Locals Sutton, Davis still alive after first day of OAC action

March 22, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

The 17th annual Ohio Athletic Committee Junior High Wrestling Tournament attracted more than 2,000 wrestlers to its eight district qualifying sites.

The field was pared to 820 for Saturday’s opening session at the Covelli Centre and will shrink to 144 after today’s morning action with the top eight grapplers in 18 weight classes earning All-Ohio designation.

“The Youngstown area has been great to us and we’re excited to be back at the Covelli Centre once again with our event,” said Jared Opfer, OAC executive director. “This venue is absolutely tremendous for wrestling and the talent that comes here to wrestle from across the state only seems to get better each year.”

Wrestlers from Austintown, Beaver Local, Brookfield, Canfield, Girard, Hubbard, Liberty and Salem took part in the event.

Gus Sutton (102 pounds) and Christian Davis (126) of Austintown are two local wrestlers to advance to today’s finals.

Sutton went 33-1 for Austintown Middle School, Red, who went undefeated (22-0), won the EOWL championship and five tournament titles this past season.

He was 2-1 on opening day.

“My goal is to get to the podium on Sunday. In my first match it wasn’t much of a challenge, but in my second match I shot on my opponent, he reversed it and ended up getting back points on me,” Sutton said. “My third match took overtime and after I shot on him I was able to take him down.”

Davis, who was 35-4 during his middle school schedule, defeated Justin Danhauer of T.V. Wrestling Club in his opening match.

“My goal was to pin him and in the first period I had him on his back. I also had him on his back twice in the second period as well,” he stated. “In the third period, he chose neutral and shot on me. I countered and was able to get the take down.”

Tyler Stein, one of 10 Canfield wrestlers, was 30-3 during his middle school season and advanced at 176 pounds.

He has one very simple goal and that is to get to the championship match in his weight class.

“I want to go undefeated this weekend and won’t take any opponent lightly,” he said. “I want to make it to the finals and beat Johnny Schaeffer of St. Paris Graham. He gave me one of my three losses this year and I’d like to meet him once again.”

Cole McComas and Skylar Lasure are two of eight Beaver Local wrestlers at the event with both advancing to Sunday.

They are seventh-grade classmates and middle school teammates with McComas going 30-1 and Lasure 25-4 this season.

McComas, who placed fifth during last year’s championships, went 2-1 on the day with Lasure posting a 3-0 mark.

“I want to improve on last year’s fifth-place finish and get to the podium,” McComas said.

“We’re (McComas) practice partners and help out each other all the time,” Lasure added. “It was nice to win all three matches, but I felt like I could have done better. I felt sluggish and could have moved my feet a little better.”

Brett Powell, recently retired head coach at Austintown Fitch, called the OAC tournament a feather in the area’s wrestling cap.

“The goal was to get this tournament in Youngstown. For the kids, it’s a replica and a scaled down version of the Schottenstein Center in Columbus where the state tournament is held,” Powell noted. “There are 10 mats here and 10 in Columbus and very few venues across the state have that type of format capability. The desire by Jared [Opfer] and Jude Roth was to mirror the state tourney and they’ve done rather well.”

Today’s competition starts at 8 a.m. with a Parade of Champions scheduled for 4 p.m. The finals begin at 4:30.