Redbirds make it three in a row
JOHNSTOWN — The Loudonville Redbirds (271 points) took the 2007 Mid-Buckeye Conference wrestling crown for the third straight year, easily besting the field at Saturday’s MBC Tournament.
Loudonville coach Steve Furlong, whose team members did not get pinned during the tournament, couldn’t be happier with his team’s overall performance. “The last three rounds our kids wrestled real well,” said Furlong. “I am real proud of the kids because all of the seniors have won it as sophomores, juniors and seniors. I am just so happy and proud for them to win it again as a team.”
Redbirds’ individual weight class winners Jason Artrip (215 pounds), Ryan Thatcher (160), Andy Reidenbach (152), Scott Spreng (103) and 145-pounder Chris LaPointe led their team in a convincing win.
LaPointe, who defeated Utica’s Jared Strout, said, “I feel like my last kid I wrestled great, but my first kid, I kind of slacked. I had an OK day, I guess. I tried to save my best until last. I feel like the best is yet to come.”
Loudonville’s Eric McCaskey finish was runner-up in the heavyweight class, finishing second to Utica’s Nick Smith.
Last year’s heavyweight winner, Utica’s Scott Johnson, finished second to Artrip.
Blake Williams was second at 103 pounds for Utica, only losing to Spreng who pinned him in round three.
Along with Smith, 130-pound Kenny Poland and 112-pound Dylan Wheeler won in their weight classes for the second-place Redskins, who scored 192 team points.
Utica coach Mike Garven said, “The kids worked hard and we had a couple of kids out of the lineup today, but we wouldn’t have caught Loudonville.”
Wheeler finished ahead of Loudonville’s Randy Duncan while Poland defeated runner-up Stephen Doran of Northridge.
The Vikings, with only six wrestlers, made a very impressive fourth-place showing.
Leading the way for Northridge was Matt Wagner, who looked strong defeating Fredericktown’s Brennan Goeppinger, 7-5, in the final bout, to win the 171-pound class. Goeppinger finished second for the day.
Amazingly, Wagner broke the middle finger of his right hand in his first match of the day. After the trainer taped him up, he went on to finish the day with five wins, two pins and no losses.
Northridge coach Bill Perry said, “The trainer looked at it and said that he was 95 percent sure it was broken, so we are going on that for now.”
There was little doubt that Wagner was going to keep going — whether his finger was broken or not.
“He really wanted to keep going,” said Perry, “He is a senior and this is his last time. He had some trouble with that hand and, every time he touched something, it hurt — He was trying not to use it.”
For Wagner the pain had to swim upstream against his own adrenaline.
“I just took the pain and kind of went with it,” said Wagner, “When you get going, and maybe you have bruised ribs or your forearm hurts, when you feel the adrenaline rush you put all that out of your mind.”
Along with Wagner, Caleb Haught defeated Loudonville’s Spencer Burkepile to take the 119-pound class for Northridge.
Shade Miller took runner-up at 135 pounds for the Vikings. He was second to Chris Block of host Johnstown (third place, 173 points.)
Johnstown’s Tony Myers defeated Loudonville’s John Huffman to capture the 189-pound class. Myers’ teammate, freshman Scott Robinson, defeated Loudonville’s Matt Kaufman who won last year’s MBC title at 140 pounds.
Brad Todd, coach of host Johnstown said, “The guys came out hungry, they were ready to go and I am real proud of the way we wrestled. They all came out with a lot of heart and a lot of effort.”
Fredericktown (fifth place, 107.5 points) placed three of wrestlers second. Aside from Goeppinger, Eric Blount finished second at 160 for the Freddies.
Corey Weiss picked up his 100th career win making him the first Fredericktown wrestler to reach that plateau. Weiss finished runner up at 125 to Corey Douglass, who was the lone first-place finisher for East Knox (91 points.)
Douglass said, “I think I did pretty good overall. I was lucky to get first place. I thought that Corey Weiss was going to get first. All I have been doing is working out and getting my strength up. I’ve been running a lot and staying in condition.”
Centerburg High School’s top finisher, Alex Hudson, placed second at 152 pounds for the young Trojans.