Anthony Wayne Wrestling Team Hits The Wall In Ashland District Meet
BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
Anthony Wayne won the Northern Lakes League championship and just missed winning a Division I sectional title at Marion Harding, but when it entered the D-I district meet at Ashland, the hot season froze solid.
The seven Generals to advance to the district brackets all bowed out. Just one, senior Bill Irwin, made it beyond the first round of the championship bracket with a victory.
This district meet housed nationally known Lakewood St. Edward’s, which sent all 14 grapplers available to the tourney.
Akron-area Wadsworth is one of the state’s top public school programs and sent 13, and nearby Clay also sent a very rare 14 wrestlers to this bracket as Toledo City League and Rogers D-I sectional champs.
St. Ed’s won the team title with 289.5 points, Wadsworth finished second with 271 and Clay took fourth with 113, advancing four athletes to Columbus.
The Generals scored just six team points and finished tied with Whitmer for 32nd.
Irwin’s lone victory on the weekend in the 130-pound weight class proved to be a monumental one despite his inability to advance to his first high school state tourney. It gave him 35 wins on the season and ties him with Caleb Metcalf atop the all-time Anthony Wayne career wins list at 115.
At Ashland, Irwin pinned Whitmer’s Jeremy Opial in 4:21 of their opening-round match, but he then lost by fall to Medina’s Matt Hammer in 2:41 of the second round. Irwin then lost his next match in the consolation bracket to Wadsworth’s Cory Jones 7-3. He finished the season with a 35-12 record.
Junior Alex Bridges (189) was the only other General to win a match at Ashland- and he won twice in the consolation brackets before suffering a tough elimination loss. Bridges entered the weekend as an NLL champion with a 38-7 record, but he was doubled up by St. Ed’s Chris Cvetic 12-6 in the opening round.
In the consolation first round, he rebounded with an 11-5 decision over Barberton’s Vern Rowe and moved past the second round with a 10-4 triumph over Kyle Heitmeyer of St. Francis deSales.
In the quarterfinals, Bridges ended an excellent breakout year with a team-best 40-9 mark after losing a 3-2 decision to Medina’s Joe Gigliotti.
At 103, freshman Christian Yates was pinned by Brecksville’s Tommy Pruchisnki at 2:41 of the opening round. Yates then lost a heartbreaking 8-6 overtime decision to Dominic Diaz of Lorain Southview in the consolation first round to finish the year 21-10.
Sophomore Tommy Irwin opened the weekend against Yousef Abdel Salam of Lorain Admiral King and lost by fall at 4:43. Clay’s Mike Screptock then pinned Irwin at 2:14 of a first round consolation match. Irwin wrapped up the year at 20-23.
Senior Jamie Brown drew a scary opening-round bout with eventual district 125-pound champ and state title contender Gus Sako of St. Ed’s. Sako recorded a fall in 30 seconds. Brown then lost a very close 12-10 decision against NLL champ Robbie Shiekh of Springfield in the consolation opening round. Brown went 25-20 this season.
Senior Sean Lubinski took on eventual third-place finisher Josh Linden of Brecksville in a 160-pound opening-round battle and Linden pinned him in 1:56. Lubinski then got pinned by Ted Schoen of St. John’s Jesuit in 3:36 during the consolation opening round, finishing his final season with a 25-10 mark.
Junior Tayo Osinowo (171) finished a breakout season with a 29-17 record after losing both of his district matches. He met a familiar foe in the opening round in Southview’s Garson Darrin, who recorded a 14-4 major decision. Strongsville’s Clay Angeloff then held off a hearty effort by Osinowo in the consolation first round for an 8-4 decision.

Bowling Green Trio Trounces Anthony Wayne Boys Basketball Team
BY SCOTT CALHOUN — MIRROR SPORTS
Visiting Bowling Green got a combined 43 points from Chauncey Orr, Tony Dible and Xavier Brown in the first half alone to help propel the Bobcats past hapless Anthony Wayne, 75-52, in the Generals’ final home game of the season.
AW ended the regular season with a single victory at 1-19 overall and 1-13 in the Northern Lakes League.
Dible drilled five 3-pointers and led the Bobcats with 23 points, Orr crested at 20 and Brown tallied all 13 of his rim contributions during the opening half.
Senior Brad Celusta concluded his AW home career with 18 points and senior Andrew Donnal put out an entertaining double-double performance in his, using an unexpected but crowd-rousing 2-for-2 trey performance before ending up with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The aforementioned Bobcats trio was simply too much for the overmatched Generals, however.
Dible and Orr each scored 15 points in the first half with Brown’s 13 helping BG build a 14-5 lead with 2:48 left in the first quarter before extending it to 21-9 at the buzzer.
Dible, Orr and Jonathan Stoner all knocked down treys in the first eight minutes. Dible (five threes) added his second one to begin the second quarter and followed with an 11-foot jumper to increase the advantage to 26-19.
Following a pair of AW free throws by Matt Green, the Bobcats then went on a game-breaking 19-4 run to open up a huge 45-15 margin en route to a 28-point second quarter that left the Generals heading to the locker room at halftime down 49-22.
Celusta easily led all Generals in the half with nine points. Green had all four of his in the second quarter. AW committed 14 first-half turnovers to BG’s five.
Dible added his final two triples in the third quarter and Orr completed his evening with five points in the stanza to help keep the Bobcats well in front, 65-36, after three. Celusta, Donnal and senior Sam Fischer each hit treys.
Celusta and Donnal added one more three apiece in the fourth quarter as the Generals took advantage of BG’s big three sitting on the bench to outscore the Bobcats 16-10 and close the gap slightly.
The Bobcats were able to roll despite shooting just 8-of-18 at the free throw line. AW finished 7-of-13 at the line but committed 20 turnovers in the game against Bowling Green’s 14.
Celusta grabbed seven rebounds, Jake Conklin scored five points and Demetrius Brown came off the bench late to score four.
Orr had five boards and Brown four plus three assists as the Bobcats wrapped up NLL play with an 11-3 mark and an overall regular season record of 13-6.