15 girls go unbeaten on first day of Lady Longhorn Holiday wrestling tournament

ROCKY RIVER — While 15 area girls went unbeaten on Day 1 of the Lady Longhorn Holiday wrestling tournament at Lutheran West, Avon Lake junior Lola Seone got a head start on all of them by winning her opening bracket match Wednesday. Because the 170-pound weight class had 32 participants, the event organizers decided to run one elimination round while the rest of the weight classes stopped after their pool play matchups. Seone picked up pins against Columbia's Gabriy'el Grace, Rittman's Ashley Ruffner and Lakewood's Abigail Grad during pool play competition, then pinned Hanover United's Lucy Stout in 3:44 in her bracket opener. "It's my first year (wrestling) so I'm kind of impressing myself and I'm improving as a person — not only in wrestling, but in life," Seone said. Seone was one of four Shoregals who went unbeaten on Day 1. Mallory Zadel (110) went 4-0 with three pins, 2023 state runner-up Rejan Al-Hashash (140) went 3-0 with three pins and 2022 state qualifier Hattie Hobar (145) went 3-0 with three pins. The Shoregals finished in eighth place out of 51 teams after the opening day. "Our team is great," Seone said. "Listen, we don't play around. When it comes time to throw down, when we've gotta wrestle, we don't mess around. We might laugh with each other and stuff (off the mat), but when it's time to wrestle, we do not play." The same could be said for a couple of other local teams in the field. Columbia and Vermilion finished tied for second with 164 points behind leader Alliance (197.5). The Sailors had four girls go unbeaten Wednesday. Lauren Ficker (105) went 2-0 with two pins, Alyssa Woodward (120) went 5-0 with five pins, Marissa Torres (135) went 3-0 with three pins and Emily Stiner (145) went 5-0 with five pins. Columbia had two girls go unbeaten — Claire Ondrejko (120) went 3-0 with three pins and Cailyn Demagall (155) went 3-0 with three pins. "It's my third year wrestling so I've gotten more used to just going out and going on autopilot," Ondrejko said. "I don't really think about much anymore (on the mat). I just know my abilities and I try my best to use them." Ondrejko pinned North Royalton's MacKenna Porter and Rootstown's Natalie Opritza in the first two pool play rounds, then rallied from a 7-0 deficit to pin Minerva's Sarah Sphon midway through the second period in her final matchup. "I wrestled that girl at Mapleton and I pinned her, but it was definitely one of my hardest matches of the season," Ondrejko said. "Since I beat her before, it helped with my confidence. There's great competition here, so it's been very exciting. I had my whole team here cheering me on and a bunch of my family was here. So hearing that and knowing that you can win (vs. an opponent) just makes you win." Black River freshman Taylor Owen knows nothing but winning in her high school career. She went 4-0 with four pins at 145 pounds Wednesday, increasing her season totals to 16-0 with 16 pins. "I'm just blown away with how great I'm doing so far," Owen said. "It's kind of surprising but I've worked so hard to get this far." Owen had three pins in under a minute against Massillon Perry's Scarlet Grace, Lorain's Nylasha Phillips and Trinity's Isabel Iacano, and pinned Minerva's Payton Reed in 2:25. "I'm waiting for (a tough match)," Owen said. "I will hopefully get a match that pushes me really far … the third period, hopefully?" The other area wrestlers who went undefeated on Day 1 came from Elyria and Keystone. Sage O'Brien (140) and Emily Jirousek (190) each went 3-0 with three pins for the Wildcats, while Bella Trujillo (110) went 3-0 with three pins and Ravenna Guidecelli (115) went 4-0 with three pins for the Pioneers. "It was a really fun day — this is how I meet people and every single day, just wrestling in a random tournament, I get to know somebody," Guidecelli said. The Elyria freshman opened with pins of Hanover United's Natalie Shipley, Mogadore's Elizabeth Terry and North Ridgeville's Gianna Sanfilippo before pulling out a 10-4 decision over Finneytown's My'Shawnna Tinsley. "That last match I got flipped," Guidecelli said. "I like to flip people, so that was a real learning experience. That's really the focus — just go out there and learn, even if you're not wrestling, just watch other people and you'll probably learn something off it." Guidecelli had several years of youth wrestling under her belt before joining the high school program and said the move to high school competition has been challenging. "It's a big jump because there's a lot of people out there that you don't know and don't know what they've learned," she said. "There's people who've learned more stuff than you, but that's something you can learn off of, obviously." Many of the girls are learning how to approach a multiday event this weekend, as most high school girls tournaments are one-day events or they face opponents during dual meets. "I think this is my first two-day tournament," said Ondrejko, a junior. "So hopefully (today) I can get out there with the same attitude and skills and I'll just rest up tonight. But I do think it's a great opportunity for us to wrestle as much as we can and get a lot of experience." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on Twitter. TEAM STANDINGS: 1. Alliance 197.5, T-2. Columbia, Vermilion 164, 4. Massillon Perry 160, 5. Minerva 144, 6. Lutheran West 138.5, 7. Lakewood 137, 8. Avon Lake 130, 9. Normandy 126, 10. Mentor 123 … 11. Elyria 114, 21. Keystone 59, 38. Black River 30, 44. Lorain 9, 48. North Ridgeville 6, 50. Midview 2.