BROOKVILLE — The Darke County wrestling squads of David Guillozet from Greenville and Rick Stone from Arcanum opened up their season by participating in the Brookville Invitational Saturday morning.
The invitational consisted of six teams which included Preble County foes Tri- County North and Twin Valley South, Butler County squad Middletown Madison and Montgomery County’s Brookville Blue Devils. The invitational consisted of five rounds with three mats coming into play. The matches started around 9 a.m. and ended around 1 p.m. with plenty of opportunities for all to grapple.
First off for the Greenville wrestlers, ably assisted by Micah Coblentz and Kyle Cromwell, was eventual champion Middletown Madison. The Mohawks featured the defending 220 pound state champion and a host of other talented wrestlers. The Green Wave wrestlers went down 53-28 but wrestled hard and tough throughout the match.
Sophomore Austin Lacey, an alternate to districts last year, wrestled at 106 and came through with a forfeit to put the Wave up 6-0. Freshman Dean Hurd, who will be wrestling at 113 pounds, was matted in the first period to even the score at 6-6.
There was no wrestler for the Wave at 120 pounds so a forfeit increased the score to 12-6 in favor of Middletown Madison. Freshman Jacob Mikesell at 126 chipped his opponent down to size and won by a decision to garner four points for the Wave to close the gap to 12-10.
Freshman Joseph Edwards at 132 was pinned in the first period to increase Madison’s lead to eight points. Sophomore Brayden Price worked hard but was matted at 1:13 of the second period to move the score to 24-10.
Junior captain Jeremy Ashbaugh at 145 pounds turned his Mohawk opponent into ashes and pinned him at the 18.2 mark of the second period, closing the score to 16-24. Up next was another freshman, Jacob Goldsmith at 152 pounds, who was matted at 1:37 of the second to make the score read 30-16.
Sophomore Tani Mancillas at 160 pounds was falled at 1:17 in the first period to make the score update to 36-16. Junior captain Christian Chalmers at 170 pounds was technical falled at 16-0 to have the count now read 41-16.
Up next was 182 pound senior captain and two-time district qualifier William Nibert, who won by forfeit to garner six points for the Wave and close the gap to 41-22.
First-year wrestler sophomore Caden Gonzalez at 195 pounds also won by forfeit to make the scoreboard read 41-28. The last two weight classes were forfeited at 220 and 285 pounds respectively to have the final count 53-28 in favor of Madison.
“We will be young this year and inexperienced with our numbers being down,” Coach Guillozet said. “We have a couple of first year wrestlers and four freshmen wrestling for us. Two district qualifiers are coming back for us, and we have 11 of 14 weight classes filled, but unfortunately those three weight classes we don’t have a wrestler for counts 18 points against us in forfeits.”
Head coach Rick Stone of Arcanum and assistant Jared Beatty went up against eventual champion Middletown Madison in another featured dual match. The Trojans started off on the wrong foot as they had no one to wrestle at this point and time in the three lower weight classes at 106, 113 and 120 pounds. This automatically made the count read 18-0 in favor of the Butler County squad.
Arcanum 126 pound freshman Ethin Hoffman changed that score quickly as he won 16-1 in a technical fall for six points to have the score read 18-6. The Trojans’ 132 pound freshman Devin Kubander was pinned in 47 seconds in the first period, making the score rise to 24-6. Arcanum’s 138 pound freshman Devin Keckler was falled at 24 seconds of the first period to have the count move to 30-6.
Freshman Dylan Burns was up next at 145 and was taken down to the mat and pinned with 51 seconds left in the first period to have the lights read 36-6. Also wrestling at this weight class but not in this particular match will be junior Ethan Baker.
Arcanum 152 pounder junior Matt Todd was matted in 23 seconds of the first to have the score mount to 42-6. Trojan 160 pounder Christian Layman did not wrestle in this formatted match, which resulted in a forfeit, increasing the count to 48-6.
No wrestler found at 170 pounds for either team, enabling the score to stay 48-6. No grappler for 182 pounds for either team wrestled, but at 195 pounds freshman Jack Walters won by forfeit to improve the count to 48-12. No grappler for the Trojans was available to march onto the mat against defending 220 pound state champion, moving the score to 54-12.
Mike Johnson at 285 pounds showed his senior leadership by pinning his guy in the second period to give the Trojans 18 points to 54 for the Mohawks. Also grappling at this same weight class but not Saturday will be Dallas Law, a 2016 graduate to be.
“We lost a heartbreaker to Tri- County North 36-30 due to too many forfeits,” Coach Stone said. “Next up for was a monumental task in taking on eventual champion Madison where we came through with 18 points. Twin Valley South was a pleasing match as we won 33-21 in our third round encounter. Home team Brookville came out on top of us 35-18, who finished runner up in their own tourney. Last up was Greenville, who finished in third place again. Our squad came up short in this one but wrestled smartly to only fall 39-24. I am most pleased with heavyweight Mike Johnson, who finished undefeated for a 5-0 day. Ethin Hoffman also surprised us with an impressive three wins for the day. Up next for us is Tuesday at Sidney Lehman in a dual and this Saturday at Greenville’s prestigious invitational.”
