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Fitch’s Martin grinds out overtime win at 182
AUSTINTOWN
Austintow Fitch 182-pounder Tex Martin had a grinding match before beating Solon’s Jeff Christian during the Division I sectional wrestling tournament at Fitch High on Friday night.
“He wins a lot of matches like that,” Fitch varsity coach Brett Powell said after the junior improved to 24-12 to set himself up for today’s championship semifinal against top-seeded Mike Coup of Ashtabula Lakeside.
Hudson leads the team standings with 91.5 points, followed by Fitch (65.5), Walsh Jesuit (60.5) and Twinsburg (59). Boardman is eighth in the 12-team sectional.
Beginning at 9 a.m. today, consolation semifinals will take place on one mat, while championship semis will be on two other mats.
At 3:30, the championship round finals begin among 42 wrestlers in the 14 weight classes for first-second, third-fourth and fifth-sixth places.
After battling even, 3-3, in three exhausting, two-minute regulation matches, the 6-foot Christian (27-11) and the 5-6 Martin went into a one-minute overtime, then two 30-second periods before Martin scored a takedown in a scramble.
“They were scrambling for position, then Tex got the takedown with one second left,” said Powell, who is nearing the end of a 30-year head coaching career at Fitch. “He has a lot of heart. He’s known for his last-second takedowns.”
Martin was the fifth seed in the match, 90 percent of which was tussled upright and skull-to-skull, while Christian was No. 4. Was Martin intimidated by the taller Christian?
“No, most of the kids I wrestle are bigger than me, so I’m used to it,” said Martin, an two-time all-district selection as a center fullback in soccer.
“After regulation, I went for some risky moves — things I probably shouldn’t have done,” Christian said. “I kind of kept doing the same things over and over instead of making adjustments. It probably wasn’t a good idea. I got out-wrestled at the end.”
In one of today’s championship semifinals at 152, Boardman’s Mario Graziani faces Fitch’s Adam Green. Graziani beat Lakeside’s Spencer Loftus, while Green beat Twinsburg’s Paul Horvath.
Like the Martin-Christian matchup, the top-seeded Graziani (22-1) will put his 5-9 height against the 6-2 Green (31-10).
Earlier this season, Graziani beat Green twice — 2-1 in the Alliance Top Gun tournament and by pin in the EOWL tournament.
“I expect to wrestle a lot better [Saturday] because I wrestled his style last time,” said Green, a junior. “In our last match, he got me out of position and it didn’t turn out too well. I’d like to stay in better position,especially on my feet.”
Graziani, also a junior, hasn’t lost since a 4-2 decision to Taleb Rahmani of Marysville at the Top Gun on Jan. 16.
“He took me down in the last seconds,” Graziani said of his only defeat of the season, after which he’s had a 14-match win streak. “I won [sectionals] as a freshman and sophomore, so I’d like to win again, then try to become Boardman’s first four-time sectional winner.
Another Boardman wrestler headed into the championship semis this morning is Anthony Mancini.
Now 36-7 at 160 pounds, the senior battles Hudson’s Simon Turner (29-4).
“Actually, I never heard of the kid,” Mancini said of Turner.
“I want to get to state because I’ve worked hard for 13 years,” Mancini said of his years in the sport. “I feel I’m on top of my game and never felt better about wrestling.”
As a junior, Mancini placed third at sectionals at 152. At districts last season, Mancini went 1-2. “I got strep throat on Thursday [before district],” said Mancini, whose uncles Dom and Frank are Boardman’s head and assistant coaches, respectively.
Fitch sophomore Marco Parry (106) lost his first sectional match at 4 p.m., then had a three-hour wait before pinning Chardon’s Alex Prather in 21 seconds.
“He went out and did his job after cutting too much weight for his first match,” said Mark Parry, Marco’s father and middle school wrestling coach. “Later, it was lose or go home,” Mark Parry said of the gravity of his son’s match against Prather, a freshman.
After losing to Solon’s Joey Hirsch in one of the tournament’s early matches, Parry (19-22) was able to re-energize.
“It gave my body a little rest from all the hard practices I had this week,” said Marco, whose poster hangs in the entrance to the Austintown Giant Eagle on Mahoning Ave. “The anticipation of my first sectional kind of wore me out,” Marco said of the week’s workout and Friday afternoon’s jitters. “I drank a little water [during the three-hour wait] and it helped,” said Marco, who lettered as a parttime varsity wrestler and Fitch JV squad member in 2013-14.
To earn a 120-pound championship semi showdown today against Aurora’s Jarrod Brezovec, Fitch sophomore Andrew Fairbanks scored an 11-1 major decision over Kenston’s Joby Herbruck.
The Fairbanks-Brezovec match will be identical to last season’s sectional battle, which Fairbanks lost, 3-0, to finished third. Also as a freshman, Fairbanks was a state alternate at 106, while Brezovec placed fourth at state. Last year’s state champ, Walsh Jesuit’s Alex Mackall (26-3), is in today’s other 120 semifinal.
Others in championship semifinals are Boardman senior Vince Mancini (37-5) at 106 and the Fitch foursome of junior Isiah Jackson (29-12) at 170 pounds, junior Chris Droege (29-10) at 195, senior Jake Franks (30-11) at 220 and junior Matt Rood (27-13) at 285.