Cardinal wrestlers Trevor Bachna, Paul Byler and Zane Drebus all placed among the top four in their respective weight classes at Saturday’s Division III sectional tournament at Beachwood High School and will wrestle in the Garfield Heights district tournament this weekend.
Bachna finished fourth at 126 pounds, Byler was third at 132 and Drebus finished fourth at 152.
“I’m very happy for the guys who got out,” said Cardinal coach Jeff Zeigler. “We definitely took our lumps this year but we’ve got great things to build on.”
Bachna took an unconventional path to the district tournament.
He lost his first match to eventual sectional champion Noah Campbell of Pymatuning Valley then drew a bye into the consolation semifinals where he received a forfeit after another wrestler was disqualified from the tournament for unsportsmanlike conduct.
He lost the third place match to finish 1-2 in the tournament.
“I’m excited for Bachna.” Zeigler said. “Even though he didn’t win a match and got in by default after the disqualification but that’s part of the game, keeping your head. Trevor lost a couple of matches and was really mad but he kept his cool and shook the hand. It’s not all about winning; it’s about being respectful and accountable for yourself. He gets the experience to wrestle (at districts) and that’s great. That made Byler hungry to get back there last year. Even though he was fourth and lost two matches, he was hungry to get back there.”
Byler used a 9-5 decision to advance to the semifinals then dropped into the consolation bracket. He responded with a major decision in the consolation semifinals and beat Garfield’s Logan Rutherford, 9-4, in the third place match.
Drebus lost his first match then used back-to-back pins to advance to the third place match.
“Byler wrestled OK to place third, up a place from where he was there, and Zane did a nice job too,” Zeigler said. “He wrestled good and showed improvement over the last couple of weeks. He gets to wrestle there after being an alternate last year. Both those guys were up a place from where they were last year.”
After finishing fifth at sectionals last year as a sophomore, Drebus was focused on punching his ticket to districts.
“At the beginning of the season, my coach has everyone on my team write down our goals for the season and what we hope to achieve,” Drebus said. “I wrote down that I want to go to districts, a goal that I have had since freshman year. I can’t explain, nor could anyone ever understand, the pride I had when I made it. I am so proud of the improvements I have made and I have to give huge thanks to all of my coaches who have worked with me one-on-one every single day improving me to help reach my goal.”
That improvement carried over into the sectional tournament.
Drebus was pinned by Pymatuning Valley’s Chad Brown in the quarterfinals. The two met again in the finals round, where Brown won 10-6.
“I was very happy with how sectionals had played out for me,” Drebus said. “I know I could have done better and I wish I had won my last match of the day, but now I know what I need to work on throughout the week. I was happy with how I wrestled though.”
Earning a spot in the district tournament was just the inspiration Drebus needed to work even harder this week and in the future.
“I guess I have always sold myself short on my potential in this sport but moving on to districts is the wakeup call I needed to push me harder than I have ever pushed before to be the greatest I can be,” he said. “I am going to be spending all week drilling the basics for hours every day. I am really hoping to be a force to be reckoned with at the competition next weekend.”
Freshman Jerry Rose came up a bit short at 145 pounds, one of the most competitive weight classes at the tournament.
He used two pins to reach the semifinals then gave Garfield’s Logan Kissell, who was third in the state last year, a scare before falling, 13-4.
Rose then lost to Berkshire’s Mason Lustig, 6-5 in double overtime. Lustig wrestled at Cardinal last season.
“It’s sad because Jerry deserved to go, he really does,” Zeigler said. “There are guys wrestling over there (at districts) that he has beat that came out of other sectionals. He gave Kissell a heck of a match. He took him down and had him on his back a little bit and had him shaken up a little bit. He wrestled really strong then had to wrestle Mason, our own kid basically, and took him to double overtime. He had a cradle locked up in regulation. If he had two more seconds he would have had two back points and wouldn’t have even gone to overtime.”
Rose, who won 28 matches as a freshman, is a district alternate.
Ryan Shanower (120), Gene Henry (138) and Devan Callison (195) all placed sixth for the Huskies.
