City League wrestling champion Waite survived a late threat from Ashland last night and escaped with a one-point win in a Division I sectional at Rogers.
The Indians scored 209.5 points to 208.5 for Ashland. Whitmer was third at 150, and Fremont Ross took fourth at 141.5.
Waite had four individual champions and will send nine wrestlers to Friday's district tournament at Hilliard Darby.
“It was a good barnburner here,” Waite coach Carmen Amenta said. “It went back and forth all night long. It was a lot of fun for the fans, and we had a good time. Anytime we get a win we feel fortunate, and we're pleased.”
Ashland had a chance to overtake Waite, but lost a third-place match at 215 pounds and a fifth-place match at 275 to remain at 208.5.
Winning individual titles were Waite juniors Kyle Holiday at 103 and Antonio Ramirez at 135, and seniors Antonio Guerra at 140 and Josh Johnson at 171.
In the finals, Holliday (32-7) edged Mansfield Senior's John Burdine 6-5, Ramirez (27-8) blanked Ashland's Brent Weisenstein with a 9-0 major decision, Guerra (31-2) pinned Whitmer's Chad Sharp in 31 seconds, and Johnson (35-1) scored an 18-3 technical fall over Ashland's Dustin Imhoff.
“I came out with a single-leg attack off the whistle, tripped him down and caught the far wrist,” Guerra said of his takedown move preceding the pin. “I lifted his waist and drove him straight to his back. I tried to get it over as quick as I could, stay away from any injury and save some energy for next week.”
Whitmer's Dan Gurney is the only D-I wrestler from the area to remain unbeaten, pushing his record to 36-0 with a 15-2 major decision in the 152-pound final over Austin Earle of Fremont Ross.
“It's been kind of hard because I've had some tough competition and I hurt my shoulder [in the semifinals],” Gurney said, “so I was trying not to put too much pressure on it. I just wanted to win this and go on to districts. I went more upper body to put more pressure on the other shoulder, and I just went after him.
“I didn't think it was possible to still be unbeaten at this point, but I've just kept working hard in practice and going after the guys hard.”
Gurney transferred to Whitmer from Hillsdale (Mich.) High School after his sophomore year. He was 26-6 and a state qualifier last year. His toughest challenge at district should be Pickerington's Jake Kuhner, who placed fourth at state last year and is ranked second in Division I by the Brakeman Report.
Brad Marzec of St. Francis pushed his record to 31-2 back at his 145-pound class, taking a 4-3 win over Whitmer's Tim Root in the final. Marzec dropped to 140 in the City League tournament last week to get better competition, and lost 5-2 to Waite's Guerra in the finals.
Other area competitors to win titles included Brock Davis of Fremont Ross, who nipped Damen Abitua of Whitmer 5-4 in the 125 final; Felix Scott of Sandusky, who edged Kirk Bowman of Whitmer 2-1 in overtime at 130; Danny Johnson of Sandusky, who outlasted Matt Meyers of Mansfield Madison 2-1 with an escape in the second overtime at 215, and Sarge Modrowski of St. Francis, who slipped past Bryan Mosier of Madison 5-4 at 275.
- STEVE JUNGA
Every point was crucial at Clay, with Anthony Wayne pulling out the championship with 225 points to Perrysburg's 224.
AW's Generals won two head-to-head finals, with Drew Hertzfeld defeating the Yellow Jackets' Nick Samenuk 5-0 at 130 pounds and Alex Patnode shading Dan Castillo 3-2 at 140.
In another key bout, third-place Springfield gave the Generals a lift when Chris Cramer got by Kyle Hreben of Perrysburg 4-2 for the 145 title.
Caleb Metcalf was the Generals first champ with a fall over Central Catholic's James Schuller in just 1:14 at 112. Justin McCullough (125) was a fourth AW champion.
Tony Rodriguez (103), Noah Zyduck (119) and Dave Wyper (275) won titles for Perrysburg.
Springfield's Mike Beker pulled out a 5-4 overtime victory over Northview's Mike Horst at 215.
Other titles went to Justin Bork of Central (152), Mike Zeiler of Clay (160) and Findlay's Bill Seng (171) and Eric Duenke (189).
OAK HARBOR - Clyde romped to the team title at Oak Harbor with 230 points to 181 for runner-up Eastwood.
The Fliers had four champions to Eastwood's three. For Clyde, it was J.R. Ysaguirre (119), T.C. Hoffman (130), Bobby Blackburn (135) and Jonathan Taylor (140).
Winning crowns for Eastwood were Ryan Cubberly (103), Ben Llanas (winning with three falls at 112) and Kent Smith (152).
Other champions were Steve Tajblik of Napoleon (125), Wes Bergman of Oak Harbor (145), Ryan Keaton of Genoa (160), Justin Schulte of Maumee (171), J.D. Bergman of Oak Harbor (189), Nathan Bidlack of Defiance (215) and Brett Boggs of Maumee (275).
First Published February 16, 2003, 12:10 p.m.
