The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Berkshire wins sectional, wants more
Two outta three ain’t bad. In fact, it’s pretty darn good.
And there’s more to come from the Berkshire wrestling team.
At season’s start, the Badgers set three goals — to go undefeated in duals, to win the Chagrin Valley Conference Tournament and to win a sectional championship.
While the undefeated dual season didn’t work out, the Badgers won the CVC Valley Division title a few weeks back and then reached another goal on Feb. 27 when they won the Division III sectional tournament that they hosted.
So what’s better than that?
Qualifying a bunch of guys to the state tournament.
Check back in next week this time to see how that goal goes.
“We’re happy, but we’re not satisfied,” said Coach Adam Lange after his team qualified 11 wrestlers to next week’s district at Garfield Heights. “I’m proud
of our guys. They wrestled their butts off. But you always want more. Now the goal is to get as many as we can to state. The sky’s the limit for these guys.”
There is no championship trophy given out for sectional champs, but the electricity emitted from the nearby Berkshire wrestling room showed that hardware didn’t matter.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but it’s electric,” said senior 220-pound Aidan Sayre, a first-time district qualifier. “Everybody’s hyped up and excited. It feels more like a family than a team, really.”
Berkshire crowned three champions in Alex Munn (138), Josh Brown (152) and Lucas Stoddard (182). Second-place finishers were plentiful — Colin Herng (106), Justin Heiden (120), Johnny Heiden (132) and JJ Perrin (195).
Stoddard said the momentum started in the morning session when weight classes 106-through-145 where all six Berkshire wrestlers qualified for the district level.
Come the afternoon session, the adrenaline kept pumping.
That included from Stoddard himself, who improved his record this season to 41-0 with a cradle pin over fellow returning state-qualifier Jerry Rose from Cardinal.
“Jerry’s a tough wrestler. Lotta respect for Jerry,” Stoddard said. “I just found (the cradle). I caught it and I knew I wasn’t gonna give it up.”
Berkshire piled up 223.5 points to outdistance Tuslaw (199.5) and the rest of the 14-team field.
Cardinal was third with 150 points and six district qualifiers. Austin Strever (152) and Rose paced the Huskies with second-place finishes.
Kirtland finished in fourth place and will send eight wrestlers to the Garfield Heights District, including champions Will Davidson (120) and Anthony
Gencarelli (195).
In one of the tournament’s most anticipated matches, Gencarelli majored Berkshire’s Perrin. Gencarelli got three firstperiod takedowns, then rode out Perrin for most of the second period to wear down the high-octane 195 from Burton.
The two hadn’t met earlier this season. Kirtland missed the CVC Tournament on COVID protocol, while Perrin was at 220 for a dual with Kirtland.
“I’ve been waiting for this match,” Gencarelli said “I was pumped. I was ready. I wrestled with everything I had.”
VASJ’s top finisher was Josh Longstreet, a thirdplace finisher at 195.
Hawken was led by 113-pound champion Patrick Reineke and thirdplace finisher Jacob Hlifka at 138.