Two for one: Amherst wins SWC wrestling tournament, but Avon Lake captures conference championship

AVON LAKE — For fans who like their wrestling events filled with drama, there was no better place to be Saturday than the Southwestern Conference tournament. The Amherst Comets gave longtime coach Bill Walker a great farewell celebration by edging Avon Lake for the team title, the Shoremen held onto second place to secure their second straight SWC championship, all six Lorain County programs walked away with at least one individual championship and one of the championship matches ended with a fiery disqualification. "This is my last year so it's a great sendoff," Walker said. "It's great to have the Milkoviches (Amherst's assistant coaches) in the room and the wrestlers came through — it was a complete team effort from the freshmen all the way up to the seniors. We've been talking about how you have to work for pins and we got a couple tonight and that's all it took. But my hat's off to Avon Lake and the rest of the teams in this really tough conference. That was a lot of fun today." Amherst finished with five finalists and 11 placers, but only Vananthony Trunzo was able to win an individual championship. The senior pinned Elyria's Isaac Green at 1:28 of the first period in the 120-pound final, exactly 21 seconds faster than he pinned Green in the 106 final in 2022. "Once you beat a guy, you're in their head," said Trunzo, who became a three-time SWC finalist after finishing as runner-up last season. "That just really messes with the way they wrestle — they wrestle scared — and that's why I do strike fear into my opponents. So then he just rolls over and lets me pin him." Trunzo plans on using his SWC title as a momentum springboard into the postseason, especially after finishing one victory short of advancing to the Division I state tournament last year. "Yeah, I was mad after that state alternate spot because it just sucks sometimes the way the brackets comes out … it's not how I wanted it," he said. "But it just gave me more motivation to be like, 'Hey, you can't look at the bracket, you've gotta get better so you can beat anybody that's in front of you.'" Avon Lake captured the outright championship due to finishing first in the SWC dual meets and second in the tournament. Amherst finished fourth in the dual meets, while Elyria finished second in the duals and fourth in the tournament and Avon finished third in both. "We have a lot of tough competitors in the SWC and I knew it was going to come down to those four teams up there at the top," Avon Lake coach Scott Sedlick said. "It was going to be a barnburner between all of them and we just had to see who ended up with it at the end. Amherst had its full lineup and they were ready to go. I talked to Bill the other day and said, 'I think this is the one. You've got the team to win this thing today.'" The host Shoremen finished with three champions in Jack Valerino (138 pounds), Felipe Covarrubias (190) and Clay Broadhurst (285). They had seven finalists and eight placers to back their 7-0 performance in SWC dual meets. "I'm gonna be honest with you," Sedlick said. "Before the season started, after graduating six seniors, I didn't think we necessarily had the team to go back-to-back. But once we started wrestling and practicing and going out there and wrestling these duals, I was like, 'Man, these guys are tough, like, we've got some tough kids.'" Avon matched their top rival with three individual champs — Anthony Mrosko (126), Adam Schumacher (175) and Eian Englehart (215) — and landed eight wrestlers on the podium. While Mrosko and Englehart captured their first SWC titles, Schumacher was making his third straight SWC finals appearance and won title No. 2. "This is definitely one of my favorite events," Schumacher said. "I look forward to this all year, and this one in particular means a lot to me because last year I came up short. The team's working really hard. We started off slow and we lost a tough dual to Elyria, but I think we've really picked up steam and we're feeling good heading into the postseason." Elyria topped everyone by finishing with four individual champions — Shamus Fogarty (113), Blake Cancel (132), Connor Holm (157) and Terrell Calhoun (165) — and Holm was the star of the day as he captured his third straight SWC title to become the 50th three-time champ and the first from Elyria, which has been a member of the league for just the past three seasons. "Consistency is what makes you good. It's mental and physical," Holm said. "Consistency for me, I do it in the wrestling room so it comes out on the mat, too, and that's a big thing that a lot of people don't understand — consistency on both sides. That's honestly how I've been able to do so good for so many years." Holm lost the chance to be a four-time conference champion due to no fault of his own. Elyria was a member of the Greater Cleveland Conference during his freshman season and the GCC decided to cancel its tournament due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. "I mean, yeah, it sucks," Holm said. "There was no GCC tournament my freshman year which could have made it four straight, but to be honest it's not really about that. It's cool to have three titles and I'm