Canfield wrestlers win four district titles, six state berths

February 28, 2016 at 12:09a.m.

By BRIAN DZENIS

ALLIANCE

Four and six.

Those are the numbers the Canfield wrestling team was celebrating Saturday night.

Four is the number of Division II Northeast District champions in as many events and six is the number of Cardinal wrestlers advancing to next week’s state tournament in Columbus.

Both are Canfield records.

Across D-II, 10 wrestlers from the Mahoning Valley made it to state. Canfield seniors C.J. Frost (138 pounds), David Crawford (145), Jacob Esarco (220) and junior Georgio Poullas (152) all took home district titles. The only other area champ was West Branch heavyweight Ian Sharp.

For the Cardinal seniors, the records were due.

“It’s weird, if you ask the coaches, they’ll tell you we’ve acted like leaders since we were freshman. We were always more mature,” Frost said. “We knew this payday was coming.”

Frost was the first Canfield winner, beating Lake Catholic’s Luke McKeon 11-8. The match score was closer than Frost would have liked.

“I felt like I was in control,” Frost said. “I don’t think the score of the match shows that it was a lot closer than it was.

“I think I started to run out of gas because I was pushing the pace so much in the first period. It was nice getting an early lead and just slowing him down.”

Poullas, who finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in Ohio in his weight class, was a fan favorite at Alliance. He only needed 1:25 to pin Woodridge’s Isaac Yoho and appeared to easily take over the match.

“He was a tough kid, he was really strong. I scouted him and knew what he was going to do and I believe in myself when I wrestle,” Poullas said. “I wanted do some takedowns, then I just turned him and got the pin.”

Poulla’s training partner, Crawford, followed up with a 3-2 win against Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s David Heath. He was just as excited to see his teammates win as he was to earn his own title.

“It’s a big deal, most teams don’t even get one, and this is the toughest district in D-II,” Crawford said.

The Battle of 224 went down at the 220 weight class as Esarco and Poland’s Trey Ellis continued their football rivalry on the wrestling mat. Esarco got the major decision, 10-1. He’s never lost to Ellis in wrestling, but Ellis has the advantage in football.

“[Poland] beat us in the last three years in football, but we’re great friends too and joke around,” Esarco said.

The future football player at Colgate was impressed with his performance, given the work he’s put in since suffering an injury earlier in the season.

“Wrestling shape is so much different than any other sport shape. I’ve been on the treadmill and elliptical for the past three weeks to get back in shape,” Esarco said.

“I step on the mat for 35 seconds and you’re dog tired. I think pushing the pace in the finals really helped me.”

For the last championship match of the night, Sharp pinned Norton’s Mitch Bischoff in 3:33. Sharp was the No. 1 seed in his class.

“Pretty much all season I’ve been working on my top game, so I can pin pretty much anyone I want to,” Sharp said. “It sounds arrogant, but I kind of have pinned everyone,”

The area second-place finishers both came from Poland. Besides Ellis, Dave Esarco got pinned by Lake Catholic’s Joe Boley in 3:20.

Rounding out the rest of the D-II state qualifiers, Mason Giordano (285) and Dominic Cooper (182) took third and fourth place, respectively. Poland’s Dante Ginnetti (120) pinned Woodridge’s David Massey in 2:24 to take third place and Anthony Audi (170) took Alliance’s Isaiah Watson-Kirksey to overtime, but lost 3-2 and took fourth place. Salem’s Kade Byland (160) lost a 3-2 decision to Northwest’s Kyle Myers, but still made state by finishing fourth.

The state tournament at Ohio State begins Thursday and runs through Saturday.

“As teammates, it makes me happy knowing that all of our hard work is paying off,” Poullas said. Hopefully next week will be greater than this week.”