Norwalk wrestlers sixth at Kenston

CHAGRIN FALLS — The Norwalk wrestling team had six placers to finish in a tie for sixth place among 30 teams at the two-day 58th Kenston Invitational Tournament on Dec. 28-29. The Truckers scored 105 points, which tied North Olmsted for sixth. Ontario (229.5) won the tournament, followed by Madison (192), Chardon (151.5), Richfield Revere (111) and Painesville Riverside (109) rounding out the top five teams. The six placers equals the most Norwalk has had at an Invite in more than 10 years. "We wrestled hard from 106 to heavyweight and I could not be prouder of the of the boys this week," Norwalk head coach Erich Metzger said. "Even in our losses, we never quit. Since the beginning, (assistant) Coach (Tracy) Hivnor and I have been preaching the basics. And I think now they are really starting to see the buy in." The Truckers were paced by senior Austin Ware, who finished runners-up at 144 pounds. Ware, who entered the week ranked No. 11 at 138 in the latest borofanohio.net state rankings in Division II, finished 3-1 with a pair of pins. Ware (9-5) pinned Ontario's Colton Blevins in 4:32 to open the tournament, then needed 2:02 to pin Riverside's Averey Wood. In the semifinals, Ware posted an 8-2 decision over Keystone's Paul Horten. In the finals, Ware was topped 8-4 by Caden Foley from Div. I Chardon. Four other Norwalk wrestlers placed seventh. Sophomore Aldynn Metzger (11-6) went 5-2 at 106 pounds, winning four wrestle-back matches that was capped by an 11-4 win to earn seventh. Senior Jackson James (7-7) finished 3-2 at 120 to also place seventh, while sophomore Nico Helton went 4-2 at 165 to also place seventh. Senior Eian Reineck was also 3-2 at 175 en route to seventh place. Rounding out the Norwalk placers was junior Kevin Howard at 190, who placed eighth with a 3-3 mark. "We are a very young team, but this weekend we wrestled like veterans," Metzger said. "it's difficult to place high in a tournament like Kenston when you're giving up three weight classes, but for us to finish in the top 10 I believe is a huge success. "It may be cliché, but we obviously have a lot of work to do we have and missions to be in Columbus," he added. "We want to take as many guys down there as possible. We need to stay dialed in and focus on the overall goal." Norwalk, along with Western Reserve, will return to the mats after a two-week layoff when they are in action at the Eastlake North Matteucci Classic, on Jan. 13. Western, S.C. top 10 at Brawl SHEFFIELD — Western Reserve placed third and South Central was seventh on Dec. 28 at the Brookside Brawl Invitational. The Roughriders scored 158.5 points to finish third behind Bellevue (294) and Bay Village (174). The Trojans totaled 11 points to earn seventh among the 16-team field. Western had eight placers, led by freshman Lucas Summerfield, who won the 106-pound weight class. Summerfield went 5-0 on the day, winning by major decision (18-8); a 2-1 decision over South Central's Wyatt Martin; a pin in 33 seconds; followed by a 7-6 decision over Bellevue's Owen Sterritt and a pin in 31 seconds against Clearview's Gabe Barker in the finals. Also for the 'Riders, Drake Munroe was second at 150 and Haiden Keeton was third at 285. Munroe finished his day 4-1 with three pins. Kholer Graves was fourth (120); Landen Barnhart (144), Maxwell Plas (157) and Levi Podraski (165) each placed fifth; and Anthony Lierenz (113) was sixth. South Central had five placers, led by Diton Farnsworth's second place finish at 113. The junior went 4-1 at the tournament. After the 2-1 loss to Summerfield, Martin went on to finish third for the Trojans at 106, as did Greyson Fisher at 150. Cole Frankart was fourth at 144 and Alex Hamons was fifth at 190. SWIMMING Norwalk competes at Holidays Pentathlon TIFFIN — The Truckers participated in the 10-team sprint races invitational on Dec. 28 at Tiffin. Swimmers had the option to compete in a pentathlon or an open event in 50 or 100-yard freestyle swims. Those who swam the pentathlon did 50 yards in the individual medleys — butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. After those times were totaled up, the top 10 swimmers moved on to the finals, which was a 200-yard IM race. In the pentathlon, Skyler Cross placed fifth for the NHS boys and Sidney Sage was seventh for the girls. In open events, Norwalk's Riley Ebner was second in the 50 free (29.58) and 100 free (1:10.08) for the girls, while Vince Dolce did the same in the boys in both events in 28.73 seconds and 1:04.37. St. Paul, Willard at Cloverleaf WOOSTER — The Flyers and Crimson Flashes competed in the 20-team Cloverleaf Stampede on Saturday, which was held at Wooster High School. Willard's Mason Carnahan won the 200 free in 2:00.46, while St. Paul's Aaron Schaffer was second in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.94). Also among the top placers for the Flyers was Kennedie Frazee in the 100 butterfly. She was fourth in 1:11.72. Lynn Beal was sixth in the 50 free (27.46), while Maddox Mynarsky was seventh in the 100 butterfly (1:02.61) and Elaina Coriell (1:14.63) was eighth in the 100 backstroke. St. Paul is back in action on Jan. 6 at the Danbury Craig Johnson Memorial Invitational.