The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Cougars capture CIT crown in Cincinnati
Hivnor is MVP, McCrone wins pin award
This time, the Lake Catholic wrestling team finished the deal.
After two straight years of finishing behind Cincinnati Elder in the Catholic Invitational Tournament, the Cougars came out as tournament champions of the statewide Catholic schools tournament.
Led by the tournament’s most valuable wrestler Cole
Hivnor (182 pounds) and Brendan McCrone, who won award for the most pins in the least amount of time, the Cougars won the 59th annual CIT on Jan. 19 in a tournament hosted by Cincinnati Elder.
Hivnor, McCrone (113), Nick Coreno (138) and Anthony Trivisonno (145) all came home with individual titles for Lake Catholic.
“All in all, we wrestled really well,” said Lake coach Scott Hivnor. “We were without our 152-pounder (Tommy
Ungrady). So we could have stretched (the lead) out a little more, but the guy who were there performed really well.”
For the second year in a row, the Hivnor and McCrone families took home the heavy hardware.
A year after Conor McCrone won his fourth CIT title and won MVW honors and Cole Hivnor won the award for the most pins in the least amount of time, Hivnor upped his award to the 2020 most valuable wrestler.
Conor’s brother, Brendan, took home the pin award.
“We just had to keep the trend going,” McCrone said with a smile.
McCrone had pins of 1:46, 1:18 and 1:10, then wrapped up his 113-pound title with a 3-2 win over St. Ignatius’ Johnny Novak.
McCrone was happy with the CIT championship, but far from satisfied.
“For me, I need to work on my feet more,” he said.
“I feel I can wrestle with anyone in the state no the mat. I can ride anyone. I can get out from anyone. I need to be better on my feet. Once that happens, there’s not a lot of people who can stop it, and you’ll see me in March (at the state tournament).”
Hivnor felt the same way about his CIT showing — happy but not satisfied.
Hivnor won by pin in his first two matches, took a 4-1 decision in the semis, then pinned Dayton Chaminade-Julienne’s Nicholas Machuca at the 4:46 mark for the 182-pound crown.
“There are still things I
need to improve on,” Hivnor said. “I’m not where I need to be for March. I still need to score more points. A 4-1 win in the semis — I know that kid is supposed to be good — but I need to score more points.”
Aside from the four tournament champions, others who placed for the Cougars were Brock Herman (second at 106), Tyler Seacrist (fourth at 126), Evan Smith (fifth at 132), Rob Boley (fifth at 160), Simon Taraska (second at 170), Owen Weaver (fourth at 195) and Danny Morgan (sixth at 220).
Next up for the Cougars
is a rugged field at the Wadsworth Grizzly Invitational tournament on Jan. 25.
There the Cougars will face a lineup that includes Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, Ashland, Aurora, Brunswick, CVCA, Findlay, Kenston, North Canton Hoover, Mason, Olentangy Liberty, Parkersburg (W.Va.), Perry, St. Paris Graham, Troy Christian and Wadsworth.
“Yeah, Wadsworth is really, really good,” said Coach Hivnor of the GIT fied. “This is going to be a meatgrinder. They call it the toughest one-day tournament in the state of Ohio.”