Wrestlers sweep Coldwater, Greenville
sponden t As the first part of the wrestling season comes to a close the Wapakoneta wrestling team ended the most unusual of years with two wins when they hosted a four team tournament on Wednesday night.
The Redskins defeated a strong Coldwater team 48- 30, and an undermanned Greenville squad, 5714. The Green Wave had to give up 36 points in forfeiting six weight classes. The fourth team in the gym was from Urbana. The Hillclimbers were beaten 66- 6 by Coldwater, but gave Greenville run for their money losing a narrow 36- 24 decision.
Wapakoneta and Coldwater actually wrestled in 12 of the 14 weight classes and every match was decided by a pin. There was a double void at 106 pounds that awarded no points to either team, and the Cavaliers had no wrestler at 113 pounds which gave the home team six free points.
Coldwater drew first blood when Gavin Zibrida pinned sophomore Nate Buell with just three seconds left in the match and Buell up 7- 6. Zibrida trailed 7- 4 as the clock ticked under 30 seconds. He pulled a reverse to close the score to 7- 6, then used his momentum to put Buell on his back a get the pin before time ran out.
Seven of the 12 pins in the match belonged to the Redskins and 152- pound freshman Corbin Mitchell got his team on the scoreboard with a pin at the 2: 44 mark of his match, while senior Jacob Schlesselman kept the ball rolling with a pin of Sam Obringer at 2: 36. He has only lost one match so far this year ( 7- 1) and has four pins.
The Redskins’ advantage grew to 18- 6 when another freshman, Kaden Ware, pinned his opponent, Eli Tobe, in the second stanza, but the Cavaliers bounced back with pins at 182 and 195 pounds to knot the score at 18.
The next two matches belonged to the Redskins as Trevor Houts ( 220) and Cael Rostorfer ( 285) both notched pins to push the Red and White back out to a 30- 18 advantage. The Cavs gave up six points in the 113 pound void and senior Bryce Knapke ( 120) added to the lead with a pin of Austin Hamilton and now the margin was 24 points, 42- 18.
Nick Kline broke the spell for Coldwater with a pin at 126 pounds, however Gavin Hall got those six points right back with a pin of his own to improve his record to an impressive 9- 1. The final match went to the Cavaliers’ Jack Ebbing with a pin to round out the final score of 48- 30.
“Trevor ( Houts) got down to weight and wrestled 220 tonight,” commented Wapakoneta coach Jason Rostorfer. “That’s a huge bonus for us because before we had a void and he got a pin tonight against Coldwater so that’s a 12 point swing.”
Next up for Wapakoneta was Greenville. Mitchell recorded his second pin of the night ( to up his team leading total to seven) to start things out, followed, after a void at 160, by a second pin by Ware. Another three voids by the Green Wave upped the margin to 36- 0 before Colton Mccartney just edged out Rostorfer 4- 3 to put three points up for his team.
Colin Mellott finally got a chance to wrestle and made the most of it. The 113 pound senior stayed undefeated on the season ( 6- 0) with his fourth pin on the year. Drayk Kallenbarger garnered a pin at 120 pounds for Greenville, and following a void by the visitors at 126, Gavin Hall ( 132) won an 11- 10 tooth and nail battle with Logan Thatcher and now leads the team in wins
with 10. The read 51- 9.
Greenville voided at 138 pounds and the evening concluded with the Green Wave’s Ben Hartzel taking a five point technical fall, 17- 3.
“We had some technical issues I saw out there tonight that
scoreboard
we’ve worked on in practice, but hasn’t translated in competition,” said Rostorfer. “We are a fairly young team and these guys work hard in practice. Effort is not the issue. We just have some technical things we have to adjust and get fixed.”
The wrestlers will be off now until next Thursday when they will travel to Shawnee to take on the Indians in a Western Buckeye League match. The Redskins are currently 2- 1 in loop competition.