Valley stars win EOWL titles

January 13, 2019 at 12:09a.m.

Canfield has four champs, but falls short of team trophy

AUSTINTOWN

With seconds to spare, Tyler Stein defended his status as the best 220-pounder in Division II wrestling.

In Saturday’s finals of the Eastern Ohio Wrestling League Tournament at Austintown Fitch, the defending state champion from Canfield trailed Louisville’s Blake Robbins — who’s ranked No. 2 in the state — 1-0 entering the third period. Starting from the down position, Stein tied the bout with an escape and as the final seconds ticked down, scored the winning takedown for a 3-1 victory.

“I was just shooting, shooting and shooting. I just kept sticking to the plan of wrestling my match and taking the shots that I wanted to take,” Stein said. “I was jacking up that underhook that whole third period and I felt him give a little bit, so I locked it up.”

Stein is one of four Mahoning Valley wrestlers who are currently ranked No. 1 state and three of them will stay that way with EOWL titles in hand. Girard heavyweight Jack DelGarbino won his third EOWL title with a 13-2 major decision against Beaver Local’s Daniel Wirth.

Wirth took down DelGarbino in the second period for the first points conceded by the returning state champ this season, but the Princeton commit still took home MVP honors.

“I know I’m going to hear about it [from my coaches],” DelGarbino said of losing his shutout streak.

Canfield’s Anthony D’Alesio (182) beat Boardman’s Michael O’Horo for the second time in four days to win his first League title. The No. 1-ranked D’Alesio beat O’Horo, 8-1, after beating him 2-0 on Thursday. The junior lost to O’Horo in last year’s EOWL finals due to a medical forfeit.

“I’ve been getting made fun of by my coaches [for not winning a title], especially last year when I was hurt,” D’Alesio said. “They were on me all the time this week to win, so I did.”

West Branch’s Christian Wayt, the top D-II 120-pounder in the state, did not compete in the tournament because he was a scratch due to illness.

It wasn’t just the top-ranked guys who impressed in Austintown. Fitch had three EOWL champs: Colin Roberts (113), Zach Richards (132) and Gus Sutton (138). Of the three, Richards is the only one whose name does not appear in any state rankings.

“I felt really underrated this year. I went to some hard camps and everyone on Fitch’s team knew what I was capable of, even though I was a [No. 6 seed],” Richards said. “I just had to put it in action here. I wrestled the best I could every match and it all played out well in the end.”

The junior had an exciting path to the title. He landed the winning takedown against Alliance’s Joe Pennington with 0.6 seconds left in regulation for a 3-1 victory. He then faced top-seed Alex DelGarbino, a wrestler who had pinned Richards five times in seven bouts. Richards threw DelGarbino and scored a near fall in the opening seconds of the first period and that fueled a 9-2 victory.

While Canfield had four EOWL champs in Stein, D’Alesio, Nick Barber (106) and Nick Crawford (195), the Cardinals could not win a third team title in a row. Beaver Local took home the team honors on the strength of having eight wrestlers in the first-place matches — three of which took first place — for 292.5 points to Canfield’s 259. It was an impressive feat considering the Beavers were without two-time state-finalist Cole McComas (126), who was out with an injury.

“It was great. This is a real confidence booster and it gives us a lot of momentum for the state duals,” said Beavers senior Beau Smith, who took home the 170-pound title. “It was awesome. Everyone wrestled to their potential.”