Maple Heights, Glenville, Admiral King

Friday night was a walk in the park compared to the battle we had on Saturday night. We took on always tough Maple Heights first on Senior Night, where they soundly handed us a 62-15 defeat. The bright spot was that we avoided state champion Kory Mines and that we won 3 of 7 matches. Next, Admiral King took their turn in beating us 60-13. Last up was Glenville who got by us with a 37-14 win. We were down to 7 wrestlers in these duals, so giving up 7 classes and 42 points helped the lopsided team scores.
The Panthers are next in action at the Geneva T.K. Duals at 10:00 AM this Saturday.

Wickliffe, Mentor B

This past weekend the wrestling team took another one on the chin with two tight losses to Wickliffe 35-30 and Mentor B 38-33. The team fought hard but the 6 forfeits once again haunted us. If some of the matches went the other way we would have came out on top. We won 5 of 8 matches versus Wickliffe, and 4 of 6 matches against Mentor. With that many forfeits those results are something to build on for us. We can't do anything about the forfeits now, but we have to win the matches we do wrestle.

Perry Pin City Tournament

The team finished a disappointing 16th out of 18 teams. The tournament was postponed due to snow on Friday. On Saturday, they ran the whole thing through. Unfortunately, we did not know if we were competing until 8 at night. By that time many of the wrestlers had eaten and were overweight. With others I was not able to contact them by phone. This led to only 6 wrestlers making the bus on Saturday. Usually, when school is canceled on Friday, all weekend activities are canceled. This threw us for a loop and the results show it. However, Rynell Roper continues his hot streak with a runner-up finish once again. Zak Adkins finished in 5th, Dylan Norwood 7th, David Cozart 9th, Darsheed Mustafa 10th and Noah Brown 14th.

Kalin Invitational Tournament

We traveled to Parma Normandy for the Kalin Invitational right before Christmas and came away with a 7th place finish. Rynell Roper continues to improve and lost a very close finals match, 3-2, to finish second. With 4th place finishes were Dylan Norwood and T'Andre Smith. The team does not compete until after the Holidays.

Riverside Rumble

The team finished in 12th place at the Riverside Rumble. Zak Adkins led the way with his 3rd place finish. Other placers in our first tournament of the year were Rynell Roper, who finished in 5th, and Senior Kevin Conroy and his 6th place finish. We were able to get some extras in so they could get some mat experience as well. Forfeits hurt us in the team scores.

Eastlake North Tri.

The Eastlake North Tri. did not go as well as we would have liked. We took a devastating 61-6 loss, to the Rangers, as Zak Adkins was the only Panther to pick up a win. The team is still trying to get to their correct weights and should be there by this weekends tournament. We started four freshmen and six first-time starters. Unfortunately, we had to forfeit 7 matches and 42 points right off the bat.
In the other match, with Ashtabula Lakeside, we lost 45-24. This was a little more respectable. Freshman Henry Hinkle got his first varsity victory with a :21 second pin. Darsheed Mustafa, also a freshman, won his first match too.
The Panthers are next in action at the Riverside Rumble this next weekend.