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[Muahahaha]

Does anyone have the results of the Van Buren Invite?

[evilscotsman]

VAN BUREN — Elmwood senior Devin Uzelac set up a down-to-the-wire finish at the 37th Van Buren Invitational Saturday night.
Uzelac pinned Carey’s Marcus O’Flaherty in just 54 seconds in their 220-pound title bout as the Royals were locked in a battle for first place with Northern Buckeye Conference rivals Eastwood and Otsego for the team title in the 27-team event.
He knew what was at stake.
“I knew I needed to get a pin for us to have a chance to win,” said Uzelac, who has bounced back nicely after missing all of last season with a knee injury suffered in a football game early in his junior year.
“I was expecting a pretty tough match but when we first locked up, I felt like I might be able to throw him. I got it and took him right to his back for the pin.”
Uzelac’s win in the final pushed his season record to 23-5, and more importantly, gave his team a chance to win the tournament as teammate Jack Hagemyer was on deck to wrestle Ottawa-Glandorf’s Shaun Gibson for fifth place at 285 pounds.
Heading into the final bout, Eastwood (175½) led Otsego (174½) and Elmwood (173) in the team standings. A win by Hagemyer would move the Royals past Otsego. A win by fall, technical fall or major decision would give Elmwood the championship.
Never was there so much interest in a fifth-place heavyweight match, as coaches from all three teams were down near the mat.
Hagemyer gave it everything he had against Gibson, a two-time district qualifier for the Titans. He even put the O-G wrestler on his back for a few seconds with the bigger and stronger Gibson bench pressing Hagemyer off of him at one point. In the end, though, Gibson escaped with a 12-8 victory.
There were no complaints about the match from veteran Elmwood coach Dave Lee.
“It didn’t come down to that last match. We had plenty of opportunities to get those points we needed from everyone on the team throughout the weekend,” Lee said. “I told the guys we expected to finish in the top five here and we were hoping to end up in the top three and we were third. That’s kind of what we expected.”
Brandon Pennington (132) and Dylan Hall (152) were third for the Royals while teammates Dylan Benschoter (138), Jace Grossman (170) and Griffin Sperry (182) were fourth. Noah Baker added a fifth-place effort at 160 pounds.
REDMEN MAKE A MOVE: Fostoria rebounded from a difficult first day with a solid second-day performance.
The Redmen were in last place with just two points after Friday night. They leapfrogged 11 other teams with some solid consolation round wrestling to finish 16th with 61 points.
It was a pretty remarkable performance considering where the Redmen started the day.
“We had some very difficult draws that first day and we didn’t wrestle particularly well,” said first-year Fostoria head coach Brandon Distel.
“We’re really young and I thought the guys really came back and did a great job today. They wrestled hard and had to win some tough matches to place today.”
Austin Struble (120), Xavier Galvan (152) and Gabe Thompson (182) came through the consolations to finish in fifth place while teammate Lance Smith (145) was sixth.
TIGER TIME: North Baltimore had one wrestler earn a spot on the awards stand.
Freshman David Patterson put together a strong tournament for the Tigers to end up fourth in the 113-pound weight class.
DEVILS’ DAY: Carey ended up fifth in the team standings thanks to finalist performances from Jevyn Pratt (106), Zach Brodman (160) and Marcus O’Flaherty (220).
Jon Racheter (195) finished third and Justin Schlack (113) and Kyler Dyer (138) were sixth for the Blue Devils, who head into this week’s Division III regional team tournament as the No. 1 seed in their sub-region.

[evilscotsman]

