WBL Tournament Sees Redskins Take Second with Win Over Celina
WAPAKONETA - In front of the largest wrestling crowd of the season in the Wapak gym, the Redskin wrestlers secured sole possession of second place in the Western Buckeye League regular season standings by defeating Celina in a down to the wire match, 39-31.
The two teams were tied for second when the evening began with identical 7-1 records with the winner gaining a big advantage in the competition for a possible over-all league championship or co-championship. The WBL tournament is Saturday in Elida, with St. Marys controlling their own destiny. The Rough Riders finished the regular season in first place with an undefeated 9-0 record.
“We knew it (the Celina match) was going to be close,” commented Wapakoneta head coach Jason Rostorfer. “They always wrestle hard against us. We saw them at the Celina tournament. They finished third (Wapak was first), but it was close all day long, so we had to come out and wrestle hard, and for the most part we did.”
Caden Mellott (113) got things off on the right foot for the Redskins in the first match of the night by pinning B.J. Tare at the 2:27 mark of their contest for his 28th win and ninth straight, but Aaron King evened things up at six apiece with a pin of Dalton Huebner at 120 pounds.
“Caden wrestled a good match,” said Rostorfer. “He got taken down, but he was all juiced up on energy and adrenaline, but he came back and got the pin.”
The Dogs took the lead when Colin Fokine recorded a 13-1 major decision over Aiden Gallaspie (126), but the Redskin’s freshman 132 pounder, Gavin Ridenour, came up big with a pin of Skyler Fokine and Wapak took a 10-6 lead.
Another freshman, Antwain Adams (138), notched his 32nd win of the year when he earned a 5-1 decision over Zach King to give the Skins a five point lead, 15-10, and Jarrett Mullen pumped the lead to 11 points (21-10) with a pin of Andrew Hines in the 144 pound competition. It was the freshman’s seventh straight win.
“Mullen got a huge win for us. He beat (Hines) 12-10 in the Celina tournament, but tonight he pinned him and that was huge. Two other young guys, Antwain Adams and Gavin Ridenour, got important pins for us and Wyatt Buell got us a win.”
Wyatt Buell’s (150) win was a 4-0 decision, for his 29th victory, and Corbin
Mitchell (157) pinned his opponent in just 36 seconds to up the score to 30-10. Mitchell leads the team in wins with 34 and tops the squad in pins as well with 30. It would be Wapak’s biggest lead of the match.
“I told Corbin before he went out onto the mat,” recalled Rostorfer. ‘‘ ‘This is your last match in this gym. Make it a good one,’ and he sure did.”
Nate Buell took on Gavin Brown at 165 pounds. It was a defensive battle all the way. Brown scored a take down in the first period. Buell pulled to within a point with an escape, but it was Brown who was the only one to score in the final period with his own escape to take the 3-1 decision.
Celina’s Tyler Carlin was able to pin Wapak’s 175 pounder, Dawson Ware, in the third period, but Jace Knous got those six points back with a pin of Josh Sweeney at 1:42 to put the Redskins one win away from taking the match with the score 36-19. With his win, Knous crossed the 30 win threshold for the season.
Three weight classes remained, but Wapak was void at 285, so if Celina should score two pins, or even a pin and a tech fall in the two remaining matches to be wrestled, they could still pull out the win.
Senior Andrew Mosler took care of that with an impressive 5-0 victory over Rece Rutledge at 215 pounds. The match was still in doubt in the third period when Rutledge, who was trailing 3-0, shot for a takedown attempt, but Mosler was ready for him. He blocked the momentum of his opponent and swung around to gain the two take down points and secured not only his win, but his team’s.
“Andrew Mosler got a big win for us with his win,” continued Rostorfer. “We really needed one there. He wrestled tough and came out on top. He’s beaten that kid twice in a row now.”
In the final match of the night, Celina notched a pin to round out the scoring at 39-31.
The Wapak middle school wrestlers completed their WBL schedule earlier in the evening with a 51-35 win over Celina to finish the regular season undefeated and league champions. The final WBL regular season varsity standings were;
St. Marys 9-0,
Wapakoneta 8-1,
Celina 7-2,
Defiance 5-4,
Van Wert 5-4,
Shawnee 5-4,
Ottawa-glandorf 2-7,
Elida 2-7,
Bath 1-8,
Kenton 1-8.