Cavaliers cruise past Tigers

COLDWATER - Coldwater wrestling coach Rob Schmidt couldn't have asked for a better start to his team's match in the Division II wrestling dual team regional tournament on Wednesday night at the Palace.

The Cavaliers tallied four straight victories via pinfall en route to beating Galion 69-9 in the regional quarterfinal.

Coldwater will host the regional semifinals and final next Wednesday starting at 5 p.m. The Cavaliers will face Marion Pleasant in one semifinal with the other semifinal involving West Jefferson and Mechanicsburg. The winners will face off 20 minutes after the conclusion of the semifinals with the winner advancing to the state tournament at St. John Arena in Columbus on Feb. 14.

Originally scheduled to face Lincolnview in a first round, the Cavaliers earned the bye to the quarterfinal when the Lancers had to withdraw due to injury. Galion needed a pin by Weldon Mason in the 285-pound bout to advance with a 39-36 win over Delphos Jefferson.

Coldwater came out firing on all cylinders. Brian Chmielewski started the run of pins with a fall on Brendan Ganshorn at 106 pounds in just over two minutes. Brothers Justin and Kyle Sigler followed with a pair of quick pins. Justin won his 113-pound bout in 22 seconds with older brother Kyle one-upping little brother with a win at 120 in 19 seconds. Jay Uhlenhake made it a grand slam of pins at 126 and Sam Muhlenkamp got his hand raised when Galion could not fill 132 pounds, making the score 30-0.

"That was our strategy coming in," Schmidt said. "We knew we had some kids at the bottom (of the lineup in the heavier weights). This made it easy for the big guys. The little guys put it to them and took pressure off the big guys."

Cody Tebbe broke the pin streak with a 5-1 decision victory at 138. Spencer Seibert made it five pins in six contested matches at 145. Coldwater earned six more points at 152 with a Galion void.

The win streak for the Cavs ended at 160 when the Tigers' Drake Barnett won by a 7-4 decision over Grant Kaiser. Andrew Meyer (170), Mitch Clune (182) and Zach Klosterman scored back-to-back-to back pins in times of 2:54, 40 seconds and 16 seconds, respectively.

Nick McDaniel pinned A.J. Kunk to give Galion six more points, but Thomas Schwieterman wrapped up the evening for Coldwater in style by pinning Mason in 4:20.
DIVISION II
Graham Regional

Celina started its regional tournament with a 44-27 win over Benjamin Logan at Graham High School.

The match went back-and-forth with the Bulldogs and Raiders trading wins. Celina finally took control with Roman Mitchell's pinfall win at 170 pounds over Toby Current. Tim Ferrell followed by pinning Lane Crutchfield at 182 pounds. Kent Jutte clinched the match at 195 pounds with a pin of Brock LeVan in 58 seconds. Roger Datres completed the scoring for Celina with a win via void at 220 pounds.

Tyler Dillion picked up a win via technical fall for Celina against Benjamin Logan. Winning by decision was Austin Hines.

The win put Celina into a second round match against defending state team and individual champion Graham. The nationally-ranked Falcons proved so much, recording 13 pinfall wins in 13 contested matches for an 84-0 win.
Wapakoneta Regional  

Backyard rivals St. Marys and Wapakoneta faced off in the opening round of the regional held at Wapakoneta High School.

The Roughriders led 12-0 early due to voids by the Redskins, but Wapakoneta stormed back to take the match 40-27.

Patrick Day (152) and Collin Keifer (285) tallied wins via pinfall for St. Marys on the evening. Tyler Miller added a win via decision.

Wapakoneta defeated Caledonia River Valley 37-30 in the final match of the night to advance to face Graham next week at a site to be determined.