Sect. Tournament: Div. III – Beachwood Scores
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1. Newbury 163.5; 2. Pymatuning Valley 147.5; 3. Gar. Garfield 123.0; 4. Ash. St. John 119.5; 5. Grand Valley 104.5; 6. Berkshire 98.0; 7. Beachwood 93.0; 8. Brookfield 70.0; 9. Hawken 67.0; 10. Kirtland 65.5; 11. Cardinal 63.0; 12. Wickliffe 45.0;
First Place
106: Daniel Demma (Gar. Garfield) dec. James Klingman (Berkshire) 7-4;
113: Jake Edelman (Pymatuning Valley) pin Jackson Reineke (Hawken) 2:44;
120: J.P. Hlifka (Hawken) dec. William Campbell (Pymatuning Valley) 9-4;
126: Noah Campbell (Pymatuning Valley) pin Paul Jacobs (Beachwood) 3:23;
132: Anthony Surace (Berkshire) pin Thomas Bond (Newbury) 2:59;
138: Nick Burgard (Ash. St. John) forfeit Jarrod Malkus (Berkshire) Forfeit;
145: Logan Kissell (Gar. Garfield) maj. dec. Mike Weston (Newbury) md14-2;
152: David Cumberledge (Ash. St. John) pin Connor Hrubik (Gar. Garfield) 1:03;
160: Ryan Finney (Gar. Garfield) pin Christian Blank (Ash. St. John) 5:37;
170: Jacob Lagoa (Ash. St. John) pin Doug Byrne (Wickliffe) 2:27;
182: Bryce Randall (Brookfield) pin Zach Hazlett (Grand Valley) 3:42;
195: Mitch Sanders (Newbury) pin Mason Shreve (Grand Valley) 0:52;
220: Gaige Willis (Pymatuning Valley) pin Chase Cottrell (Grand Valley) 1:55;
285: Derek Elrod (Ash. St. John) dec. Caleb Bean (Pymatuning Valley) 3-0;
Third Place
106: Joey Bond (Newbury) pin Jeremy Leizman (Beachwood) 0:51;
113: Trevor Meeker (Grand Valley) pin Josh Tribuzzo (Berkshire) 2:02;
120: Konnor Duncan (Kirtland) pin John Webb (Brookfield) 2:16;
126: Jake Buttari (Wickliffe) pin Trevor Bacna (Cardinal) 4:30;
132: Paul Byler (Cardinal) dec. Logan Rutherford (Gar. Garfield) 9-4;
138: Michael Schmidt (Beachwood) maj. dec. Mathew Sexton (Grand Valley) md16-6;
145: Mason Lustig (Berkshire) dec. Brayden Adkins (Kirtland) 3-2;
152: Chad Brown (Pymatuning Valley) dec. Zane Drebus (Cardinal) 10-6;
160: Clayton Takacs (Grand Valley) forfeit John Chambers (Newbury) Forfeit;
170: Mike McKale (Newbury) pin Taylor Balasz (Beachwood) 2:37;
182: Alex Piczer (Newbury) pin Elijah Durham-Harris (Beachwood) 4:03;
195: Joe Hackett (Brookfield) pin Austin Mayo (Kirtland) 2:47;
220: Jared Gray (Newbury) pin Jeff Kusar (Kirtland) 2:37;
285: William Lindsey (Hawken) pin Hunter Baumiller (Brookfield) 4:49;
Fifth Place
106: Carter Williamson (Kirtland) Bye Bye Bye;
113: Aadi Dutt (Beachwood) maj. dec. Noah Williamson (Newbury) md11-3;
120: Zach Kudroff (Beachwood) maj. dec. Ryan Shanower (Cardinal) md12-2;
126: Brandon Hepper (Kirtland) forfeit Logan Lustig (Berkshire) Forfeit;
132: Jay Doyle (Hawken) dec. Dillen Knowles (Pymatuning Valley) 10-3;
138: Nathan Mohar (Newbury) pin Gene Henery (Cardinal) 0:31;
145: Jerry Rose (Cardinal) pin Ernie Landi (Wickliffe) 1:45;
152: James Flowers (Beachwood) dec. Jared Zimperman (Newbury) 5-4;
160: Jimmy McClellan (Berkshire) pin Jordin Sidhu (Wickliffe) 2:45;
170: David Nye (Grand Valley) pin Wade Leonard (Pymatuning Valley) 0:16;
182: Jarrod Peters (Gar. Garfield) pin Ryan Ford (Berkshire) 2:00;
195: Leonard Udell (Pymatuning Valley) pin Deven Callison (Cardinal) 0:30;
220: Gavin Lever (Beachwood) pin Kyle Wedge (Brookfield) 2:16;
285: Noah Hoffmann (Gar. Garfield) pin Daniel Gearhart (Grand Valley) 1:36;
