GATES MILLS—Led by freshman Patrick Reineke, Hawken wrestlers claimed three individual championships and four ottop-six six finishes at the 2018 Hawken Invitational Tournament on Saturday.
The Hawks finished third as a team with 141 points. Brecksville won the tournament with 179 points while Pymatuning Valley was second with 149.
“It was a great weekend,” Hawken coach Bob Rodriguez said. “We only had seven guys entered and they all placed. We took third with only half a team so that was awesome.”
Reineke finished 3-0 to win the 106-pound bracket and also was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler.
He opened the tournament with a first-round pin then defeated Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin junior Kaden Frantz, a returning Division II district qualifier, 7-6, in the semifinals. He scored a 16-3 major decision over Newbury’s Joey Bond in the championship bout.
“He’s a very hard worker, he and his brother both,” Rodriguez said of Reineke and his brother Jackson, the 126-pound champion. “They put a lot of time in and it shows. He’s really a student of the game. He really loves wrestling and he knows his stuff. He has very good technique.”
Jackson Reineke, a junior, used a pair of first-period pins to reach Saturday night’s championship bout, where he defeated Pymatuning Valley’s William Campbell, 7-3.
Junior William Lindsey also won a title for the Hawks when he pinned Chagrin Falls’ Henry Woofter in 1 minute, 57 seconds of the 285-pound title bout.
Lindsey finished the tournament with three pins and a decision.
“All of them had great weekends but Will stepped it up,” Rodriguez said. “This was his first championship here and same with Jackson, who was behind JP Hlifka the last two years, so now is his time to step up. He did an awesome job.”
Freshman Jacob Hlifka finished fifth at 120, junior Andrew Wagenberg placed fourth at 132, senior Alex French finished second at 152 and freshman Carson Ruch earned a sixth-place finish at 170 for the Hawks.
“The whole team wrestled well,” Rodriguez said. “We only had four returning kids out of 10 kids in our room, so the whole team stepped up to have seven kids place. It was really awesome.”
Other Chagrin Valley Conference place winners included Beachwood’s Eisa Texiera (4th at 126), Paul Jacobs (5th at 132), Michael Schmidt (4th at 145) and Elijah Durham-Harris (2nd at 195); Cardinal’s Ty Zeigler (4th at 106), Ryan Shanower (5th at 126), Trevor Bachna (6th at 145), Anthony Brezo (6th at 160), Jerry Rose (2nd at 170) and John Avalon (6th at 220), Chagrin Falls’ Jonathan Mares (6th at 132), Sam Partain (6th at 138) and Woofter (2nd at 285); Independence’s Collin Patton (6th at 113), Richie DiGeronimo (3rd at 120), Brian Vollman (4th at 182) and Braden Sears (3rd at 220).
