COLUMBUS — Almost all area wrestlers advanced on the first day of the 2009 OHSAA High School Wrestling Championships, which started Thursday at Schottenstein Arena.
It was a mixed day for the Yellow Jackets on the mats as only one of their wrestlers will advance.
Mount Vernon’s Matt Belcher (Division I, 119 pounds) bested Alex Marzec of Toledo, St. Francis DeSales, 9-7 in his first state match and will advance.
“The first win feels really good,” said Belcher. “It gives me confidence for tomorrow. I think I pretty much controlled the match. I did pretty well on my feet. Aside from the head and arm that he caught two back points on, I think I did pretty well.”
His coach, Mount Vernon’s John Brown, said, “Matt did a real nice job. We knew coming in that their kid (Marzec) had a decent head lock so that was one thing that we wanted to be cautious of. He had a nice little lead and then got caught in the headlock. Matt ended up winning a hard-fought match. He wrestled real well.”
Belcher’s teammate Brent Kramp (Div. I, 135) lost his opener to Louden Gordon of Wadsworth, 4-1.
“He kept me tied up,” said Kramp. “I shoot better when I’m not tied up. I had a good shot in on him and I was getting ready to finish and he did a funky roll, caught me off guard and ended up scoring off that.”
“We got caught in our own moves,” said Brown. “The first time we lost points he got caught in a cradle he got tied up. We lost two more points in a reversal. We were just a hair away from getting two and he does that funky roll. We just didn’t catch the breaks."
Unfortunately, Kramp lost to Justin Yetzer of Mansfield Madison Comprehensive and was eliminated in the first round of the consolation bracket.
It was a good day for the area as a whole. Seven of nine area qualifiers will wrestle today.
Johnstown’s Chris Block (Div. III, 140) raised his record to 53-0 on his birthday, defeating Max Pennington of Delta, 17-1.
“It was a good match, my first one,” said Block, who placed at the state last year. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning for my next one. The first one’s always the hardest. I just wrestled like I know how to and everything came out like I wanted to.”
Block looked extremely confident before the match and was totally focused.
“The pressure was getting here undefeated,” said Block. “I am just trying to wrestle my best here. Everyone is great. Being here last year really helped that (nervousness) out. Last year, at my first match I was nervous. I didn’t know what to think walking out. This year, I knew what to expect, so it was different but I still had first match jitters for this one.”
Johnstown coach Brad Todd thinks that the best for Block is yet to come.
“That first one is always tough,” said Todd. “He looked pretty good. He was a little slow off the start. Once he got into his rhythm, he wrestled like he knows how. If he can keep that kind of flow and that momentum going, it will be a good state tournament for him.”
Block’s teammate, Keith Tanner (Div. III, 135) who has been sick with the flu for several days, defeated Eddie Sanders of Hamilton Badin, 8-7, in the consolation first round after losing his opener to Jeff Vitallo of Apple Creek, 16-2.
“I was tiring out but I kept thinking, ‘I need to win, I need to get out.’” said Tanner of his second match. “I needed the win. I needed to get out. He kept anticipating the whistle and that helped me out. You can’t anticipate the whistle or you get penalty points.”
Rodil Rodriguez (Div. III, 125) of Fredericktown lost to Eli Donahue of Tuslaw in his first match, but came back to narrowly defeat Jordan Smith of Delta in the first round of the consolation bracket, 5-4.
“Yes, it’s a nice win,” said Rodriguez. “I went out there and tried my hardest. I already lost the first one. I didn’t want to lose anymore. The second match was really long. All I could do was take him down. I got him on his back a couple of times. I thought I had some points, which I didn’t get. Nothing is easy here at the state. You have to work for what you want to get.”
Fredericktown coach Steve Herbst was as relieved as Rodriguez that he got his first win. “It was exciting. It was a great match,” said Herbst. “The kid was about six feet tall and deceptively strong. Rodil wrestled a really smart match and we are coming back tomorrow.”
Dylan Wheeler (Div. II, 125) of Utica was out-muscled by Nate Skonieczny of Cuyahoga Falls, 17-6, in the opening round, but came back in the first consolation round to defeat Napoleon’s Josh Lynch.
“I was real nervous going into this one because I didn’t want to go two-and-out,” said Wheeler. “I just went out there and stayed calm. I kept my head good and got out of tight situations. At the end of the third period, I rolled through when I needed to. I caught him again with one of my quick moves.”
Utica coach Mike Garven knows how to keep new state qualifiers like Wheeler focused.
“In your first year here, your first win is the hardest,” said Garven who has had 17 other state qualifiers as a coach. “Then they come easier. When you bring a wrestler in here for the first time, you just try to keep him from getting shell-shocked when they walk in the place.”
Loudonville’s Scott Spreng (Div. III, 112) who stood on the podium as a 103-pounder a year ago, defeated Adam Ankrom of Bloom Carroll in the first round consolation, 7-5, after he lost to Bryce Baker Mechanicsburg in his opening round match.
“It was a tough one,” said Spreng of that first match of the day. “He was really strong. I felt like I wrestled pretty well compare to how I finished last Saturday. I don’t know. My moves weren’t working to make my shots good enough and (Baker) took advantage of it.”
Loudonville coach Steve Furlong knew this first match would be tough.
“Scott wrestled a good kid,” said Furlong. “There’s only 16 left in the state in his weight class and his weight class is very, very deep. There’s 16 quality kids and he ran into a No. 1 from another district and this kid was a big, strong senior. (Baker) wrestled a good, solid match. Not to take anything away from Scott because Scott wrestled a good match as well, but (Baker) was a little bit better than us today.”
Mike Shepard (Div. III, 125) of Highland won his first state match, defeating Cody Burge of Creston Norwayne, 8-3, and will also advance.
“At the end, (Burge) tried a big move and I got him,” said Shepard. “I was already up 6-3 when he just went for a big move and I caught it. I never won a match at state, so I’m pretty happy.”
His teammate, Austin Kucera (Div. III, 171) was not so fortunate, losing to Kirby Acus of Reading, 3-2, and also to Geoff Hainline of Norwalk St. Paul, 9-1.