VAN BUREN — There were dominating performances and thrillers in the finals of the 37th Van Buren Invitational.
Carey’s Jevyn Pratt and Chet Swartzmiller dominated their finals matches and Liberty-Benton’s Tyler Sarreshteh collected his third VBI title in heart-stopping fashion to highlight the day for area wrestlers Saturday night.
They weren’t the only area wrestlers on the top step of the awards stand though.
Van Buren senior Chance Sonnenberg took care of business to win the 170-pound championship while Elmwood’s Devin Uzelac and Liberty-Benton’s Grant Kinsinger recorded pins in the finals to win at 220 and 285 pounds respectively.
In addition, it was one of the most evenly-matched and closest-contested team races ever in the tournament’s long history.
In fact, the team race went down to the final match of the night as Eastwood (175½) managed to edge Northern Buckeye Conference rivals Otsego (174½) and Elmwood (173) for the team title. Gibsonburg was also in position to win it late as the Golden Bears finished with 168 points. Carey rounded out the top five with 152½ points.
The road to Sarreshteh’s third VBI championship was anything but easy. He won his 132-pound semifinal with a physical 8-6 win over Gibsonburg’s Hugo Villareal before tangling with Otsego’s Buddy Limes in the title match.
“I expected a tough match and since I was going for my third VBI title, I was pretty nervous,” said L-B’s senior two-time state placewinner.
“When I saw my future coach (Tiffin University’s Joey Simcoe) up in the stands I was even more nervous. I didn’t want to lose.”
Sarreshteh came through.
He earned a first-period takedown to take a 2-1 lead against Limes. But the Otsego senior countered with an escape and takedown of his own to lead 4-3 entering the third and final period.
Limes came oh so close to putting Sarreshteh on his back in the third period with a cradle. The referee had three separate one counts as Sarreshteh rolled on, and off, his back. Limes was unable to keep him on his back for the required two seconds needed to score nearfall points.
Sarreshteh scored a two-point reversal and stayed in control despite several last-second scrambles to finish off a 5-4 win.
“That was a fun kind of match. I love to wrestle those,” Sarreshteh said with a smile. “Even when I was down in the third period I wasn’t really worried. I just waited for an opening and took it.”
Pratt and Swartzmiller, meanwhile, took charge of their matches from the opening whistle.
Pratt, who scored a pin in 1:25 over Otsego’s Clay Edwards in the semifinals, was a hammer from the top position as he scored a 9-0 win over Fremont St. Joseph’s Nate Vasquez for the 106-pound crown.
“It was hard to believe I was the first seed. He was ranked a few spots ahead of me and now I’ll probably move up,” said Pratt,a sophomore who improved his record to 22-1.
“I had a tough time making weight this week and I never expected to beat him that bad. I thought it was going to be a very tough match.”
It was a big weekend for Swartzmiller in more ways than one.
The Hopewell-Loudon senior earned his 100th career win in the 113-pound semifinals with an 8-5 win over Swanton’s Dylan Cook.
In the title match, he put on a clinic against Wayne Trace freshman Marcus Rassman who came into the match with a 24-2 record. He scored three takedowns and a two-point nearfall for an 8-2 lead after the first period. Swartzmiller added an escape, takedown and three-point nearfall to push his lead to 14-3 after two periods and finished Rassman off in the third period for a 19-3 win by technical fall.
After my semifinal match I thought I was going to have a real doozy in the finals,” Swartzmiller said. “We watched him in his matches and the coaches and I noticed he always led with his left leg. I’m a single-leg takedown guy so I took advantage of that. I just wanted to be focused so that I had crisp and clean technique and I don’t think that match in the finals could have went much better.”
