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Beaver Local teammates earn grade school wrestling titles
Beaver Local’s Hughes, Severs earn grade school state titles
By Greg Gulas
YOUNGSTOWN
When Beaver Local’s Jake Hughes defeated Brennan Warwick of Massillon Perry in their 55-pound title match on Sunday, he became the first person at his school to earn an Ohio Athletic Committee state grade school championship.
A little over an hour later, Brenden Severs became the second.
Hughes defeated Warwick, 3-0 while Severs (100 pounds) was a 9-8 winner over Jake Niffenegger of Palmer Wrestling to lead eight local wrestlers who earned all-Ohio honors during final day action of the 12th annual event at the Covelli Centre.
Both wrestlers went 5-0 in the tournament as Hughes improved to 75-1 and Severs 62-1 on the campaign.
“My goal was to try to pin him, but I’ll settle for a victory any way I can get it,” Hughes said. “I just love to compete. I qualified last year but didn’t place so it’s pretty special to be the very first to win a state championship for my school.”
Severs, who didn’t place last year after finishing fourth in 2013, led Niffenegger 4-0 after one period and 6-2 after two stanzas but had to hold on during the final 20 seconds of the match.
“I just didn’t want him [Niffennegger] to hit a slide by, something that he hit three times in a row in the match,” Severs said. “I just wanted to stall the match and get it over with. It’s really very special to be able to join Jake as the first two from our school to win an OAC state championship.”
Beaver Local coach Dan Hasson said the tournament attracts a bevy of talented wrestlers from across Ohio.
“We’ve had 30 wrestlers come through our program that went on to qualify for the state high school tournament. Since the OAC started this tourney 12 years ago, we’ve seen a lot of top-notch wrestlers,” Hasson said. “We’ve traveled all over the state, from Athens, to Cleveland, to Marion to Bowling Green and this is as good as it gets at the Covelli Centre. There’s as much technique here, if not more, than you will see at a lot of high school matches.”
Austintown’s Jacob Smail and Canfield’s Ethan Fletcher each finished fifth after posting 10-0 decisions over their opponents.
Smail (180 pounds) defeated Ryan Musgrove of Perrysburg Wrestling for a 5-2 weekend mark while Fletcher (85 pounds) improved to 4-2 after stopping Evan Bennett of West Shore Wrestling Club.
“It’s my second year in this event and after failing to qualify for finals last year, the immediate goal just was to place,” Smail said. “It was a learning experience for everyone this weekend. When I was winning, I was strong on top with good offense and defense. I also learned a lot in my two losses.”
Fletcher finished third last year and also has a fifth place finish in 2013. He’s a four-time qualifier and three-time placer.
“I was proud of my effort but disappointed in my placement,” Fletcher said.
Derick Fletcher, Ethan’s father and a Canfield coach, leads a young group that qualified nine wrestlers to this weekend’s meet.
“We had two wrestlers earn All-Ohio honors today in Landon Beidelschies and Ethan and six of our wrestlers will return next year,” Fletcher said. “The competition here is so tough. You can do well and not be a state champion and it could be disappointing.”
Austintown’s Tyler Lintner defeated Colt Crabiel of Medina, 4-2 for seventh place and a 6-2 weekend mark.
“This was the best competition that I faced all year so finishing seventh is an accomplishment. The goal next year is to improve on this year’s finish,” he said.
“It was great to have two wrestlers place today and while I would have liked to have had more,” Austintown coach Frank Giordano said. “It goes to show you just how tough the competition was this weekend.”
Beaver Local’s third all-Ohio honoree was Jaymin Salsberry, who finished seventh at 60 pounds after a 1-0 decision over Vinnie D’Alessandro of Mayfield.
Beidelshies and Girard’s Tucker Steiner each finished eighth after Steiner (75 pounds) suffered a 5-1 loss to Caleb Sowers of Viking Elite Wrestling and Beidelshies (85 pounds) was pinned by Gavin Crank of Canton South Wrestling.
“We had a lot of energy all weekend, along with passionate coaches, parents and most especially the wrestlers,” Jared Opfer, OAC executive director said. “We’d like to think that this competition is a springboard to their careers. It’s a competition that puts them on a stage, they’re on display in front of a near-packed house and all of the wrestlers absolutely love it.”
According to Opfer, this weekend’s event attracted more than 10,000 fans. Combined with last weekend’s junior high tournament, the Covelli Centre played host to approximately 18,000 fans for its four sessions.