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Crestwood wrestling coach Dave Wrobel (kneeling center) speaks with his team following its sweep of Coventry and Norton on Thursday night.
BRIMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Ohio – When the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division league schedule kicked off Thursday night the biggest news wasn’t defending champion Crestwood beating last year’s runner-up Coventry 41-26 in the first match of the night. It wasn’t even the Red Devils going perfect by also beating Norton.
No the biggest event was happening across the gym from the champions where host Field was putting together its own perfect night.
“Having two bigs wins like this – something that this program never had before – it sets us up to continue to grow and develop as a unit,” Field coach Joe Retherford said. “At the end of the day we got the wins that we needed.”
While Crestwood was thumping Norton 53-21, the Comets and Falcons were locked in a back-and-forth match that went down to the last bout between 106 pounders Vince DeJulius of Field and Drake Skipper of Coventry.
The Comets five upperweights had trimmed a 31-7 deficit down to just 31-28 going into the last pairing in which Retherford was impressed with DeJulius’ composure.
“I just wanted to keep things calm, and he actually cracked a couple of jokes right on the mat,” Retherford said. “He’s a great kid and he went out and did what he had to do.”
DeJulius came out with a fantastic performance earning a major decision on Skipper to seal a 35-28 victory. Earlier in the night the Falcons beat the Panthers 49-27.
DeJulius led a group of five double winners for Field which also included 138-pound Zach Ladich and 145-pound T.J. Fox who both recorded two pins. Fox was a state finalist last season. The last two double winners were Logan Lott and Jimmy Kubitza, who both had one pin.
“Our lower weights came up really big. They stepped on the mat ready to go,” Retherford said. “These kids know what they want and that’s to win and take control of the match as early as possible.”
But back to the defending champs, who proved that anybody trying to take their title from them better be ready for a struggle. After losing quality wrestlers like state champion Cody Ryba, Adam Horovitz, Mitchel Porter, Cheney Matarrese and Joey Monroe, most wrestling fans expected Crestwood to fall back to the pack.
Just one problem, somebody forgot to tell the Red Devils. Crestwood won 18 of a possible 27 matches on the night and added a forfeit. The Red Devils won 11 matches by pin between the two contests.
“It was a nice start to the dual meet season,” Crestwood coach Dave Wrobel said. “It was solid all around. There were some kids that stepped up that were in the background the last couple of years.”
After the first night of the season it certainly appears that the Crestwood and Falcons are on a collision course for each other. That meeting won’t happen until the middle of January as Field is Crestwood's last Metro Division opponent before the season ends.
Double winners for Crestwood were Jake Zemaitis (106), Conner Nemec (113), Dylan Kager (132/138), Nick Fejedelem (138/145), Sean Keefe (160), Rick Kollman (170) and Kenn Jackson (182/195).
The Coventry lineup was without four returning district qualifiers in Zak Hartley, Shay Sharp, Anthony Meckley and Ryan Norton, but coach Keith Shinn doesn’t buy that as an excuse for his team not being ready to compete.
“We just didn’t come tonight ready to wrestle,” Shinn said. “We didn’t match up well. We've got a couple kids out of the lineup. That being said I don’t deal well with excuses.”
As the Comets prepare to move through their season, the return of those district qualifiers will only help to strengthen Coventry to make a run later in the year.
Shinn did get strong performances from some of the team’s stalwarts like Jesse Gunter, Brandon Rang, Dillon Headrick and Travis Gosnell -- all of whom won twice.
Norton had three double winners in Tyler Smith, Bradley Haramis and John Glas. Haramis and Glas, the Panthers’ two heavyweights each had two pins.