As Guaranteed As Death and Taxes: The St. Ed’s Show Returns!
Eagles Eye Saturday Matchup with Blair Academy
   By Dan Ransick, Ohio Wrestling Site Senior Writer
             
            There was talk that they might be vulnerable.
There was talk that Cincinnati Moeller was the team to expose their weaknesses.  After all, Moeller was rated at the #4 team in the nation and had just won the Powerade Invitational- one of the nation’s toughest tournaments.  When the dust settled, that’s all it was – talk.  Lakewood St.Edward’s made their statement out on the mat.
The beginning was promising.  Returning state place-winner Alex Weaver handled St. Ed’s tough freshman 103, John Cobos, by a score of 7-2. And then superfrosh Collin Palmer took the mat for St. Ed’s……. as the wheels came off for Moeller! 
            At 112, Palmer pinned his Moeller opponent.
            At 119, Neil Birt of St. Ed’s scored another fall.
            At 125, Keith Sulzer of St. Ed’s racked up a major decision over returning State Placer Eric Gobin. 
            At 130, Cadet All-American Danny Gonsor returned to the lineup with a bang, tech falling Jared Glaser of Moeller (himself a returning state qualifier). 
            St. Edward’s, five bouts into the meet against the #4 team in the nation, lead 21-3, with three state champions yet to wrestle in the middleweights plus the state’s best upperweight 1-2 punch in Brian Roddy and Chris Honeycutt. The match had barely started, yet it was over.  
            In the midst of the Moeller team disaster, Germaine Lindsey made a statement of his own, manhandling former state champ and two-time finalist Shawn Harris of St. Ed’s by a 14-7 count.  Lindsey took Harris down at will!  A matchup between him and Massillon Perry’s Thomas Straughn at state will be worth the price of admission by itself!.The win cut the deficit to 21-6. 
            Order was quickly restored.  All the momentum that Moeller had after that matched was nullified when Lance Palmer took the mat.  Moeller bumped up one of their best, Tommy Weinkam, to 145 to avoid Lance, and Palmer dominated and pinned his replacement.  Weinkam found 145 to be no walk in the park- as he was taken apart easily by state champion Sean Nemec, 7-0.  Still, wrestling up a weight, it may have been a victory to simply not give up any bonus points to Nemec!  .In what could easily be a state finals preview, Mike Mahon of Moeller fell to Kyle Bertin of St. Ed’s in double overtime, as Bertin escaped for the win.  Bertin has come on of late- and will try to win the same weight his brother won back in 2000. Moeller was able to cut the lead to 33-9 as Dean Gaier was able to outlast the tenacious Swift for an 11-7 win.        
            Next up was the most anticipated match-up at the state duals- between explosive sophomore Brian Roddy of St. Edward’s and Eric Cameron of Moeller.  Although Cameron placed only 8th at state last year (and was on the losing end of two lopsided bouts with Roddy), he has been possibly the most improved wrestler in the state this season.  First, he dominated all opposition to reach the finals of Ironman, where he won a hard-fought bout with Roddy.  Then, he handled all opponents at two other very tough tournaments- the SWOWCA and the Powerade.  In these three extremely tough tournaments, the Roddy match was his only close one- making Cameron the favorite in the eyes of most pundits.  The pundits had it wrong- as Roddy threw Cameron to his back and pinned him in a wild scramble.  The 171 lb. weight class may be the toughest in the state- with Roddy, Cameron, and Berea’s Dustin Kilgore.
            Chris Honeycutt won by first period fall and Ben Rios a 9-0 major decision to make it 49-9, but Frank “The Tank” Becker was able to pin the St. Ed’s heavyweight to make it 49-15 and end the dual.
            What’s scary about this shellacking of the #4 team in the nation is that it could have been worse.  If St. Ed’s had wrestled starter Derek Tomasone at 160, there is a decent chance he would have beaten Dean Gaier, which would have made the final an ugly 52-12.  If State Runner-up heavyweight Kuhar was healthy, he probably wins a decision instead of Ed’s losing by fall, which makes the final a ridiculous 55-6.

