Three Bees headed to state wrestling tournament

Three Medina wrestlers will compete this weekend at the state tournament at the Schottenstein Center, and all three have positioned themselves to do some damage at the sport’s marquee event.

Medina had three sectional champions among four placers on the way to a fourth-place finish Saturday at the Wadsworth Division I District. The Bees totaled 101 points, leaving them behind only Massillon Perry (241), Louisville (175) and Ashland (153), while edging host Wadsworth’s 99.5.

Heading to Columbus, where they will each face fourth-place finishers from other districts in the first round, are 113-pound sophomore Dominic DiFilippo, 120-pound senior Taegan Gilmore and 285-pound senior Cliff Nicholson, who all ran the table through the four-round district tournament. Tyler Bradshaw, a 132-pound senior, finished sixth to earn a spot on the podium.

DiFilippo was as good as anyone on the mat at Wadsworth, winning all four matches via pin to run his season record to 44-4. His first two matches lasted a total of 1 minute, 19 seconds. He pinned Louisville’s Paxton Laughlin with five seconds left in the semifinals, then stopped Barberton’s Gasper Ramuyndo Marcos with seven seconds left in the second period of the final match.

Gilmore’s road was a bit tougher, but he cleared all hurdles. That started with a 20-second first-round pin of North Royalton’s Nico Lallo, after which Gilmore defeated Hoover’s Stamatios Paxos via injury default in the quarterfinals. Paxos came back the next day to finish fifth. Gilmore’s second day included a 5-3 decision over Max Ohl of Ashland in the semifinals before he finished his title run with a 13-6 decision over Mayfield’s Asibek Anvaroz to improve to 49-2.

Nicholson won three times via pin and once by injury default. He started with a 25-second victory over Luke Spinos of St. Ignatius, then stopped Perry’s Marco Salazar in the quarterfinals in 2:52. When Walsh Jesuit’s Joey Ma could not go in the semifinals, Nicholson was catapulted into the final, in which he pinned Jake Earnest of Wadsworth just 11 seconds into the final period.

The loss was just the second this season for Earnest, while Nicholson moved to a healthy 47-1. Ma, incidentally, still could not wrestle on the second day and finished fifth, making him a state alternate.

Bradshaw won his first match over Ashland’s Paxton Young but could not get past eventual district champion Liston Siebert of Perry, losing by technical fall in the quarterfinals. Bradshaw won his first two consolation bouts but in the so-called “blood” round, with a state berth on the line, lost 8-0 to Josiah Sims of Lyndhurst Brush. In the placement bout, Bradshaw fell 17-3 to Liam Montgomery of Louisville.

In perhaps a bit of an upset, junior Cooper Kaplack lost two of three matches at 126, getting his only win via forfeit. Kaplack went in as a sectional champion. Junior Cooper Lavender went in as an alternate at 138 and won one of three matches.

Gymnastics

Bees senior Anna Schork placed fourth at the state gymnastics meet in the all-around competition. The All-Ohioan finished with a total of 37.350 points, trailing only state champion Sofia Macias of Kenston (38.000), Wooster’s McKinley Hackett (37.825) and Solon’s Samantha Singleton (37.800).

Schork scored 9.350 on the vault, 9.050 on the uneven parallel bars, 9.475 on the balance beam and 9.550 on the floor exercise. Schork’s beam score made her state runner-up on that apparatus to Brecksville’s Abby Pignatello, who scored a 9.500. She placed fifth on the floor, having qualified for those individual events.

Buckeye senior Neveah Sejka placed 13th all-around with a 35.700 total. She scored 8.775 on vault, 8.700 on bars, 9.125 on beam and 9.100 on floor.

For Highland, senior Ally Gryskiewicz finished tied for ninth on the balance beam with a score of 9.150.