Mount Vernon News

Loudonville wins Gribble’s Classic

LOUDONVILLE — The Loudonville High School wrestling team clinched its own 14th annual Gribble’s IGA Classic on Saturday with 290 points. The Redbirds dominated the field, defeating second place River View by 82 points. Eleven of the team’s 13 wrestlers placed on their home mats.

“It was a good way for the kids to go out; we have a lot of seniors this year. We didn’t have a good week last week so we talked a lot about going out on a good note,” said Loudonville head coach Steve Furlong. “This was the last time the seniors were going to wrestle here so we talked about how the underclassman needed to step up so the seniors could go out on a high note.”

Fredericktown placed eighth, scoring 100 points.

“I think they did really well. They had some real tough competition,” said Fredericktown coach Ben Householder. “The competition level was a lot higher than I had expected, but all in all, as a whole we did pretty good. The kids wrestled a lot of state-qualified kids and did real well against them.”

The Freddies’ Eric Blount won the 160 weight class over Loudonville’s Andy Reidenbach. Blount started out the day not feeling well, but was able to come back and perform in the championship match.

“I guess it was just all mental. I wasn’t really into it this morning and this afternoon, there was a lot of hype in the match before. I guess I just got fired up,” said Blount.

Fredericktown’s Corey Weiss placed second in the 125 class to Norwayne’s Kyle Schafer. In the 135-pound weight class, Stephan Lapointe of Loudonville upset undefeated Brett Mellow of River View. In that same class, Fredericktown’s Jeremy Howerton placed fourth, and Brennan Goeppinger placed fourth at 171.

“Our team is awesome this year. I think it is one of the best teams we have had in Loudonville for some time now,” said Lapointe. “Hearing how good this kid was, it makes me feel really good about my potential. Winning it in this gym it just awesome. It’s just memories.”

Loudonville’s Ryan Thatcher took first place in the 152 weight class over sixth-ranked J.D. Smyers of Norwayne.

In the 145-pound class, teammates Chris Lapointe and Clay Edmonson of Loudonville wrestled each other for third-place bragging rights. Lapointe walked away with the win.

“It was just a great collective team effort today. From the wrestlers to the coaches, everybody that ran the tournament, it was just a great day for these kids,” said Furlong.

Other first-place finishers for the Redbirds were Jon Huffman (189), and Jason Artripe (215). Both Loudonville and Fredericktown travel to Johnstown this weekend for the Mid-Buckeye Conference championships.

“We are looking to shoot for top four as a team. Loudonville is a pretty solid team and I think they will be one of the teams to look out for winning the MBC, said Householder.

“Up and down the scale, it was just a good overall team effort. We are going to go in there (MBC) with the same expectations we have had each year — our goal is to win it,” said Furlong. “If we perform like we did today, we will have a good opportunity at it.”