Englehart wins district wrestling title, earns first state meet berth
Eian Englehart won his first district championship Saturday to earn his first berth in the state wrestling championships March 13-15 at the Schottenstein Center on the Ohio State University campus.
Englehart, who has lost just once this season, defeated Drayston Martin of Ashland for the second consecutive week to win the 215-pound weight class, blanking the fellow senior, 5-0, in the Division I District Meet at Wadsworth High School. Last week in the sectional tournament at Maple Heights High School, Englehart defeated Martin, 10-3.
The top four finishers in each weight class earned a spot in the state meet, which Englehart clinched by pinning Louisville’s Jakeb Beard in just 54 seconds in the semifinals. In his other two matches he pinned Dylan Buffard of Euclid in 34 seconds in the first round and then took a 7-0 decision over Xzavior Mayo of Austintown-Fitch in the quarterfinals.
As a team, Avon placed 17th with a total of 43 points. The Eagles were represented by four wrestlers, as seniors Englehart, Anthony Mrosko (144 pounds) and Jake Schumacher (165) and sophomore Derek Weitzel (285) all qualified for district competition.
Mrosko came excruciatingly close to earning a trip to Columbus. First, he lost to Aric Criss of Louisville in the consolation semifinals, 8-2. Had he won that match he would have been assured of a top-four finish. He then lost by technical fall to Sean Heil of North Royalton in the fifth-place match, with the winner being named an alternate to the state meet.
Mrosko opened the tournament with an 11-7 victory over Nathan Skolnik of North Canton Hoover but then lost by technical fall in the quarterfinal round to eventual champion Mason Rohr of Massillon Perry. Mrosko pinned Ostap Korpan of Strongsville at the 2:50 mark in the second consolation round and topped Grant Cundiff of Canton GlenOak in the third consolation round with an 8-5 sudden victory in overtime to earn a spot in the consolation semifinals.
Weitzel won his first-round match by pin in just 34 seconds over Hunter Shuster of Wooster. He then lost in the second round to Marvin Guerra of Painesville Harvey, 6-2. Weitzel came back to pin Jamari Campbell of Rhodes in 30 seconds in the second consolation round, but in the third consolation round his tournament ended when he lost by default to Zander McCrobie of Louisville.
Schumacher lost his opening match to Caden Mariola of Walsh Jesuit by technical fall. He came back to blank Ronell Strickland of Austintown-Fitch, 7-0, in the first consolation round, but his tournament came to an end in the second consolation round when he was pinned in 1 minute by Talon Boyd of Ashland.
