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Home > Blogs > Springfield, Ohio High School Sports > Archives > 2009 > March > 02
Monday, March 2, 2009
Indian Lake escpapes Northwestern boys
Here’s a live blog from Northwestern’s near upset of Indian Lake in the D-II sectional semifinals.
8:55: The Lakers went 6-for-11 from the free throw in the final moments and hung on for a 57-53 win over Northwestern.
8:38: With 3:11 remaining, Northwestern leads 49-48. Wolfarth has scored six straight points in the paint for the Warriors.
8:27: After three quarters, Indian Lake leads 44-42. Northwestern tied the score on a made free throw by Tony Carson without about 2:30 remaining, but Stacy Jones made a shot at the buzzer to help Indian Lake regain the lead.
Mitchell Wolfarth has 13 points for the Warriors.
8:05: At the half, Indian Lake leads 36-32. The lead was as many as eight in the period, but the Warriors scored four points to pull within four at the end of the period.
7:45: After one quarter, Indian Lake leads 18-14. The Warriors trailed 17-6 at one point, but outscored the Lakers 8-1 to end the period.
7:27: We’re here for the second half of a D-II doubleheader at Troy High School between Northwestern and Indian Lake.
The winner will get a crack at D-II top-ranked Graham, who advanced to the sectional final with a 57-12 victory over Greenon.
Starting lineups:
IL: Stacy Jones, Alex Contner, Ryan Jacobs, Adam Reichert, Andy Fout.
NW: Tony Carson, Mitchell Wolfarth, Levi Burns, Daniel Moehn, Seth Meldon.
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TweetGraham advances to sectional final
Here’s a live blog from Graham’s second round victory over Greenon:
7:01: In a game that took just 60 minutes to play, Graham beat Greenon 57-12.
6:48: After three quarters, Graham leads 46-11. They held Greenon to just four points in the quarter. Austin Jones has 23 points for the Falcons.
6:26: At the half, the No. 1 ranked Falcons lead Greenon 34-7. They allowed just one field goal in the quarter, a jump shot by Dalton Lacy.
6:14: After one quarter, Graham leads 16-5. Austin Jones has nine points for the Falcons.
Josh Pilcher has all five points for the Knights.
6:01: We’re right on schedule here at Graham High School for the Division II sectional second round game between Graham and Greenon.
Starting lineups:
Graham: Josh Schuler, Austin Jones, Ben Rosenberger, Ethan Ward, Ryan Zook.
Greenon: Cody Phelps, Keenan Kozak, Dalton Lacy, Josh Pilcher, Jon Klarer.
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TweetWhere are they now: Bob Ronai
Former Urbana University men’s basketball coach Bob Ronai is the head coach at Middletown High School.
Ronai is in his 32nd season as a head coach. Ronai coached 11 seasons at Urbana, winning a school-record 26 games three times between 1986 and 1997. His son Jason played for Catholic Central’s 1996 state championship team.
Jason is in his fifth season as an assistant baseball coach at the U.S. Naval Academy.
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TweetDaily Tournament Fix — March 2
Here’s your daily tournament fix for Monday, March 2:
Today’s games: D-II - Greenon vs. Graham, 6 p.m., and Northwestern vs. Indian Lake, 7:30 p.m.
Short Takes: Graham is 47-1 over the last three years. They beat Greenon (1-19) twice this season by an average of 51.5 points per game in CBC Mad River Division play. … Last season, the 2-18 Knights fell to 76-44 in a D-II tournament game. … Northwestern is 4-16 this season. The Warriors have one of the top scorers in the area in Levi Burns, who finished fourth in the CBC at 15.7 ppg. The Warriors lost twice to Indian Lake in the regular season by 17 and 21 points this season.
Key player: Ben Rosenberger, Graham. The fiery Falcons point guard is huge on the defense end. He’s able to create steals and turn them into assists in transition. Expect plenty of this tonight against Greenon.
Girls update: Southeastern was the lone girls team to advance to the District tournament. They’ll play Houston in a D-IV district final at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 7 at the Vandalia Butler Student Activities Center.
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TweetOn this date in area sports history …
Eight years ago on this date, March 2, 2001, the Graham wrestling team closed in on the first of its eight straight state titles. Complete story on the jump.
GRAHAM GRAPPLERS CLOSE TO STATE TITLE
By KERMIT ROWE, News-Sun Sports Editor
COLUMBUS — Retiring Graham head coach Ron McCunn is not a pessimist. Really, he’s not.
It’s just that he has seen 22 years of state tournaments, and has witnessed some very peculiar things happen to competitors who start to take things for granted.
So, while his Falcons enjoyed a 25-point lead in the Division II team standings after Friday’s action in the state wrestling tournament, forgive McCunn if he’s not throwing his going-out-on-top retirement party just yet.
“I haven’t been able to eat all day,” said McCunn. “It’s just the unknown that gets to you.
“This tournament is strange,” he continued. “You know something bad is going to happen, because it almost always does. I won’t feel comfortable until it is mathematically impossible for anyone to catch us.”
That inevitability may happen very early this morning. Graham owns an 89.5-64.5 lead over runner-up Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit. Other tournament challengers are even further back. Lake Catholic has 61 points, Kenston 60.5, Columbus DeSales 56.5 and Medina Buckeye 55.
And with three wrestlers in today’s 5 p.m. finals, one win away from realizing their dreams of individual state championships, and three others assured of at least a sixth place, it’s time to order the trophy polish.
Senior Kyle Ott (119) has already experienced that championship feeling twice, in the past two seasons as an individual champ with Division I Wayne team. But a mid-season transfer has provided Graham with another knockout king to form a formidable one-two punch. Now the 25-1 Falcon is close to having double the fun at his last state tourney.