Sonnenberg got his long-awaited VBI title after runner-up finishes each of the last two years. He recorded three straight second-period pins to reach the title bout against Mohawk’s Cole Draper.
After a scoreless first period, Sonnenberg slapped a cradle on Draper nearly getting a pin before settling for a 3-point nearfall. The two-time state placer whose only losses this season came at the prestigious Walsh Jesuit Ironman Tournament tacked on a takedown in the third period for a 5-2 win to raise his record 26-2.
Uzelac locked up with Carey’s Marcus O’Flaherty and tossed him to his back for a pin in just 54 seconds to win the lone title of the weekend for the Royals.
Kinsinger ended up on top of Bluffton’s Blake Sampson in a back and forth battle at heavyweight, scoring a pin in a time of 4:35. Sampson reached the finals in dramatic fashion by pulling off the upset of the weekend when he pinned unbeaten and top-seeded Isaac Sexton of Van Buren with a head-and-arm throw in just 52 seconds in the semifinal round.
Otsego’s Trent Soto won his second straight VBI title and claimed the tournament’s Most Valuable Wrestler award when he pinned previously unbeaten Jarrod Bowman of Arcadia in a time of 4:39 to win the 138-pound weight class.
Riverdale’s Mitchel Matheny also reached the finals but dropped a tight 4-3 decision to Eastwood’s Mitchell Davidson at 145 pounds.
TEAM STANDINGS
1, Eastwood 175½. 2, Otsego 174½. 3, Elmwood 173. 4, Gibsonburg 168. 5, Carey 152½. 6, Swanton 152. 7, Wayne Trace 147½. 8, Van Buren 98. 9, Mohawk 90. 10, Hopewell-Loudon 87½. 11, Liberty-Benton 73½. 12, Delphos Jefferson 71½. 13, Bluffton 70. 14, Allen East 66½. 15, Riverdale 64½. 16, Fostoria 61. 17, Fremont St. Joseph 57. 18, Ada & Lakota 53. 20, Columbus Grove & Ottawa-Glandorf 52. 22, Arcadia 48. 23, North Baltimore 24. 24, Seneca East 20½. 25, Lincolnview 17. 26, McComb 12. 27, Cory-Rawson 5.
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES
106 — Pratt (Car) maj. dec. Vasquez (FSJ) 9-0
113 — Swartzmiller (H-L) tech. fall Rassman (WT) 19-3
120 — Clemens (WT) dec. Moore (Swan) 6-2
126 — Goeltzenleucher (WT) dec. Reisinger (Swan) 7-4
132 — Sarreshteh (L- dec. Limes (Ots) 5-4
138 — Soto (Ots) pinned J. Bowman (Arc) 4:39
145 — Davidson (East) dec. Matheny (Riv) 4-3
152 — Sutton (East) pinned Jaso (Lak) 2:16
160 — Tercha (Ots) dec. Brodman (Car) 9-4
170 — Sonnenberg (VB) dec. Draper (Moh) 5-2
182 — Foust (DJ) dec. Henline (Gib) 8-2
195 — Jaso (Gib) dec. Rainey (Swan) 8-4
220 — Uzelac (Elm) pinned O’Flaherty (Car) :54
285 — Kinsinger (L- pinned Sampson (Blu) 4:35
THIRD PLACE
106 — Edwards (Ots) dec. Hahn (East) 7-3
113 — Cook (Swan) maj. dec. Patterson (NB) 11-0
120 — Sumner (Ada) dec. Rodriguez (Lin) 10-9
126 — Caprella (AE) tech. fall Ludwig (VB) 19-3
132 — Pennington (Elm) pinned Villareal (Gib) 2:46
138 — Schmeltz (Ots) won by default over D. Benchoter (Elm)
145 –Glosser (Ots) pinned Showalter (WT) 3:52
152 — Hall (Elm) dec. Geary (Gib) 2-0
160 — Vitt (H-L) pinned Caris (East) 2:41
170 — Nyler (Swan) dec. Grossman (Elm) 5-4
182 — Bowman (Riv) dec. Sperry (Elm) 4-2
195 — Racheter (Car) dec. Zientek (East) 3-2
220 — Tudor (East) dec. Mancha (FSJ) 2-1
285 — Sexton (VB) pinned Mullins (Moh) 1:37
FIFTH PLACE
106 — Schaller (Swan) dec. Brubaker (CG) 7-5 OT
113 — Palomo (O-G) pinned Schlack (Car) 2:36
120 — Struble (Fos) pinned True (Arc) 1:57
126 — Badial-Luna (Blu) pinned Campbell (Gib) 2:14
132 — Place (DJ) maj. dec. V. Brock (H-L) 10-0
138 — Burket (East) pinned Dyer (Car) 1:28
145 — Vasquez (Gib) pinned Smith (Fos) 3:52
152 — Galvan (Fos) pinned Tafe (AE) 3:38
160 — N. Baker (Elm) pinned VanSant (L- 1:48
170 — Kitchen (Ots) def. Ickes (Gib) 2-0 OT
182 — Thompson (Fos) def. Whitticar (VB) 3-1
195 — Nichols (CG) by forfeit over Woodland (Ada)
220 — Cook (Moh) dec. Farly (Ots) 5-2
285 — Gibson (O-G) dec. Hagemyer (Elm) 12-8

[born_to_wrestle]

Is caprella from AE at 126 related to Joe Caprella that graduated from LCC back in the days when LCC and coach Murphy ruled the area?