Two champions propel Eaton to title in own invitational
Tradition suggests gold as the preferred gift to celebrate 50 years. The Eaton Eagles wrestling team — the majority of them appropriately sporting platinum blonde hair — obliged at the 50th Eaton/Sam Ridder Invitational last Saturday.
Behind a pair of individual champions and one runner-up finish, the Eagles captured their own invitational with a one-point victory.
“It’s your home meet and you never want to look bad when you wrestle at home,” said senior Zac Schmidt, who claimed his first tournament title this season with the vic- tory at 160 pounds.
In addition to takedowns, the Eagles earned style points with their hairstyles. It’s not mandatory, but the majority of the wrestlers take part in the tradition.
“I didn’t want to this year, but I’ve done it all three years,” Schmidt said. “You’re just like, ‘Geez I look different.’ But you get used to it. It’s clumpy a little bit and it feels a little rough with the bleach in there, but it’s cool.”
Schmidt locked down his title with a 3-1 victory over Springfield Shawnee’s Adam Myers. Senior Ke Anthony Bales also stood atop the podium with his victory at 152 following a pin over Shawnee’s Jack Cain in 2:55.
Logan Chapin finished sec- ond for the Eagles at 170. Junior Owen Hewitt was third (138) and Trenton Dungan (132) and Holdon Sittloh (195) both finished fourth.
As per Eaton tradition, those Eagles wrestling in the championship round wore satin purple boxing robes with yellow trim prior to the matches.
“That’s always been a tradition. Just wear them to show off a little bit, a little swagger,” Schmidt said. “I don’t like to be flashy — I’d rather be humble — but it’s fun to do.”
Schmidt started wrestling his sophomore year. He finished sixth at the Eaton Invitational as a junior and jumped five spots to the top of the podium his final season.
“It took a lot of hard work in the offseason. I just told myself I could do so much better. All the hard work paid off,” Schmidt said.
Bales, in his third season of wrestling, cracked Eaton’s starting lineup at last year’s tournament and finished fourth. Chapin, the Eagles’ lone four-year letterwinner, faced Chaminade Julienne junior David Frederick in the finals and was pinned in 2:24. As for Sittloh, Saturday was his third time seeing competition this season. He worked his way back after getting injured on the first day of practice.
The team title was the
Eagles’ first Eaton/Sam Ridder championship since 2016.
Other area wrestlers win- ning titles were Valley View’s Justin Mills (113), Oakwood’s A.J. Lewandowski (138), National Trail’s Peyton Lane (145) and Chaminade Julienne’s David Frederick (170) and Marquel Henry (220).
■ Springboro won the Mason Boyd Memorial Invi- tational behind three cham- pions last Saturday at Watkins Memorial High School. The Panthers scored 298.5 points to top runner-up Pick- erington North’s 180.5.
Mason Kleinberg’s run to the 138-pound title included pins in 12, 36, 15 and 29 seconds. Jacob Kowalski (195) and Wade Humphrey (220) also claimed titles for the Panthers.
■ Fairmont finished second at the Washington Court House bracket tournament with 168 points. Campbell County won with 212.5. The Firebirds had four individual champs with Bryton Miller (120), John Conley (132), Evan Overholser (145) and
Ali Salih (182).
■ Covington set a school record with nine individual placers at the Lima Central Catholic last Friday and Saturday. The Buccaneers finished fifth out of 41 schools.
Cael Vanderhorst had the Buccs’ highest finish with second place at 120 pounds. He lost to state placer Jake Manley of Otsego in the title match. Vanderhorst won his semifinal match by forfeit over state runner-up Max Shore of Miami East and pinned Waynedale stateplacer Seth Unkefer in the quarterfinals.
■ Miami East’s girls wrestling team has a pair of No. 1 ranked wrestlers in the americanwomenswrestling.com poll. Junior Olivia Shore is No. 1 at 111 pounds and junior Erin Hamby is No. 1 at 170. Among other area wrestlers, Sidney freshman Josie Davis is top ranked at 121.