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Norton senior Mike Rutherford finished fourth at last weekend's state wrestling meet. He is pictured here at the PTC Championships earlier this year.
It was a rough past week for Portage Trail Conference basketball teams. The three remaining girls basketball teams all lost in the district rounds. The most surprising was a one-point loss by the Mogadore Wildcats to Cuyahoga Heights in the Creston Division IV District championship. Mogadore was haunted by a five-point second quarter that proved to be the Wildcats' undoing.
The Ravenna Ravens and Norton Panthers were no match for either Walsh Jesuit or Archbishop Hoban, with both teams losing by at least 25 points.
On the boys side, eight of the 10 remaining PTC teams couldn’t survive the week. Of those eight teams, two won sectional titles. Mogadore and the Windham Bombers both made it to the semifinal game in the Division IV Warren District, but fell one game short of facing each other for a District title. Tuesday night, Mogadore lost to the second-seeded Maplewood Rockets 49-29 and the Bombers fell to the top-seeded Mathews Mustangs 76-42.
That leaves just two PTC teams left in the boys basketball playoffs.
The East Canton Hornets (22-0) continue to ride an undefeated season into the Salem Division III District championship game. The Hornets have squeaked by both Youngstown Ursuline and St. Thomas Aquinas to make it to the championship game. The Hornets beat Ursuline by just three points and Aquinas by four points. East Canton isn’t foreign to earning close victories this season. But the Hornets have a winning formula with point guard Zell Bradley distributing the ball and Ryan Burfield’s touch shooting the ball.
Now the Hornets play the Campbell Memorial Red Devils. Memorial has taken the opposite approach in their two playoff games. First the Red Devils beat Canton Central Catholic 75-39 and then East Palestine 61-43. Of course, there’s one other thing Memorial has done differently as well -- losing three of their 22 games. The two teams square off Friday at Salem High School for the right to be called district champion.
In the Metro division, Kent Roosevelt remains the sole survivor. The Rough Riders won a sectional championship by defeating the Hudson Explorers 51-49 and the Stow Bulldogs 38-37 in an overtime contest.
Now Kent faces the stiffest test so far with the top-seeded Twinsburg Tigers. Cameron Black II and the rest of the Rough Riders will try to knock off their third straight Northeast Ohio Conference foe Thursday night.
The Tigers should prove to be a much stiffer test with Jon Harris, Doug Talentino and a cast of talented players. Kent will counter with Black, Collin Kane and Marcus Wright.
Grapplers cap off year
Yet another wrestling season has come to a close with the five Summit County PTC schools sending six wrestlers to Columbus. Three of the six wrestlers made the final podium.
The Coventry Comets sent three grapplers to the state championship. At 135 pounds, senior Randy Henline became a three-time state finalist. After finishing fifth the last two years, Henline lost his opening match. The senior, who entered the tournament undefeated this year, bounced back to win out and earn a third-place finish. Teammates Rusty Lockhart (152) and Beau Cross (189) each won a bout in Columbus, but came up short of the podium.
The Norton Panthers sent two wrestlers to Columbus and both walked onto the final podium. Mike Rutherford (285) earned a fourth-place finish and Jordan Westfall (125) came in eighth place.
Woodridge’s Zach Bickel (140) was the Bulldogs' only state qualifier, but the senior had a tough weekend, losing his first two matches.
Bowlers wrap season at championship
The Ohio High School Bowling Championships were held last Friday at the Shawnee Lanes in Chillicothe. While the local presence at the championship wasn’t strong there were some inidivduals that stood out.
A pair of Kent Roosevelt Rough Riders were among four bowlers from the local area to break a total score of 600 in three games, placing them in the top 30. Tyler Jastromb bowled games of 244, 232 and 145 for a total score of 621. That score was good enough to place Jastromb in a tie for 18th place. Teammate Brandon Klembus tallied scores of 247, 175 and 179 for a total of 601, good enough to earn a tie for 29th place.
The other local bowlers among the leaders were Ellet’s Joe Wittman and Stow’s Tyler Meredith. Wittman finished in 14th place and Meredith placed himself in 28th place.