Redmen lose in final match to St. Mary, crush South Central

By BRAD FRANK
Gazette Sports Editor

GREENWICH — In the bat­tle of two tra­di­tion­ally great wrestling pro­grams, Belle­vue lost nar­rowly to San­dusky St. Mary’s Cen­tral Catholic, 33–30, on Tues­day at South Cen­tral High School. Against an under­manned Tro­jans squad, Belle­vue won eas­ily, 63–12.

Belle­vue earned seven wins against SMCC, los­ing six, but the Pan­thers came away with the vic­tory. SMCC senior Kody Bel­lamy, who usu­ally wres­tles at 220 pounds, faced Bellevue’s Grant Boyer in the 285-pound weight class, earn­ing a pin at 2:45.

The pin gave the Pan­thers the win. Oth­er­wise, Belle­vue would have won by three had the two heav­i­est weight classes been forfeits.

“It was a good expe­ri­ence. The kids wres­tled hard,” Belle­vue head coach Paul Zol­man said. “When you win seven matches and lose six, and still lose the dual, it’s a tough one to taste.

“We can’t give up pins. In a dual you have to get pins to win. St. Mary did that, which is why they won.”

SMCC recorded four pins to Bellevue’s one Tuesday.

Record­ing the Redmen’s lone pin against SMCC was senior Dilan Buck­ner, who pinned Ayden Opfer at 1:39 in the 170-pound weight class.

Also earn­ing wins for Belle­vue were Alex Drum­mond (113) in 6–4 deci­sion over Jacob Supina; Damon Cheek (138) in a 7–0 deci­sion over Alex Guerra; Anson Hupp (145) in a 2–0 deci­sion over Adam Guerra; Brady Hansard (160) by for­feit; Bren­dan Adksi­non (182) by for­feit; and Nick Maz­zaro (195) in a 4–1 deci­sion over Tyler Humphrey.

“Our seniors did really, really well—Damon Cheek, Anson Hupp, Dilan Buck­ner, Nick Maz­zaro,” Zol­man said. “The seniors really came through.

“Damon Cheek had two big wins against two qual­ity oppo­nents. He had a 7–0 deci­sion against [St. Mary’s] Alex Guerra, who is a tough wrestler. Anson Hupp had 2–0 deci­sion against Adam Guerra, who is also a qual­ity wrestler. So those two wres­tled really well against two top guys.”

Belle­vue landed 48 points by for­feit against South Cen­tral, com­ing away with a 63–12 win. In con­tested matches, the Red­men went 3–1. In addi­tion to Cheek’s pin, Hupp earned a deci­sion over Dylan Blan­ton and Buck­ner pinned Shawn Hale.

Caleb Bar­nett (152) pinned Bellevue’s Joe Marin and Joe Gavar­rette earned a for­feit at 106 for the Tro­jans’ 12 points.

The Red­men var­sity resumes its sea­son Tues­day and Wednes­day at the West Jef­fer­son Hol­i­day Classic.

Posted by Brad Frank on Dec 22 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.