Pat Galbincea
\nPlain Dealer Reporter<\/p>\n
Austintown- Ohio is reputed to have the best high school wrestling in the nation, but Buckeye State grapplers consumed a hefty dose of humble pie Saturday in the 11th Wrestling USA\/Cliff Keen Dream Team Classic at Fitch High School.<\/p>\n
Ohio all-star wrestlers were soundly beaten by Pennsylvania, 38-16, and in the follow-up meet, the USA All-Stars beat Team Ohio, 27-16.<\/p>\n
The latter result was not unexpected since the USA All-Stars, who wrestle against a different state each year, have never lost. Iowa’s 39-21 loss in 2001 had been closest scare the USA had gotten.<\/p>\n
Plain Dealer Wrestler of the Year Kevin Hardy (145 pounds) gave the crowd plenty of excitement in his 7-3 decision over four-time Texas state champ Luke Ashmore, 7-3. The lanky, angular Hardy used leverage to score three takedowns – two off a Russian tie and one single leg – and engulfed Ashmore with adroit mat wrestling.<\/p>\n
“I used to have trouble with short, stocky wrestlers, “said Hardy, a three-time Division I state champ. “It’s taken me a few years, but now I’ve finally figured out how to beat them . . . and it’s not really that hard any more.”<\/p>\n
Ohio State-bound Colt Sponseller (160) of West Holmes scored the only major decision in the match, using tenacious snap-and-spin-behind takedowns to thoroughly whip three-time Oregon state champ Ryan Smith, 21-9.<\/p>\n
Berea’s 2006 state champ, Dustin Kilgore (171), lost a key bout in the last two seconds, 5-4, to nationally No. 1-rated Idaho state champ Kirk Smith, who used a driving single-leg takedown to win. It was similar to Kilgore’s 14-12 overtime loss to Brian Roddy of St. Edward in the recent state finals.<\/p>\n
The Ohio team got off to an unexpectedly good start against Pennsylvania when Medina freshman Matt Mauer, trailing, 5-2, in the final period, rallied to tie the match, then won a scramble in overtime to beat Keith Scharrer, a senior from General McLane High, 10-6.<\/p>\n
Mauer got two key takedowns in the final minute – switching from a fireman’s carry to barrel rolls in both cases – to tie the match, 6-6.<\/p>\n
“I sure was nervous to start, “Mauer said. “I didn’t want to do anything stupid in front of that big crowd. I think I was able to wear him down. In overtime, I kept fighting and wouldn’t give up. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I even had points when the match was stopped.”<\/p>\n
However, the Ohio team didn’t win again until hometown favorite and Fitch junior Tony Jameson (135), a three-time Division I state champ, used funky and creative takedowns to score a 17-9 major decision over Steve Waite.<\/p>\n
Ohio’s worst misfortune came at 189, when two-time state champ John Weakley of Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy was tapped on the nose by Nick Sipes in the first 32 seconds. Weakley winced in pain, and a physician determined that Sipes’ legal tap broke Weakley’s nose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pat Galbincea Plain Dealer Reporter Austintown- Ohio is reputed to have the best high school wrestling in the nation, but Buckeye State grapplers consumed a hefty dose of humble pie Saturday in the 11th Wrestling USA\/Cliff Keen Dream Team Classic at Fitch High School. Ohio all-star wrestlers were soundly beaten by Pennsylvania, 38-16, and in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wrestling"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2B7Di-Fe","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrestlingpod.com\/wrestling-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}