Tough day for local quartet
By GARY R. RASBERRY
The Daily Standard
COLUMBUS — The successes achieved during day one of the
67th Ohio State Wrestling Tournament were lost in heartbeats
on Friday during the second day of action.
St. Marys’ Caleb Cisco ended his comeback from a tough
first-round loss with a loss in the second round of consolations
and the Versailles trio of John Schmitmeyer, Eric Strausbaugh
and Mark Keiser each lost their first bout in the championship
quarterfinals on Friday then ended their seasons with consolation
matches in the afternoon and evening.
The determination that Cisco, who lost a disputed bout to open
Thursday only to work his way back for a major decision in the
evening, could not hold the momentum as he lost to Jeff Penny
of Milton-Union by a 12-3 margin to end his season with a record
of 33-7.
Cisco, a junior, was upbeat after the bout and knew he was in
for a challenge once he got to Columbus for the state meet.
“I’m happy to get this far,” said Cisco. “I
wrestled (Penny) earlier in the season and lost 11-4, so it
wasn’t much difference from wrestling him then to now.
... I was pretty happy with how I did this season. I’m
looking forward to next season.”
Schmitmeyer took on Stephen McDonald of Newark Catholic to start
on Friday in the 160-pound division. After a scoreless first
period, Schmitmeyer scored an escape to take a lead. McDonald
got an escape in the third period then scored a takedown to
get the 3-1 decision.
That put the Tiger senior in a win-or-go home situation in the
consolation round with Bellaire St. John’s grappler Chris
Case. Early on it appeared that Schmitmeyer hurt his knee and
grimmaced in pain when Case pulled on the leg.
Case allowed just two escapes in taking the 6-2 win and ending
Schmitmeyer’s season at 37-7.
Strausbaugh drew a tough 171-pound match against Spencer Dye
of Sandusky St. Mary, a state runner-up at 171 last season.
Dye showed why he’s considered as one of the favorites
for the 171 title this season by scoring a pin in 3:42.
Strausbaugh had to battle Amanda-Clearcreek’s Shawn Hess
to try and keep his season going. Strausbaugh couldn’t
get any offense going as Hess moved on with a 5-1 decision.
Kesier lost his quarterfinal tilt to Joe Ellwood of Indian Valley
South 7-3.
Keiser was unable to mount any offense as all points came on
escapes. Kesier was also penalized twice for stalling.
The Tiger junior kept his season going in the consolation round
with a 3-2 win over Aaron Neff of Apple Creek Waynedale, putting
Kesier in position for a shot at the top six if he could win
over Brian Bachna of Elyria Catholic.
After a first period that saw no scoring, Keiser chose down
to start the second. After 18 seconds, Keiser broke free for
the one point and held off Bachna for the remainder of the period.
Bachna was down to start the third and scored an escape. The
stalling woes of Keiser returned with a minute left as the offical
called for a one-point penalty to give Bachna the lead. Bachna
put the bout away with a takedown to take a 4-1 win.
“We were in all our matches,” said veteran Versailles
coach Bill Roll. “Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes
it doesn’t. We just hope we learn from it. Mark is back
next year and he can work from this.”
|
