High school wrestling: Avon Lake leaves no doubt, dominates Avon on way to second straight undefeated SWC dual meet season

AVON — Not only did Avon Lake secure its second straight unbeaten dual meet season in the Southwestern Conference, the Shoremen made a statement while doing so Thursday night. Trailing by seven points after the first three weight classes, Avon Lake reeled off six straight wins and breezed to a 52-14 victory over Avon. "The guys on this team knew we graduated six seniors and they needed to fill some spots and make some things happen," Shoremen coach Scott Sedlick said. "But we had a lot of strong wrestlers returning and a lot of them were really young. But they do everything we ask of them during the offseason, they work hard and do all the things you're supposed to do." After Niko Kalamaras and Adam Schumacher gave Avon a 10-3 lead with back-to-back wins at 165 pounds and 175, Avon Lake scored 33 unanswered points. Felipe Covarrubias (190), Josh Heath (210) and Clay Broadhurst (285) all earned pins, Blake Eaton picked up a forfeit win at 106, Mallory Zadel grinded out an 11-5 win at 113 and Abe Gill wrapped up the offensive onslaught with a pin at 120. "That was cool to watch," Broadhurst said. "But we also kind of expected it because we expect to wrestle well in every match. But that was definitely an awesome run." Zadel became the first Avon Lake girl to win a varsity match in a boys dual meet. While girls wrestling has grown exponentially over the past five years, most girls wrestlers don't get to experience the thrill of competing for a conference championship as there still aren't enough full girls teams. "That was a really good match for her," Sedlick said. "She was pumped about it. She was like, 'All right, we don't have another 113 so I guess I'm going to go wrestle.' At first we thought she was going to get a forfeit but they had a kid cut down so it turned out to be a match, which was great for her." Avon Lake won 11 of the 14 weight classes to finish 7-0 in the SWC. Avon dropped to third place with a 5-2 mark while Elyria, which defeated Berea-Midpark 37-36 on Thursday, finished in second at 6-1. Late wins by Kaeden Lademann (132), Jack Valerino (138), Brayden Patterson (144) and Gavin Andrews (150) turned the match into a blowout. "Having them run those (six wins) off, I was feeling pretty comfortable," Sedlick said. "Then we had those three guys at the end of our lineup … I knew that was a strong finish for us. "(The rout) was a momentum thing — it helps a lot in the duals once you start going. I was surprised at how big the deficit was, but I'm not surprised by the effort of my kids tonight." Tony Mrosko ended the six-match streak by Avon Lake with a major decision at 126, before the Shoremen won the final four matches. "(Avon Lake) did a great job out there," Avon coach Mark Jayne said. "They wrestled hard and they capitalized on us being a little sloppy. They had great intensity and they took it to us. "Hopefully we can take this and persevere and get ready for (the SWC tournament) in a couple of weeks. We want to see some champions out there because I don't think we had any last year. So that's one of our goals as a team." Avon Lake will be looking to add its second straight SWC tournament title to secure the outright championship defense in a couple weeks. It's been a strong showing from a team that had a few question marks to start the season. "I think the team did great in the wrestling room and we all came together," Broadhurst said. "We all wrestled hard and we've really bonded … I think that's really helped with how we wrestle as a team. All week we've been talking about how we've got to wrestle our match and do what we do — and that's what we did." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X. Avon Lake 52, Avon 14 157 — Will Schnabel (AL) dec, Tommy Freeman, 11-6. 165 — Niko Kalamaras (A) maj. dec. Luke Peace, 16-4. 175 — Adam Schumacher (A) pinned Sam Huffman, 3:05. 190 — Felipe Covarrubias (AL) pinned Nolan Robke, 2:33. 215 — Josh Heath (AL) pinned Sean Burke, 3:41. 285 — Clay Broadhurst (AL) pinned Jeremiah Kelly, 3:08. 106 — Blake Eaton (AL) won by forfeit. 113 — Mallory Zadel (AL) dec. Mohamed Shady, 11-5. 120 — Abe Gill (AL) pinned John Gorski, 1:23. 126 — Anthony Mrosko (A) maj. dec. Nathan Grieger, 16-7. 132 — Kaeden Lademann (AL) dec. Trey Daugherty, 8-3 (SV). 138 — Jack Valerino (AL) dec. John Foye, 9-3. 144 — Brayden Patterson (AL) pinned Kane Sparks, 2:56. 150 — Gavin Andrews (AL) maj. dec. Max Arnold, 12-0.