February 21, 1999
Mohawks send a perfect '10' to tournament
By Ed Fox
Sports Writer
PLYMOUTH &emdash; It may not have been a perfect '10', but Mohawk is sending that number of wrestlers to the Division III District tournament at Fostoria High School.
The Warriors overwhelmed the field with 216 1/2 points and had seven of the 14 champions crowned at the Plymouth Sectional Saturday night.
''We sent 10 to districts a couple years ago and we expected to move a high number of kids along,'' said Mohawk head coach Bret Margraf. ''We're not celebrating, because this is not what we are working for. What happens next week and the following week is important. I felt we had a chance to get all 14 of our wrestlers to the district and I'm disappointed that we aren't taking them all to Fostoria.''
Mohawk, which went 7-3 in the finals, wasn't the only area team to have a great deal of success.
Ashland Crestview and Plymouth, which finished 1-2 in the Firelands Conference, took second and third at the sectional with 152 and 1341/2 points respectively.
Then, area teams took over.
Hopewell-Loudon was fourth with 118 points and that included six district qualifiers and three champions including three-time sectional titlists Doug Jesse (119) and Nick Frisch (135). Mike Miller also was crowned champion at 152. The Chieftains also went 4-2 in the finals.
St. Wendelin, finishing fifth with 103 1/2 points, is sending a school-record seven wrestlers to district. The Mohawks had no individual champions, but won five of seven matches in the consolation finals.
After New London (sixth with 83) came Calvert with 80 points and four district qualifiers. The Senecas were 3-1 in the finals and also were blanked when it came to champions.
Seneca East was eighth with 79 points and will be sending four to districts. The Tigers went 0-4 in the finals.
Carey finished ninth among the 12 teams and will be represented by three at the district.
Among the seven champions for the Warriors was two-time winner Kevin Ogg, a junior, who won on a pin in 47 seconds over Dan Hoepf of Seneca East.
Other champions for the Warriors were Mark Buckingham with a 17-7 major decision over Erik Williams of New London at 103, Aaron Roush with a pin in 4:39 over Matt Stacklin of Seneca East at 125, Dustin Rotella with a win by default over Morgan Park of Crestview at 130, Jon May with a 7-3 decision over Matt Poland of Crestview at 160, Joel Everhart with a 9-2 decision over Chuck Miller of Plymouth at 171 and Bo Meisner with a 4-3 decision over Ian Cook of Calvert at 215.
The Warriors only lost three matches in the finals. Nick Welly suffered a a 15-7 loss to Frisch and Nathan Lofay fell by an 8-7 score to New London's Jacob Liss at 140. Andy Biller also fell to St. Wendelin's Jacob Frankart, 17-15, in the 189 battle for third and fourth.
''I thought the kids were very aggressive. In most instances, they were able to get that first takedown and were able to take control in the first period. It was nice to see Ogg get a second title and there is always a lot of pressure when trying to repeat. Lofay and Biller don't have impressive records, but they really showed well at this tournament. Lofay was unseeded and beat the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds to get to the finals and Biller had a very spirited match withFrankart of St. Wendelin in the consy finals.
''Meisner also came up with a 4-3 win over (Ian) Cook of Calvert in the 215 finals. Ironically, he was helped by stalling calls against Cook. Last week at the MAL it was just the opposite,'' said Margraf who has guided the Warriors to the sectional title in three of the last four years.
Jesse, who won three of his four matches by pins, decked Mitch Brooks of Plymouth in just 1:48 of the championship match at 119.
''I just beat him by a 1-0 score at the St. Mary's Duals (Northwest Ohio Division III Duals),'' said Jesse. ''He likes to tie up left-handed and that gave me problems the first time I met him. I was able to handle him pretty easy this time.''
Frisch, who remained unbeaten at 35-0, overcame an early scare from Welly before notching his third title.
''He (Welly) caught me in a lateral (which cut Frisch's lead to 6-5),'' said Frisch. ''I think he knew he had nothing to lose and a match like this was good for me. He really did a good job defending my shots and I had pinned him at the Marion Pleasant tournament.''
Miller had complete control of Plymouth's Jake Clabaugh in the 152 finals, winning by a 13-0 score.
Other district qualifiers for the Chieftains are Tim Kessler (3rd, 160), Mark Hoover (4th, 171) and Travis Tiell (4th, 215).
Finishing third for St. Wendelin were Mark Sidle (103), Charlie Frankart (119), Josh Prince (135), Joe Reinhart (171) and Jacob Frankart (189) while Jack Bugner (125) and Brad Welly (152) placed fourth.
''I'm really pleased. This is a record number of district qualifiers for us,'' said St. Wendelin mentor Bob Whitman. ''We didn't have any individual champs, but the kids really came through in the consys. None of these kids were district qualifiers last year and most of them are underclassmen.''
In addition to Cook's runner-up showing, Calvert had three other third-place finishers including Jared Price (125), Dan Monaco (145) and Rick Bridinger (275).
''Getting seven out would have been the best sceniero, but we've got four going on and that's a good number for us,'' said Calvert mentor Ben Schlagheck. ''Monaco wrestled very well and seems to be peaking at the right time. Rick is our only repeat district qualifier and Ian was in a really tough match and he's suffering with a shoulder injury. It's too bad that (Mark) Distel didn't get out, but he had a bad draw.''
Advancing on for Seneca East with second-place finishes were Hoepf, Matt Stacklin and Steve Stacklin (145) while Chris Wiedinger (275) took fourth.
Carey had Curt Scalf take third at 112 while Eric Hanna was fourth at 130 and Kyle Gerschutz was fourth at 140.