High school wrestling: Host Avon Lake takes team title at Cobos Classic

AVON LAKE — When the whole team is wrestling well, the energy can be contagious. Especially at home. Avon Lake brought home five individual championships and sent 10 to the finals as they clinched the team title with 340 points, 113.5 more than the field, to win their own Cobos Insurance Classic Wrestling Tournament on Saturday. "Personally, I felt lifted up by my teammates," said Avon Lake's Will Schnabel, who defeated Strongsville's Dane Albert 18-3 in the 157 final. "Every kid was wrestling for placement. There was just great energy from the morning. I was wrestling good, I was feeling good and really I just want to thank my team, thank my coaches and thank my family. We've been putting in the work. I definitely feel like our team is outworking every other team out there. We have a lot of good kids this year." Lorain County sent 21 wrestlers to the finals and seven championship matches featured two area wrestlers. Avon went 3-0 in the final and North Ridgeville 2-1. All three from Amherst finished runnerup, as did both kids from Elyria Catholic. Wellington did not send any to the final. It went 1-1 in fifth-place matches. In addition to Valerino, Nathan Grieger (126), Kaeden Lademann (132), Jack Valerino (138) and Pablo Secin (215) all brought home titles. Grieger defeated North Ridgeville's Logan Rottari, 7-2, Lademann defeated Aurora's Cole Munn, 19-7, Valerino defeated Elyria Catholics' Jacob Jill, 8-1, and Secin rallied to beat Amherst's Jordan Hatfield, 10-6, by scoring eight unanswered points after trailing 6-2 midway through the second period. "I got my offense going today," Valerino said. "It was pretty good. I was able to pull through and it was just a good day for the whole team. It's great. Everyone on the team comes in every day and works their butts off. It's a really competitive room so everyone is getting better. And it shows on the mat. It's always great winning at home in front of all the fans." Avon wrestlers secured two of the four pins that occurred in a final, starting with junior Anthony Mrosko at 144 needing just 1:47 to pin Strongsville's Tyler Petkov. Eian Englehart (285) only needed 55 seconds to pin Avon Lake's Jackson West. Jack Schumacher won Avon's other title, defeating Landen Kunzelman of Avon Lake by 5-4 decision at 175. "My mindset going into this season is so much better than last season," Mrosko said. "I'm older, so I know how the sport goes better. I just want it more this season. I'm happy with the result, not too happy with the one match against Avon Lake, but it was pretty good day in my opinion. To be honest with you, the stronger mindset is just diet. Last season I was cutting weight all the time because I wasn't eating well. Now I'm just been clean diet, my weight has been perfect and I don't have to cut any more. It's not as hard as it used to be so now I can more focus on wrestling." North Ridgeville's Ian Rottari brought home the first title of the day, defeating Elyria Catholic's Maddox Moos 13-7. Rottari trailed 5-3 at the end of the first, but scored a near fall and a takedown to take control of the bout. Brian Taylor secured North Ridgeville's other title, winning his bout at 190 by pinning Avon Lake's Aide Omoijuanfo at 3:23. "It was just the mentality," Ian Rottari said. "I've been waiting to get back on the mat for the whole year. I've been practicing. I just really wanted to get back on the mat and I feel good about myself." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X. TEAM SCORES: 1. Avon Lake 340, 2. Aurora 226.5, 3. Strongsville 204, T-4. North Ridgeville 157.5, T-4. Amherst 157.5, 6. Avon 131, 7. Roosevelt 112, 8. Elyria Catholic 108, 9. Avon Lake (B) 65, 10. Wellington 53, 11. Lakewood 42. INDIVIDUAL RESULTS 106 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Ian Rottari (North Ridgeville) dec. Maddox Moos (Elyria Catholic, 13-7; THIRD: Henry Smith (Strongsville tech. fall Caden Peterson (Aurora), 18-0. 113 — Nicholas Turba (Aurora) tech. fall Devin Juristy (Amherst), 15-0; THIRD: Jacob Dunfee (Roosevelt) tech. fall Tyle Cole (Avon Lake), 19-3. 120 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Michael Rusinko (Strongsville) dec. Chase Chandler (Amherst), 7-4; THIRD: Caden Bristow (Avon Lake) pin Carter Sabatino (Aurora), 2:49. 126 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Nathan Grieger (Avon Lake) dec. Logan Rottarri (North Ridgeville), 7-2; THIRD: Hakeen Garcia (Elyria Catholic) maj. dec. Nathan Janakovich (Strongsville), 11-0. 132 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Kaeden Lademann (Avon Lake) maj. dec. Cole Munn (Aurora), 19-7; THIRD: Ostap Korpan (Strongsville) dec. Jaden Snakovsky (Strongsville), 4-0. 138 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Jack Valerino (Avon Lake) dec. Jacob Hill (Elyria Catholic), 8-1; THIRD: Canin Fritz (Amherst) maj. dec. Grant Eaton (Aurora), 16-3. 144 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Anthony Mrosko (Avon) pin Tyler Petkov (Strongsville), 1:47; THIRD: Brayden Patterson (Avon Lake) dec. Diezel Edgar (Lakewood), 5-0. 150 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Dominic Grecol (Strongsville) dec. Gavin Andrews (Avon Lake), 14-8; THIRD: Gio Kaplan (Aurora) maj. dec. Trey Daugherty (Avon), 13-5. 157 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Will Schnabel (Avon Lake) tech. fall Dane Albert (Strongsville), 13-3; THIRD: Gabe Shumney (Amherst) maj. dec. Kane Sparks (Avon), 20-10. 165 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Gavin Edwards (Roosevelt) pin Luke Peace (Avon Lake), 4:39; THIRD: Ambrose Leropoli (Avon Lake B) pin Jayden Shafer (North Ridgeville), 4:14. 175 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Jack Schumacher (Avon) dec. Landen Kunzelman (Avon Lake), 5-4; THIRD: A.J. Bruno (Aurora) dec. Jordan Bednar (Strongsville), 7-0. 190 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Brian Taylor (North Ridgeville) pin Aide Omoijuanfo (Avon Lake), 3:23; THIRD: Wyatt Harhay (Strongsville) pin Zach Barnes (North Ridgeville), 4:01. 215 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Pablo Secin (Avon Lake) dec. Jordan Hatfield (Amherst), 10-6; THIRD: Ethan Humbert (Roosevelt) pin. Daniel Serrano (Strongsville), 2:14. 285 — CHAMPIONSHIP: Eian Englehart (Avon) pin Jackson West (Avon Lake), 0:55; THIRD: Matthew Copley (Aurora) pin. Noah Dunlap (Roosevelt), 2:17.