Ott rolled into Friday night’s semifinals with a 16-5 domination of Orrville’s Mark Budd, then passed his first true test of the tournament in beating Jim Fowler of Medina Buckeye, 7-4, to earn his third shot at state title. Ott will meet 41-5 Anthony Constantino of Mentor Lake Catholic in a championship match he wasn’t sure he’d be healthy enough to reach.
“I can’t wait. At one point this past year, I wasn’t sure this was going to happen,” said Ott, who has endured eight knee surgeries in the past year. “It’s still not 100 percent or nothing like that, but it is getting stronger.”
So is his bond with his new teammates.
“I like it a lot,” said Ott when asked what it has been like to be part of the Graham mystique. “They have been so hospitable to me since day one. I’ve had nothing but great coaching here, and my teammates are all class acts.”
The other part of the Falcons’ one-two punch — senior Josh Wooton (125) — also fared well.
Wooton, a state champion at 103 as a sophomore, registered an easy technical fall in the morning session, 18-3 over Bobby Blackburn of Clyde. Then, in the semifinals, he stopped Cole Bowersock of Lisbon Beaver, 6-3, to earn the right to meet Ryan Finn (43-3) of Sandusky Perkins for a state crown. Wooton [Correction-Wooton] improved to 36-2.
“I figured Wooton could control him pretty well,” said McCunn of Bowersock. “Now he’s got the Finn kid, who beat him in the first round here last year. It’s not a revenge thing, because Finn is a classy kid. It’s just going to be a great match.”
The third Falcon to reach the finals was junior Bryce Markley (145). Markley scored a 9-5 victory over C.J. Davids of Port Clinton in the quarterfinals, then bested Dave Garner, 8-6, after losing to him earlier this season.
Super sophomores Billy Evans (130) and Kalen Knull (135) fell short in the semis.
Evans started Friday off with a bang by pinning Jason Roush of Van Wert in 25 seconds.
But things got a lot tougher in his semifinal match with Trey Vince of Upper Sandusky. After falling behind by as many as five points, Evans rallied back to pull to within 14-13 with 40 seconds left in his match. But Vince prevailed, 16-13.
Knull squeezed his way into the evening’s semifinals with a takedown with only 16 seconds left that broke a 3-3 tie with Billy Roff of Kenston and led to a 5-4 victory.
But he could do very little against Jason Barnett of DeSales, who has a state championship and two runners-up on his resume. Knull battled hard, but fell, 3-1.
Graham’s only other championship quarterfinalist, freshman Joe Dennis (171), was well on his way to breaking the blonds’ monopoly on Falcons success. But, comfortably leading Travis Brown of Pemberville Eastwood, 10-3, in the third period, he got caught on his back in a pinning combination at 4:39.
Dennis, however, redeemed himself in his first consolation match. After falling behind, 4-0, midway in the second period to Jeremy Hartman of Chesterland West Geauga, Dennis dug down deep, taking the match’s last 11 points for a 11-4 decision. He then assured himself of at least a sixth-place finish by edging Justin Mautz of Philo, 5-3.
Graham’s other two placing possibilities — Scott Rush (152) and Joe Hoke (160) — were already in the consolation bracket when the day began. Neither made it out.
Rush was pinned at 2:45 by Luis Galvin of Cleveland Benedictine. And Hoke met a familiar foe who he has handled three times this season — until Friday. Bellefontaine’s Brett Linkinhoker outlasted Hoke, 6-5.
Still, McCunn had to be happy.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be in any other position than where we are. But we’ll see,” said McCunn. “We’ve got three guys who can be champs and three guys who could end up third. That’s the most placers I’ve ever had here. When we won state titles in 1982 and ‘98, we did it with four placers. If we wrestle to our potential and it’s enough, we’ll take it.”
Laker semifinalist
Only one other area wrestler made it into the championship semifinals, Indian Lake senior Anthony Jenkins.
After cruising past Frank Incorvaia of Medina Highland, 9-2, in the quarters, Jenkins saw a 2-2 tie after two periods of his semifinal match with Clint Carmony of Millersburg West Holmes turn into a 5-3 defeat.
Jenkins had been to the state tourney twice, but had come up empty. But the third time was a charm as far as earning that elusive state place.
“I’m pretty happy,” said Jenkins. “At the beginning, I was not as aggressive as I should have been. But I got looser as the tournament went on.”
Only one other area wrestler is still alive in the tournament and guaranteed a place — and he’s only been wrestling for two years. Up-and-coming Tristan Murray of Tecumseh beat a returning state second-placer and a returning state placer to advance to this morning’s final consolation rounds.
Murray (160) took Jeff Ostholthoff of Cincinnati Moeller into a second overtime tied at 1-1 before getting the win on a penalty point. Ostholthoff was called for a third caution in the starting position. Then Murray scored a takedown with nine seconds left in his match with George Patzakis of Madison to win a 4-3 decision.
“I was waiting for the right time to shoot in,” said Murray. “I am better on my feet than on the mat. That paid off today.”
Teammate Matt Middendorf (140) came just as close to a place, but ended up on the losing side. He lost his quarterfinal match by a pin at 3:39 to Mike Neely of Worthington Thomas Worthington, then beat Chance Riley of Wadsworth, 5-3.
Middendorf held a 3-2 lead in the match that would decide if he would place, but he lost, 4-3, to Carl Amerine of Columbus Franklin Heights on a reversal.
With both Murray and Middendorf just juniors, Tecumseh coach Scott Herbert can’t help but look to the future.
“They are getting more and more experience, and that only helps in the long run,” said Herbert. “They won some big matches today. Things are looking good for next year.”
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