Wrestlers Poullas and Fairbanks join EOWL's best

February 5, 2017 at 12:09a.m.

AUSTINTOWN

Canfield’s Georgio Poullas and Austintown Fitch’s Andrew Fairbanks are in exclusive company.

The Eastern Ohio Wrestling League Tournament has been around for 50 years and heading into this year’s tournament, only five wrestlers have managed to win a title in all four years of competing. After Saturday’s EOWL finals, Fairbanks and Poullas became the sixth and seventh wrestlers to achieve the feat.

With district and the state tournament looming, it made sense that both wrestlers had a tempered-down celebration of the achievement.

“It’s definitely cool being one of the seven people to do it and it’s something I wanted to achieve, but there’s still bigger and better things I want to do,” Poullas said.

Poullas, a reigning state champion and Ironman winner, was voted as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player. He defeated Fitch’s Michael Ferree, 15-0, for the 160-pound title.

To Ferree’s credit, he was the only opponent Poullas didn’t pin in the whole tournament.

“He got a lot better from last year, I could tell from watching him,” Poullas said. “I was ready for him. I got my warm-up in, I was pumped, I was ready and I went out there and executed my moves. I did what I had to do.”

Fairbanks pinned Alliance’s Brailyn Lightner in 3:23 for title No. 4.

“It’s something I looked forward to since my freshman year when I won it the first time,” the Falcons’ 138-pounder said.

Fairbanks has made steady improvement in each of his seasons. He narrowly missed out on the state tournament as a sophomore before qualifying as a junior.

“Up to this season, he’s been a leader and a captain. He’s stepped up everyday in practice,” Fitch coach John Burd said. “His level of focus in practice has increased dramatically this season. It’s his best year so far.”

In team play, Canfield was the Division I and overall winner with 211 points. The Cardinals trailed most of the tournament until Poullas’ defeated Ferree. Tyler Stein’s third-place finish at 195 pounds mathematically clinched it. Fitch was the runner up with 207 points.

On Wednesday, Canfield suffered a painful loss in the Region 12 final of the dual team tournament. An illegal slam penalty cost the Cardinals in a 35-30 loss to Carrollton.

“Wednesday was a heartbreaker for us. You’re dealing with high school kids that are 17 years old and you tell them to move on when really in your heart, you haven’t moved on yourself,” Canfield coach Dean Conley said. “We had to trust that our training and schedule prepared us for this and we let our guys tell them how important this is.

“This was a goal of ours from the beginning of the year and they really responded.”

Alliance was the Division II champion with 177 points Girard won the Division III title with 134 total points.

“There’s always points out there that you wish you could win. There’s matches — even in the finals — that we didn’t think we would lose and we did,” Girard coach Jim Cardiero said. “It happens in tournaments. It will never be perfect.

“We won a couple matches we didn’t think we would win, but it goes both ways,” he said.

The Indians were bouyed by Dakota McCloskey (120), who won an EWOL title for the first time in his career and so did sophomore Jack DelGarbino (220). Garbino’s win came after watching his father, John “J.T.” DelGarbino, get inducted into the EWOL Hall of Fame.

The elder DelGarbino won the 1991 275-pound title at Liberty and is one of the few wrestlers who pinned all four of his opponents.

“It was a good moment. I enjoyed seeing him out there getting recognized for all that he’s done,” Jack said.

Jack is in the middle of a breakout season. He’s ranked No. 3 in the state.

Could he beat his dad?

“No,” John said with a grin. “Pride kicks in.”