December 31, 1999

Tornadoes take second at Wendy's Invitational

By Dave Feltner
Sports Editor

The expectations of a wrestling team with a 2-8 dual-meet record going into one of the most competitive tournaments in the area couldn't have been too high.

Something like, say, second place would be way too much to ask, right?

No way.

After all was said and done at the 17th Annual Wendy's Invitational, the very same group of Columbian Tornadoes who won just two of their first 10 duals wrestled strong enough to take second place at their own tournament.

The Tornadoes finished with 150 points, just a smidgen behind champion Hilliard Darby (155 1/2) and just ahead of Oregon Clay (146 1/2). Groveport Madison (125 1/2) and two-time Wendy's champ Sandusky Perkins (119) rounded out the top five.

The rest of the field included Toledo St. Francis (108), Maumee (107 1/2), Toledo Central Catholic (93 1/2), Fremont Ross (88), Elida (87), Swanton (85), Marysville (82 1/2), Lexington (76), Toledo Whitmer (73 1/2), Columbus Brookhaven (68 1/2), Maysville (61 1/2), Huron (29) and Lancaster (17).

Allan Weickert was the clear-cut star for the Tornadoes, winning the 215-pound class with a 7-4 decision of Fremont Ross' Rick Legg, but seven of his teammates contributed handsomely by also placing.

"I had what I would call guarded optimism (coming into the tournament)," TC coach John Tomaszewski said. "In the back of my mind and in my heart I thought that we could do pretty well. I don't know if I thought we could win this or finish second, but I thought we could be one of the top five teams if we could get the kids to wrestle with confidence and to their ability, and they exceeded that."

Chris Lee (130) and Max Tomaszewski (145) placed second, Steve Lee took third, Dave Sauber (275) finished fourth, Joe Ranker (189) was fifth and Kris Adams (125) and Nick Shoemaker (152) placed sixth.

Weickert, though, was the showstopper.

Columbian's unbeaten 215-pounder stalemated with Legg through the first period and then fell behind, 2-0, when Legg posted a pair of back points.

Weickert escaped, took Legg down and then received a penalty point to take a 4-3 lead into the final period.

Legg escaped to start the period, but gave the point back a minute later by stalling. Weickert then finished off the Ross wrestler by scoring his second takedown with just seven seconds left.

"Allan is really unique because you look at him and you're deceived; he doesn't look like a really outstanding athlete," coach Tomaszewski said. "But he uses his ability, he doesn't put himself in bad positions, he knows what he can do and he's very persistent with it.

"His final match was the perfect example," he said. "It was close, but I thought we broke that kid down at the end, and were able to get that final takedown. I'm not really surprised, anymore, by anything Allan does."

The Tornadoes had two other wrestlers (Chris Lee and Max Tomaszewski) reach the championship finals, but both lost close matches.

Lee, who started this season 0-5 and was just 3-7 before the tournament, scored the first takedown in his match with Brian Stephenson of Perkins, and had two in the first period. But Stephenson finished the match with five takedowns and posted a 13-8 victory.

"Unbelievable," coach Tomaszewksi said of Chris Lee. "He probably had as great a tournament as any of our kids. He has ability, but he doesn't have a lot of mat time. Even though he is a senior he has not wrestled that long in a great program. But if he can stay focused, he's right there with all of those kids."

After bulldozing his first three opponents, Max Tomaszewksi ran into a tough opponent in Elida's Matt Dunahay in the 145 finals. Tomaszewski got a key takedown with 40 seconds left in the match to draw within 10-9, but Dunahay reversed with 23 seconds remaining and then held on for the win.

"I thought he had a pretty excellent tournament; he wrestled solid kids in all of his matches," coach Tomaszewski said of his son. "He didn't adapt very well to the motion and the erraticism of that kid in the finals, and I think that was the difference in the match.

"But he wrestled with conviction, heart an intensity and that's all I'm asking of him."

Columbian's other two victories in the finals came from Steve Lee and Joe Ranker. Lee flattened Elida's Jeron Foust in 31 seconds, while Ranker decked Central Catholic's Brandon Portillo in 2:10.

At 275, Sauber fell to Hilliard Darby's, 6-3, to finish fourth, while Adams lost to Jacob Schuller of St. Francis, 8-6 in overtime and Shoemaker dropped an 11-4 decision to Whitmer's Dave Marunowski.

Other champions included Maumee's Leif Gilsdorf (103), Darby's Ben Gease (112), Clay's Matt Reynolds, Perkins' Ryan Finn (125) and Troy Deering (135), Central Catholic's Eric Melssen (140), St. Francis' Chad Marzec (152), Maumee's Aaron Warnock (160) and Bob Francis (171), Groveport Madison's Josh Chilcote (189) and Ron Reveal (275).

Chilcote was named the meet's Most Outstanding Wrestler.