Fallsnewspress.com - Walsh wrestlers win districts, send five to states

by Michael Leonard

Sports Editor

Akron -- By all accounts, the Walsh Jesuit wrestling team had a very solid district tournament at Akron Firestone Feb. 26 and 27.

The Warriors won the tournament with 134.5 points, winning a dogfight for the title with Aurora (124) and Crestwood (118). Walsh also sent five wrestlers to the state meet, two more than last year.

However, Walsh co-head coach Joe Boardwine seemed like he wanted to get a few more.

"You've got to be on all the time here because you're whole season is on the line," Boardwine said. "It's hard for you to have someone lose in overtime and not make states."

It was far from all bad news for the Warriors as junior 125-pounder Johnni DiJulius and sophomore 130-pounder Nate Skonieczny were their usual dominant selves.

DiJulius dominated his bracket, scoring a pin and two technical falls on his way to the final. In the finals, DiJulius faced a rematch from sectionals as he faced Kenston's Tre Smith.

Smith scored the first takedown, but DiJulius would dominate from there and score the pin at 4:35.

"I just feel like I want to do the best I can," DiJulius said. "I hope we can win the team title because everyone's been wrestling well."

Meanwhile, Skonieczny scored a pair of pins to start the tournament and beat West Branch's Jake Mellinger 13-5 to reach the finals.

Skonieczny then showed off his strong style in the final, scoring a 13-3 win over Field's TJ Fox.

"It feel great," Skonieczny said. "My whole goal is to win states this year."

"They both looked great," Boardwine said of his two champions. "Neither of them looked out of postion all weekend."

Junior 140-pounder John Novak also earned a return trip to states, as he looked to improve on last year's finish, where he was off the podium.

Boardwine said Novak still is giving up some weight to his opponents, as his natural weight class is 130 pounds. However, Novak managed to take third place at 140, beating Woodridge's Zach Bickel 6-3 in the third-place match.

"He is finally starting to grow into the weight class," Boardwine said. "He came on strong in the second half of the season."

After injuries short-circuited his run last year, senior 171-pounder Dillon Magalski earned his second trip to states by taking third at Firestone. Magaliski pinned Alliance's Alex Oesch in 2:08 for third-place.

"He had a good match in the semifinal against [Kemore's Cody] Lamberg," Boardwine said. "The important thing is that he got back down there."

Walsh's lone first-time state qualifier is junior 189-pounder Anthony Melchiorre. He finished fourth at 189 and booked his place in Columbus with a 5-2 win over Benedictine's Joe Ward.

The disappointment of the tournament came from the other Skonieczny twin.

Sophomore 135-pounder Nic Skonieczny looked in good shape as he reached the semifinals, beating Bucthel's Jarren Watts 15-0 and Crestwood's Adam Horovitz 4-2.

Skonieczny gave a good account of himself in the semifinals, falling 3-0 to Coventry All-Ohioan Randy Henline.

However, Skonieczny's consolation semifinal against West Branch's JP Hoopes left Boardwine fuming. Up 3-1 in the final period, Skonieczny gave up an escape and a stalling call to tie the match at 3-3 and send it to overtime.

In overtime, Boardwine said Skonieczny was the aggressor and nearly got the winning takedown several times, only to have Hoopes get the takedown and win 5-3.

"It's not one thing, it's seven things that kept him from winning that match," Boardwine said. "I don't even know how the officials made the calls they did. They were taking a hardline with Nic on out of bounds."

Skonieczny salvaged fifth place with a 3-2 win over Horovitz.

Walsh's final district qualifer, freshman 103-pounder Cesare Piermarini, finished 1-2 at Firestone.

E-mail: mleonard@recordpub.com

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