December 30, 1999

Columbian within striking distance in Wendy's Invitational

When the smoke had cleared from the first day of the 17th Annual Wendy's Invitational, Oregon Clay was found on top, but with very little room to breathe as Groveport Madison is just two points behind, and five other teams are within 10 points of them.

Host Columbian is in 6th place with 57 points. Clay has 67.5, followed by Madision with 65.5, Toledo St. Francis with 61, Hilliard Darby with 59.5, two-time defending champion Sandusky Perkins with 59 and Columbian.

The rest of the field includes Maumee (56), Marysville (48.5), Swanton (42.5), Elida (42), Fremont Ross (39), Toledo Central Catholic (38), Lexington (38), Columbus Brookhaven (31), Maysville (24.5), Toledo Whitmer (23.5), Lancaster (14) and Huron (14).

The Tornadoes start the second day in good shape, with four wrestlers in the semifinals, including Chris Lee at 135, Maxum Tomaszewski at 145, Nick Shoemaker at 152 and Allan Weickert at 215.

Columbian's coach sees at least eight teams with a legitimate shot at the championship, depending on how things go today, and is pleased, but not necessarily surprised, that his Tornadoes are among them.

"As we entered the tournament, we knew there were a lot of unknown factors just because we've wrestled some outstanding programs," Columbian coach John Tomaszewski said. "We're at home, and this is our tournament, and the kids are really taking that to heart.

"Chris Lee came in 3-7 and is now in the semifinals, and Nick Shoemaker wrestled very well to get himself there. Weickert is no surprise with the way he's been wrestling this season, and (Maxum Tomaszewski) dropped form 152 to 145 and looked very comfortable."

The way coach Tomaszewski looks at it, one of the keys to Columbian's success today has been the lumps his kids have taken against bigger and stronger programs in the past weeks.

"Because of the competition we've wrestled, many of our kids records weren't indicative of how good they really are, and we began to see that today," Tomaszewski said. "At first, we were a little bit intimidated because of what has happened in the past three weeks, but our kids started to figure out they could do some things they couldn't do against those other teams.

"They started to gain some confidence, and there's no substitute for that. Confidence is contagious, and if the kids see their teammates doing well, they want to do the same thing."

Weickert's day was highlighted by a second round pin of Elida's Matt Sheely in just seven seconds. His first round win was a 10-1 major decision of Maumee's Tom Hudson. Weickert faces Ian Robertson of Toledo St. Francis in the semifinals, and the other semifinal features Rick Legg of Fremont Ross and Matt Burgei of Hilliard Darby.

Lee moved on with a pair of pins in under two minutes. Hilliard Darby's Ben Williams was his first victim, falling in 1:29, and Groveport Madison's Matt Kohler went down in 1:32. Oregon Clay's Zach Martin awaits Lee in the semifinals. The other one has Ben Wimmers of Marysville and Brian Stephenson of Sandusky Perkins.

Tomaszewski pinned Matt Medlen of Maumee in 1:21, and then advanced to the semis with a major decision of Whitmer's Dave McDowell by a 16-4 score. His next opponent is Nate Muenzer of Clay. If he defeats Muenzer, his finals opponent will be Scott Flathers of Swanton or Matt Dunahay of Elida.

Shoemaker received a first round bye, and then pinned Chris Smith of Lexington in 1:14. Shoemaker will now face Clay's Ryan Franke. Chad Marzec of Toledo St. Francis faces Rudy Berger of Huron in the other semifinal.

With four wrestlers in the finals, and several others alive in the consolation round, Tomaszewski likes the position his team is in going in to day two.

"Talking to other coaches, there's really no clear-cut favorite here who's heads and shoulders above everybody else," Tomaszewski said. "We've got four in the finals, and we were right there in two of those other quarterfinal matches. We were a takedown here or there from vaulting six kids in to the finals.

"We've got five kids in the consolation matches, and I think if they do well we've got a legitimate shot. Everything is so packed between the teams at the top that's it's going to depend on how well everyone does today."

Steve Lee (160) picked up a first round win for the Tornadoes by putting Luke Wichman of Toledo Central Catholic in 1:06. Lee was pinned in 1:06 in the quarterfinals by Jeron Foust of Elida. Today's consolation round match brings Joe Jarrell of Lexington for Lee.

At 275, Columbian's Dave Sauber pinned Lancaster's J.T. Haynes in 2:52 in the first round before a second round loss by pin to Dave Fox of Maumee in 3:06. Ryan Pfefferle of Clay will be Sauber's next opponent.

Columbian's Rob Murphy lost by technical fall at 119 to Clay's Matt Reynolds in 5:24. Murphy then defeated Jesse Baker of Lexington in 3:56 to earn the right to face Brian Billings of Groveport Madison today.

Also in the consolation round for TC is Kris Adams, who was pinned in 3:36 by Ryan Finn of Perkins at 125. Adams rebounded with a pin of Hilliard Darby opponent Brendan Moody in 4:46. He will square off against Huron's Jeremy Schmitz in the consolation round today.

Joe Ranker (189) suffered a 13-3 loss to Groveport Madison's Josh Chilcote, but steamrolled Columbus Brookhaven's Levon Thomas in 1:58 to advance to the second round of the consolations, where he faces Brian Boucher of Huron today.

At 112, Shane Ardner of Columbian fell 14-6 to Ben Gease of Hilliard Darby. He faces Tyler Kerner of St. Francis in today's consolation round.

Matt Glorioso of Lexington pinned Columbian's Matt Murphy at 140 in 5:49, and Murphy fell in the consis to Nick Vega from Hilliard Darby, 5-3.

With nine wrestlers still alive going into today's action, Tomaszewski has good reason to be optimistic.

"This is the first time that I can remember the field here being this wide open," Tomaszewski said. "Almost anyone, if they get the breaks today, and can seize the opportunity and come through and win the whole thing. We've got ourselves in a good position. Now, all we can do is wrestle the best we can today and hope for the best. The kids got some confidence today, which we badly needed, and I can only hope that when everything's done they can be proud of what they've done and where they've finished."

The second day of competition at the 17th Annual Wendy's Invitational gets underway this morning at 10 a.m.