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DOMINANCE
Rootstown wrestlers capture top prize at Saturday’s Jackson-Milton Invitational
By DAN HINER
rootstown
After the totals were counted and the awards were passed out, the Rootstown High School wrestling team crowded around the awards podium on Saturday to receive its first-place trophy for winning the 2016 Jackson-Milton Wrestling Invitational.
As the team was taking pictures with the trophy, the PA announcer’s voice echoed through the gym.
“The tournament MVP goes to Rootstown’s Seth Hayes,” the announcement said.
All eyes turned to Hayes, a 126-pound senior standing in the middle of the crowd. The team erupted in applause and cheering, but not just for winning the tournament. The Rovers were cheering for Hayes.
“I came into this tournament and everyone was telling me it was going to be the toughest weight class,” Hayes said. “Last week, I thought I could have won, but I didn’t and it was kinda depressing.
“I was just excited, happy,” Hayes said. “I felt like I wrestled my butt off in this tournament.”
Rootstown came into Saturday’s finals with a score of 182 and extended its lead throughout the tournament and finished with a total score of 224.5.
Girard came in second place with a score of 182 and Cardinal High School finished third with 103 points.
Crestview finished fourth with 93 points and host Jackson-Milton totaled 81.5 points.
“Overall, great finals,” Rootstown head coach Craig Wise said. “I think we went 11-1 in the finals, we had a nice tournament.
“We got a good group of kids. It’s probably one of the smaller tournaments that we go to. They’re in condition for some tough competition. They come here and they end up doing pretty well.”
Rootstown was busy Saturday, with participants in most of the finals.
Wise said the win was important for the team’s success in their upcoming matches.
“We have a couple big meets coming up with Crestwood and St. V’s [Akron St. Vincent St. Mary] coming up this week,” Wise said. “We got to get our game face on and get ready to go.”
Hayes echoed his coach’s thoughts on the team’s success in future and said wins at tournaments like the Jackson-Milton Invitational will keep the team focused throughout the season.
“It gives them that extra push to keep going—making weight, wrestling hard and keep wrestling hard to try to win state—that’s the ultimate goal,” Hayes said.
Last season, Rootstown had six members of its team qualify for state. Four of those wrestlers are still on the roster, including Hayes.
Rootstown finished 11th at the 2015 state tournament finals. Hayes said that he expects the team to make another push for the state championship.
“I think it is an obtainable goal,” Hayes said. “We need to try harder; it’s not going to come of course.
“But little old Rootstown is coming up. I think it is very obtainable this year. We have the best team that Rootstown has ever had. Obviously we need to fix a little bit of kinks but I think we could win it.”