The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Elyria falls in quarters at D-I wrestling duals
The fourth-seeded Pioneers dropped a 40-30 decision to Cincinnati LaSalle in a match that featured several cat-andmouse moves with weight classes. Fuad Shalhout has the story from Columbus.
In a dual match, crazy things tend to happen.
That was no different Feb. 11 at St. John Arena in the OHSAA team dual state quarterfinals with No. 4 Elyria losing to No. 5 La Salle, 40-30. In a matchup between two premier Division I programs — La Salle ranked No. 12 in the nation, there was a total of five forfeits — four in favor of the Pioneers, with a cat-andmouse game between the teams.
Bryce Allison (106) fell in a 11-2 major decision to Duston Norris before sophomore Dylan Shawver (113) lost a 4-3 decision to Lucas Byrd. Shawver, ranked No. 2 in the state and No. 1-ranked Byrd were tightly battled. Byrd hit Shawver with an escape and takedown in the second for a 3-2 lead going into the third before Shawver was called for a stall. Shawver picked up an escape point with 15 seconds left but fell short.
Elyria senior Brendon Fenton (120) won a 5-0 decision
over No. 9-ranked Antoine Allen to get the Pioneers on the board.
With Elyria down, 7-3, La Salle forfeited at 126 pounds to Elyria’s Mick Burnett. Junior Matt Zuckerman (132) outmuscled Casey Wiles in a 5-4 overtime match to give Elyria a 12-7 lead. From there: • 138: La Salle showed Elan Heard, Elyria forfeited.
• 145: La Salle didn’t have anyone to put out, Elyria got a forfeit taken by Enrique Munguia and the Pioneers
took a 19-13 lead.
• 152: Elyria’s Jimmy Schill took a forfeit win.
• 160: Elyria showed Farouq Muhammed and La Salle forfeited. Elyria took a 30-13 lead.
• 170: La Salle’s Trey Sizemore, ranked No. 2, got a 3-0 decision over freshman Jake Evans, and La Salle followed with four-straight pins to close the dual.
“At the beginning of the match, you pick odd or even,” Elyria coach Erik Burnett said. “106 is an odd weight, 113 is even and so forth up to the 14 weight classes. If you pick odd, you have to put your guy out there first for the odd match. And at the end of the first period, you get the choice. We did that. They made Mick go out at 126, then ran their 126 to 132 which didn’t really pay off for them since Zuckerman won. And all of the rest of it came down to wrestling. I don’t know how many of the moves actually paid off for them because they were giving us six and we needed our guys to go out and win or not give up bonus points. Which we didn’t do a great job of. We knew we were inexperienced or even out-manned in some of the weight classes. So when we have our 30-13 lead, if you’re not going to win, you have to limit the bonus points. They just went and got their bonus. They beat us at 106 which was a big win for them and 113. Those were key matches for us. At 120, Fenton did his job but you’re always hoping for bonus. We just didn’t get enough of that in the matches wrestled. I’m not saying that the kids didn’t wrestle good, but we just didn’t get it done on the mat.”
At 160, Elyria was hoping to matchup Muhammed with Sizemore, but the Pioneers showed first and couldn’t further bump up Muhammed. Burnett said they got “stuck” at that point.
“I can’t run Farouq up two weight classes,” Burnett added. “He weighed in at 152, and they ran Sizemore up to 170. So what do you do there? So we ran Evans there and felt good with him against Sizemore, but he just couldn’t get that turn in the second or third period I hoped he’d get. But I’m very pleased with where Jake is right now. He’s doing his best wrestling now.”
Burnett was pleased with Zuckerman’s outcome.
“That was a good match and Zuck stayed in it,” Burnett said. “He gave up the early takedown but kept fighting and that’s what Zuck does. He can frustrate people and when he stays in the match, every match is winnable. He can go with anybody. When they made their move away from Mick, I still felt confident because we had Matt.”
Zuckerman said: “It was great to be out there. It was upsetting giving up the first takedown in the first 30 seconds of the match but I kept working and got the escape and tried pushing the pace on him. I knew he was 126 and bumped up, and I was at 132, and that I was going to be a little bigger than him.”
Elyria wrestled without senior and returning state placer Josh Breeding (132), who is nursing an ankle injury but is expected back for the sectionals. La Salle went without Darnai Heard (132), ranked No. 10 in the state.
As for Fenton, it was the final state dual match of his career.
“It was a great experience for our team,” Fenton said. “That’s the end for me and it sucks, but they got another shot next year. I took in this last experience and it’s sad we couldn’t end up how we wanted it. We’re going to go back and keep working. I didn’t know what they were doing giving out three forfeits in a row and I didn’t know what was going on. I thought we were going to end up winning it but they played it smart and took the dual.”
The Pioneers finish the dual season 15-1.