in the championship match against Fitch’s Camran Rezapourian and went on for a 5-3 victory against an opponent Audi said he knows very well.
“I knew Camran is real tough on top so I knew the whole time I had to keep constant movement on the bottom,” Audi said. “I didn’t want to give up anything stupid.
“Once I got to my feet I thought I had better cardio than him. I thought I could definitely get another takedown to seal it up in the third.
“We’ve known each other for a long time,” Audi said. “We’ve wrestled in middle school together and are good friends. I wrestled him at Top Gun last year. It was a close match and I beat him by one or two points in the quarters there.”
Poland coach Tony Stellato said he knew that it would be a tough match.
“We knew it was going to be a battle going in, it was just a matter of winning the battle on our feet,” Stellato said. “He was able to get that takedown at the end to seal the victory.”
Audi had the only championship title among local wrestlers. A trio of local competitors earned third-place finishes — James Cupan of Girard (160 pounds), Mario Graziani of Boardman (145), and Jackson-Milton’s Mitch Tikkanen (113).
Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary took the team title with 354 points. Local team finishes included Fitch Red (eighth place with 191 points), Poland (ninth, 166), Girard (11th, 149.5), Jackson-Milton (17th, 123), Boardman (18th, 121), Hubbard (22nd, 84), Liberty (26th, 33), Brookfield (28th, 31) and Fitch Blue (29th, 26). Thirty teams competed.
Cupan (22-6) took a 1-0 decision over Poland’s Anthony Audi. Cupan earned an escape in the first period and never allowed a point in a tight match that saw the wrestlers go off the mat again and again. Cupan held on to earn his 105th career victory.
“He’s a tough competitor,” Cupan said. “I knew if I got a point and kept him down there was no coming back for him. It’s all heart. He was trying to get out and get a stalling on me, but luckily I bounced back.”
Graziani (23-5) took a 4-0 lead and cruised to a 6-1 victory over St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Walt Gibson in a rematch from earlier this season.
“I knew he was going to try to get revenge on me because of what happened at Top Gun,” Graziani said of that fifth-place finish. “I knew he was going to come out and try and be stronger than before.
“I got an early takedown on the edge and that really gave me some momentum,” Graziani said. “With 10 seconds left, he gave me a little cheap shot, which I didn’t like, but I really didn’t care because I won.”
Tikkanen cruised past Shaker Heights’ Andre Lowery 3-0 to improve to 23-3.
“I’ve wrestled that kid before and we’ve went into quadruple overtime and beat me by a point,” Tikkanen said. “You’ve got to go in with a plan. That kid was pretty tough. He just kept going but you’ve got to be tougher than the guy in front of you.”