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Maple Heights takes Dover mat championship
Coshocton’s Sean Collins pins Lake Catholic’s Danny Bryan at 130 pounds during
Saturday’s tournament at Dover.
After winning the Dover Invitational by 16 points last year, Maple Heights got
serious.
The Mustangs all but had things wrapped up heading into the finals and walked
away with another team title at the Dover Invitational wrestling tournament
Saturday.
Maple Heights, which finished with four individual champions, scored 311 points
to outdistance Marlington’s 219.
Harrison Central finished third with 204 points and Dover scored 190 to finish
fourth.
Lake Catholic (161), Massillon Jackson (160), Coshocton (142), Chardon (65),
McKinley (62) and Warren JFK (49) rounded out the team scoring.
Five area wrestlers won individual championships at the event, including two
from Harrison Central, two from Dover and one from Coshocton.
“This was a good tournament with some quality teams and some quality
individuals,” said Dover assistant coach Brian Bullock, filling in for Phil
Clinker, who left because of a family emergency. “We did OK, but we made some
mistakes. I guess this is a good time to make mistakes because it gives you
plenty of time to correct them.”
Keith Heldt repeated as an individual champion from Dover, winning the 171-pound
crown, while Mike Longacher followed with a title at 189.
Nick Risdon (125) and Rob Eddy (145) were champs for the Huskies, while Sean
Collins of Coshocton won the title at 130 pounds.
“We had an up-and-down day today,” said Harrison Central coach Todd Dunlap.
“We’d have a pretty good round and then a so-so round. But that’s going to
happen with a young team like this one. We don’t have any seniors, so we’re
going to take some bruises.”
Risdon won the first area title and it turned out to be an unlikely win.
Lake Catholic’s Dominic Randazzo was dominating the 125-pound title, but got
sloppy and lost after building a 11-1 lead.
Randazzo was looking to finish off Risdon with a pin, but ended up putting his
own shoulders on the mat with a little help from the Harrison Central wrestler.
“I guess I just got lucky in the end,” said Risdon, a returning state qualifier.
“I just saw his head and grabbed it. He was beating me pretty good up until
that.”
Collins didn’t wait until the end to decide his final at 130.
The Coshocton senior, an eighth-place finisher at the state tournament last
year, scored early and often in his final against Danny Bryan of Lake Catholic
and ended the match with a pin at 3:05.
“I had a pretty good day, but I need to work on my offense a little,” said
Collins, who set the single-season mark for victories at Coshocton last year
with 44. “I tensed up a little early in the finals, but then I relaxed.”
Eddy’s win, was also convincing. He gave up an early takedown to Deontay
Tolliver of Maple Heights, but dominated after that, winning a 17-2 technical
fall.
“I didn’t like giving up those early points,” said Eddy, a junior. “That just
made me work harder to get back on top. I was able to keep attacking and that
made the difference.”
Heldt, who won the title at 189 pounds last year, edged Harrison Central’s Ian
Howell 3-2 for the crown at 171. Howell was the defending 171-pound champion at
the tournament.
“I had a lot of close matches last year, but as long as I win them, that’s OK,”
Heldt said. “He’s a good kid and I’ve had close matches with him before.”
Longacher took a big, early lead against Maple Heights’ Fred Robertson at 189
and won a 9-8 decision after being up 5-0 in the first minute of the match.
“He had that crowd-pleasing throw early, but he went to the well a little too
often,” Bullock said of Longacher’s match. “But he battled him and got the
victory.”
Harrison Central’s Darin Heavilin finished second at 103, while Dover’s Bobby
Gilmore had a great day stopped in the finals.
Gilmore went 4-0 early with four pins, but lost a 9-1 decision to eventual MVP
Erik Schott of Marlington, who also had four first-period pins going into the
final.
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