MOUNT VERNON — The Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets won four weight classes to finish second as a team in the 2008 Wazie Wrestling Classic at Mount Vernon High School on Saturday.
Mount Vernon’s team score of 441 points was only bested by Mason High School’s 581. The Jackets were led by a quartet of first-place finishers — Mason Smith, Charlie Hill, Dane Cullen and Ian Mizer.
“It’s nice to have four people going for first and four people getting first,” said Mount Vernon coach John Brown. “I thought it was a pretty impressive outing. We talked about staying in good position and, I think, that won a lot of matches for us. Dane opened up a lot offensively. Charlie was much better on his feet. Mason did a great job. I was real pleased. We lost a whole week of the season training but it didn’t show much. They’re a lot more mature and goal-oriented this year.”
The Loudonville Redbirds finished fifth as a team with 415 points.
“It wasn’t too bad for our first time out,” said Loudonville coach Steve Furlong. “We got the first place with Dylan (Bender). We lost a lot of close matches, which is something I hate to do. When you lose a close one, that means that the other guy wanted it just a bit more. We didn’t get off the bottom very well. We need to work on our bottom wrestling. For it being our first tournament on the season, having only one senior and being the only Division III school, I think we did all right.”
It was Mason, however, that gave Loudonville, Mount Vernon and all the other schools the toughest challenge, taking first in six weight classes on its way to the team championship. Mason finished 11th in the state last season.
Mason coach Craig Murnan, whose team walked off with its second Wazie Classic title said, “This is a really good tournament to open up with because our kids, each get five matches. We get to see where we are, see the mistakes and get to see what we need to do as a coaching staff.”
Smith took the 125 class with a win over Clayton Moneybrake of Eaton.
“The Dayton and Cincinnati areas usually have some good programs,” said Smith. “It’s always a challenge wrestling schools like Eaton and Mason.”
At 130, Hill took first for the Yellow Jackets defeating Travanté Pitts of Hilliard Darby.
“I wrestled him last year for third place at district,” said Hill. “It was good to see him and wrestle him again and do a bit better. He’s a bit stronger, but I opened up a bit more on offense.”
Cullen was tops at 215 pounds as he defeated Hilliard Darby’s Sufan El-Gourashi while Loudonville’s Jake Arnholt finished third at that weight class.
“It was real tough, today,” said Cullen, who faced El-Gourashi for the first time. “I was supposed to face another kid, but he hurt his shoulder. I was hoping to face the varsity guy, but (El-Gourashi) was a lot tougher than I thought.”
Mizer defeated Eaton’s Nathan Islamousky to take the heaveyweight class for the Jackets. Mizer’s teammate, Matt Belcher, defeated Jordan Miskel of Hilliard Darby to take third at 119 pounds.
Dylan Bender gave Loudonville its only first place, defeating Chris Kimmel of Eaton to take the 145-pound class. At 103 pounds, Brandon Allison of Loudonville lost to Brian Luria Mason in the championship final. Dylan Pauley of Mount Vernon took third.
In the 112-pound class, Loudonville’s Scott Spreng, a Division III state placer last year, sustained an elbow to the eye early in the tournament, but made it all the way to the championship final, where he lost to Mason’s Jeremy Artrip — a state placer last year in Division I. Spreng just took finishing second to a DI wrestler as a learning experience.
“I had some good matches — good opponents and all,” said Spreng. “I felt good, but there’s a lot of stuff that I need to work on. (Artrip) went to state last year and I’m sure he’s going back this year — he was tough. That’s why we go to these tournaments. We’re the only Division III team here. We go to these tough tournaments to get better.”
“It was a confidence builder for us,” said Furlong. “When you wrestle against bigger schools, you get more quality guys to choose from and better matchups. We learned a lot about our team, today. Come Monday, we’ll be working on our bottom wrestling.”