Lakewood St. Edward’s versus Blair Academy

            There is one time where St. Ed’s could be considered the underdog: when they wrestle Blair Academy of New Jersey.  For those who do not now, Blair has been national champions for five straight years.  St. Ed’s has been chasing them, nipping at their heels but not quite able to take them down.  The match for “all the marbles” between the nation’s undisputed top two program’s takes place this weekend in Eastern Pennsylvania.  Stop back for a preview of this bout on Friday Evening!

How the (South)West Was Won:

            While the Moeller/St. Ed’s match as the marquee matchup, an intriguing semifinal pitted #2 Moeller against #3 Lakota West. The battle of Southwest Ohio’s best teams was hampered in part by a “bug” that hit the Lakota wrestling room.  However, there was still a lot of great wrestling between these bitter rivals.  Right off the bat the rematch of the SWOWCA finals between Bo Touris and Alex Weaver got this match going. Touris once again showed that he is the best 103 in Division I; for the second time he worked Weaver like a broken penny pony at Meijer.  Touris used five takedowns en route to his 15-6 win, including the “headlock from hell.” Touris literally sent Weaver flying over his hips, as he crashed to the mat with a gigantic thud.  Lakota West extended its lead to 7-0 when state runner-up Ryan Fields won in workman-like fashion (7-3) over Adam Wallander.
            Moeller quickly responded with a pin and major at 119 and 125 to take a 10-7 lead.  Alex Flake of Lakota West handed Jared Glaser an 8-4 loss in bout that wasn’t as close as the score, to tie things at 10-10.  Moeller responded with five straight wins to put it out of reach.  A particularly tough blow for Lakota took place at 160.  In a rematch of the SWOWCA finals, Dean Gaier of Moeller once again got the best of Tony Bradberry- winning by a 7-5 margin. Gaier took Bradberry down and rode him out in the 3rd for the win.  When the dust settled, Moeller had retained its status as the best team in Southwest Ohio and the 2nd best team in the state, with a 39-19 win.

Touris Crushes Genetin

            In a match-up between the #9 and the #10 ranked 103 lb. wrestlers in the nation, Bo Touris of Lakota demolished Danny Genetin of Massillon Perry.  Touris took Genetin down a staggering ten times before headlocking him for five to end the match with a 24-9 technical fall.  Touris has now met and defeated every top 103 in Ohio other than David Taylor.  His explosive headlocks make it easy to see why he is the defending Cadet National Greco Champion.

St. Edward’s Backup Elliott defeats state runner-up Foore..

            In the Wasworth/Ed’s match, state runner-up Derek Foore moved up to 152 in for a rematch of last year’s state finals against Nemec. However, Ed’s decided to sit Nemec and put  in Scott Elliott. Elliot used three reversals to defeat Foore 9-6. 

Upcoming Coverage

Will St. Ed’s snap Blair’s winning streak this weekend? Tune in Friday Night for www.ohiowrestlingsite.com’s exclusive preview.  Tune in Sunday Afternoon for coverage of the dual along with coverage of the Alliance Top Gun.

All-Tournament Team
103. Bo Touris Lakota West
112. Collin Palmer St. Eds
119. Neil Birt St. Eds
125. Keith Sulzer St. Eds
130. Danny Gonsor St. Eds
135. Germaine Lindsey Moeller
140. Lance Palmer St. Eds (Won MOW for 2nd straight year)
145. Adam Coleman Massillon Perry (Sean Nemec only wrestled one match)
152. Kyle Bertin St. Eds
160. Dean Gaier Moeller
171. Brian Roddy St. Eds
189. Erique Robertson Maple Heights/Chris Honeycutt St. Eds
215. Dave Crowley Wadsworth
275. Frank Becker Moelle

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OhioWrestlingSite.com 2005