Wapak rolls to title at Mccracken invite
Redskins put eight of 12 wrestlers in finals
SIDNEY — Perhaps the Wapakoneta wrestling team had a chip on its shoulders
Saturday at the Mccracken Tournament after a disappointing loss to Defiance on Thursday night.
They certainly wrestled like it, as the Redskins dominated the field of eight teams, taking the team championship going away.
Wapak finished with 275 1/2 points, 80 points ahead of second-place Sidney with 195 1/2. Two more Western Buckeye League teams filled the next
two slots as Shawnee finished with 186 and Van Wert was
fourth with 164 1/2. Greenville was fifth at 160, followed by Ben Logan (154 1/2), Fairborn (105) and Tecumseh (103).
Eight of the 12 Redskins that made the trip to Sidney wrestled for championships with Caden Mellott (113 pounds), Corbin Mitchell (157), and Cael Rostorfer (285) winning titles. Weight division runners-up were Gavin Hall (138), Nate Buell (157), Dawson Ware (165), Jace Knous (175), and Trevor Houts (215).
The format of the Mccracken Tournament allowed a
team to have more than one wrestler in a weight class so the Redskins found themselves in the unusual situation of having two wrestlers in the
same championship final as Mitchell faced off against Buell for the 157-pound title.
“We were all pretty disappointed Thursday and we had
a heart-to-heart (discussion) at practice yesterday (Friday),
said Wapak head coach Jason Rostorfer. “They understand that Thursday night’s effort and performance is not the
standard we’re looking for. So it was good to come down
here, get a lot of matches in and win a team championship. We were pretty down yesterday, but they bounced
back. I told them that the effort today was 100% better than it was on Thursday.”
Wapak’s champions were all undefeated. Mitchell and Cael Rostorfer each went 5-0 with five pins, while Mellott went 4-0 with three pins and a technical fall.
The Redskins notched a 4414 record during the tournament, including 36 pins, two technical falls and two major
decisions. All those matches garnered what wrestling
coaches call bonus points and enabled Wapak to pull away from the field early.
Mitchell was the top pointgetter with 35, followed by Cael Rostorfer (34) and Mellott (31). All of the Redskins’ runner-up wrestlers collected at least 22 points. Ware, Buell and Houts all had 28 points, while Knous finished with 27 and Hall earned 22 points. Reece Schnarre finished third, but still acquired 25 points, while fellow third-place finisher Dalton Huebner had 19 points. Andrew Mosler (190) finished fourth and added
nine points to the Redskins’ total.
“We had three champions and that’s a great accomplishment,” Coach Rostorfer said. “But Dalton Huebner, a freshman, wrestled up a class and, when he wrestled for third place, he beat a kid that had
beaten him earlier. Dawson Ware, another freshman, also wrestled up a weight class.
Sometimes freshmen can make mistakes, but those can be corrected. The desire, the
effort, the heart, that’s what we’re looking for. You can’t
teach that and if they’ve got it,
the technique will come.
“Nate Buell, Gavin Hall, Jace Knous, and Trevor Houts all finished second,” Coach Rostorfer said. “Overall, I am very pleased with what I saw today.”
Wapak had Ottawaglandorf on the
schedule for a Western
Buckeye League match this Thursday,
but the Titans don’t have enough wrestlers for dual meets so the Redskins will get
a 2-0 forfeit win. Wapak travels to Kettering Fairmont for the Firebird Wrestling Classic on Saturday.