Fallsnewspress.com - Falls grapplers survive loaded sectional field

by Michael Leonard

Sports Editor

When one calls as tournament "the sectional from hell," ones know there's a chance an entire team may be eliminated.

Falls wrestling coach Tim Humbert declared the Division I sectional tournament infernal weeks ago.

Thus, he was overjoyed to see his wrestlers coming through such an unholy challenge.

Falls finished seventh at Medina with 116 points and was able to advance five wrestlers to the Division I district meet at Ashland. The top four finishers in each weight class at Medina advanced.

As expected, Wadsworth dominated the team race with 303 points.

Humbert said the difference between his team's effort at sectionals and the Northeast Ohio Conference Tournament was night and day.

"As frustrated as we were at the NOCs, I would say that's as high as we were coming out of sectionals," Humbert said. "Coming out with [Collin] Taylor and [Scott] Hysell taking first, that was awesome."

Hysell, who Humbert called his most improved wrestler, scored the championship at 125 pounds. Hysell slowed the pace down against Brecksville's Dylan Good to win 3-2 and earn his first district berth.

"He's got a lot of wrestling knowledge," Humbert said of Hysell. "The whole thing for him was his maturity level. Sometimes in the past when he wrestled guys he thought were better than him, he'd shut down. Now he's got confidence."

Wrestling at 130 pounds, Taylor came in looking to improve upon his fourth-place finish from last year at Medina. He did just that, avenging a loss to Medina's Matt Hammer in the finals with an 8-4 win.

"He was definitely focused," Humbert said. "Hammer had pinned him at the NOC in 28 seconds, but I really felt Taylor had the advantage going into that match because of that loss. He wanted it more."

Falls' senior captain also had a chance to win his bracket, but for the third time this year, 160-pounder Tyler Tesny lost in the finals.

Tesny made his way to the finals before losing 12-3 to Wadsworth's Sheldon Brandenburg -- a loss which Humbert said had Tesny fuming for days.

"Sheldon is one of those easy-going kids without a lot of muscle; Tesny went out there to beat him up," Humbert said. "Slickness overcame strength this time. He took advantage of everything Tyler did. He was so upset after that."

At 135 pounds, sophomore Connor McMahon got through with a third-place finish in a loaded bracket.

McMahon dropped a 15-5 loss to Wasdsworth's Lounden Gordon in the semifinals.

"We sometimes get on Connor for funky wrestling, but Gordon is just Spiderman sometimes," Humbert said. "He caught Connor a couple of time off of shots Connor made. He's fine, though."

McMahon rebounded by defeating Copley's Jon Marshall 9-3 and took third with an 8-6 win over Strongsville's Eric Books.

Falls' final qualifier was 171-pounder Tyler Eastman, who Humbert said wrestled "a fantastic tournament" to take third place. After taking a 4-0 loss to Copley's Sam Wheeler in the semifinals, Eastman came back with a 4-0 win over Brecksville's Andrew Barr and then took third with a 5-2 win over Strongsville's Clay Angeloff.

Falls also had senior 119-pounder JR Wiezbiski finish in fifth place.

"Probably our biggest disappointment was senior Dylan King, just because we thought he would be able to get out," Humbert said. "He wasn't on and he didn't make it out. Here's a kid who's just been such a great leader for us. He wanted everybody to do well."

Tough as Medina was, Humbert acknowledged things weren't going to get any easier at Ashland. The district tournament was scheduled to take place Feb. 26 and 27, but results weren't available at press time.

The top four finishers in each weight class at Ashland advance to the Division I state meet, which will begin March 4 at Value City Arena in Columbus.

E-mail: mleonard@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3113