really just thinking about the next day, going out there and doing the same thing again. "It's real sad to see all this go. I mean, four years of hard work … it's crazy. It went by a lot faster than I thought it would." Cancel's final was the one that ended abruptly when North Ridgeville's Nathan Bober was penalized a point after what appeared to be only his second restart caution warning. Bober argued and was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and eventually disqualified from the match after continuing to argue. The initial report from the official was that Bober had been ejected from the event, which would mean he's suspended for the next two varsity events. Since the only event left on the schedule is the sectional tournament, that would mean Bober's high school career would be over. The possibility remains that Bober may only be disqualified from the match, which would allow him to compete next week in the postseason, but North Ridgeville will have to wait for the official ruling from the OHSAA to be handed down sometime this week. The Rangers actually scored the first champion of the day when junior Ian Rottari pinned Amherst's Chase Chandler in the second period of the 106 final. Rottari finished fourth at the same weight the past two seasons. "I really needed to bring it up here and get that win to reclaim what I didn't get (the past two years) and also to just show my improvement," Rottari said. Rottari scored first by fighting off a shot from Chandler and swinging around to earn the takedown. He also fought through a Chandler attack in the second to score the pin. "In my opinion, that's the most important thing in a wrestling match," Rottari said. "If you can have good defense, it messes with the other person mentally and it really gets you in a good spot to achieve. This really boosts my confidence going into sectionals and I'm really excited to wrestle tougher opponents and just really get at it." Midview's lone champion was senior Hunter Anderson, who completed a natural progression up the podium during his high school career. After not wrestling in the event as a freshman, Anderson finished third at 144 as a sophomore and was the 150 runner-up last season. "Yeah, three-two-one … it definitely shows that I've been working hard my senior year," he said. "But the SWC isn't everything I've been working for. We have three weeks ahead of us and I'm hoping to do the same thing here next week (in the Division I sectional). Same gym, same place … it's an awesome environment." Anderson's individual success during his senior season has been tempered by mixed results for the Middies as a team. "We've had up and downs all year," he said. "We came here and (heavyweight) Austin (Dye) is hurt and he couldn't wrestle today, which sucks, but we also had some guys really step up, like Nathan Shenberger – he (made it to) the finals and that's awesome for him. He beat two really good dudes to get there. "I've honestly been waiting for this moment for the last four years of my life — these next three weeks. I've worked so hard with my brother (Zak) and everybody in the room, different rooms working with different kids, and there's nothing more than I want to compete the next three weeks." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X. TEAM STANDINGS: Amherst 151, Avon Lake 145.5, Avon 130.5, Elyria 130, Berea-Midpark 95, Midview 76, Olmsted Falls 66.5, North Ridgeville 34. 106 — FIRST: Ian Rottari (NR) pinned Chase Chandler (Amherst), 2:15. THIRD: Bennett Wachter (Elyria) dec. Dominic Nofel (BM), 8-2. 113 — FIRST: Shamus Fogarty (Elyria) pinned Vinnie Bonominio (Amherst), 1:26. THIRD: Caleb Grimm (NR) pinned Gavon Honaker (OF), 1:24. 120 — FIRST: Vananthony Trunzo (Amherst) pinned Isaac Green (Elyria), 1:28. THIRD: Brady Hexter (OF) dec. Carrson Morris (Midview), 9-4. 126 — FIRST: Anthony Mrosko (Avon) pinned Nate Grieger (AL), 1:38. THIRD: Brandon DeBlasis (BM) pinned Gatlin Hassler (Midview), 4:10. 132 — FIRST: Blake Cancel (Elyria) def. Nathan Bober (NR) by DQ. THIRD: Aaron Cole (Midview) dec. Trey Daugherty (Avon), 5-0. 138 — FIRST: Jack Valerino (AL) dec. John Foye (Avon), 9-3. THIRD: Charlie Porter (Amherst) dec. Dylan DeVincent (BM), 11-6. 144 — FIRST: Andrew Connelly (OF) dec. Brayden Patterson (AL), 5-3. THIRD: Matthew Vidovich (Amherst) dec. Ryan Scott (Elyria), 4-1. 150 — FIRST: Hunter Anderson (Midview) pinned Gavin Andrews (AL), 3:16. THIRD: Caleb Crawford (Amherst) pinned Ryan Roberto (OF), 2:30. 157 — FIRST: Connor Holm (Elyria) pinned Isaac Vasquez (Amherst), :55. THIRD: Will Schnabel (AL) dec. Tommy Freeman (Avon), 7-4. 165 — FIRST: Terrell Calhoun (Elyria) maj. dec. Austin LaForce (BM), 15-5. THIRD: Niko Kalamaras (Avon) dec. Logan Banyas (Amherst), 6-0. 175 — FIRST: Adam Schumacher (Avon) dec. Nathanial Shenberger (Midview), 5-1. THIRD: Kemarion Wimberly (Elyria) dec. Noah Finley (BM), 5-2. 190 — FIRST: Felipe Covarrubias (AL) dec. Ryan Auvil (Amherst), 3-1 (SV). THIRD: Cort Zahorchak (OF) pinned Ian Stewart (BM), 3:46. 215 — FIRST: Eian Englehart (Avon) pinned Josh Heath (AL), 3:05. THIRD: Ross Auvil (Amherst) dec. Lance Lease (BM), 5-2. 285 — FIRST: Clay Broadhurst (AL) pinned Jeremiah Kelly (Avon), 1:57. THIRD: Jordan Hatfield (Amherst) pinned Tyler Visnic (BM), 2:59.