Rootstown lands second-place Disney Duals finish, 10 ranked wrestlers

A promising winter turned into a scorching summer for Rootstown.

The winter included the Rovers' young group of wrestlers capturing yet another Portage Trail Conference title and landing three state qualifiers.

Rootstown's summer started with a second-place finish at the AAU Scholastic Duals (also known as the Disney Duals), its top performance in the several years it has made the trip down to Orlando, and finished with 10 ranked wrestlers in the latest release from BoroFan.

"I think they're headed in the right direction," Rovers coach Craig Wise said. "There's 14 weights, so there's a few pieces we're still putting together as far as a complete dual team, but we should be pretty competitive in the dual tournament."

Beyond putting together a lineup, Rootstown strengthened an already powerful bond while in Orlando, from the long van ride there and back to the time the Rovers (and one wrestler apiece from Dalton and Mogadore) spent together at the resort and between matches.

"It's like the connections on our team, we've been together for so long," Rovers senior Sylas Reiheld said. "We didn't have seniors last year, so we're all returning. Just we've built such a strong bond so it's pretty crazy."

Seniors Cody Coontz, Sylas Reiheld, Lane McKenzie among Rootstown wrestlers to star in Orlando

Reiheld was one of a number of Rovers standouts down in Orlando, shaking off an auspicious start to finish 9-2. The Rootstown senior felt like nerves got the best of him in his opening match, a 3-0 loss to Montana Williston's Cutter Jones, but bounced back with a 4-0 victory over PECO Boys' Tucker Seidel.

"All I had in my head was I'm not losing, I'm not going 0-2 right now," Reiheld said. "I couldn't lose and I fought him off bottom the entire time. When he was wrestling, he didn't get a single back point or anything when he chose top the second period."

Reiheld was equally thrilled with his 5-1 victory over Fuzzy Bees' Gabe Sweckard, crediting Travis Linton with helping him prepare for Orlando.

"He's just an absolute freak technique-wise so really I just learned how to wrestle the real way," Reiheld said. "That's basically what I got out of that and I got to test it out and put it into this dual. That was probably the best I've ever wrestled."

Fellow seniors Cody Coontz and Lane McKenzie each went 10-1.

"[Cody] always does his job," Wise said. "[Lane] is very workman-like, has wrestled a thousand matches, not a ton of emotion, but gets the job done and he's a pinner."

Junior Bryce Edwards, making his return after not wrestling for the Rovers last season, was no less impressive, going 9-2 in Orlando.

"He's a hammer," Wise said. "He took a year off of wrestling, but he was in the gym the whole time, so he's as good as he wants to be. I've never doubted that for a second. He's a great wrestler."

Reiheld said he was also impressed by sophomore Nathan Lee, who went 8-3.

"He came to Disney with his head up," Reiheld said of Lee. "He was just fighting and tearing. That's what I really noticed."

In between wrestling some of the top talent in the country, the Rovers (who went by the Raiders in Orlando) also had their share of fun.

"We're chilling in our rooms," Reiheld said. "We're doing stuff at our hotel resort. We're just having fun. We go to Disney Springs. We're just enjoying our off time before matches as a team and it just really brings us close together."

(The Raiders also included a wrestler apiece from Mogadore, Tyler Shellenbarger, and Dalton, Austin Ryder. Shellenbarger, a rising senior for the Wildcats, went 10-1, including five victories by forfeit.)

Ten Rootstown wrestlers ranked by BoroFan

Given their success in Orlando, it was no surprise to see 10 ranked Rovers in one of the final releases of the summer from BoroFan.

Indeed, Wise made an argument that there should have been more, noting that Brian Youngblood is "as good as anybody in the room with the exclusion of maybe Cody and Bryce" while also praising Dylan Austin, Darren Furry and Dylan Wise.

"I thought all four of them had a shot at getting ranked in addition to the ten," Wise said. "But the ones that didn't get ranked will be ranked."

Coontz received the top ranking among Rootstown wrestlers, sitting fourth at 165 pounds, while Edwards (6th, 113), sophomore Dominic Duvall (9th, 144) and Reiheld (9th, 175) also received top-ten slots.

Duvall was particularly exciting in Orlando, picking up three straight close victories (all by four points or fewer) to round out AAU Scholastic Duals competition.

"He's just got the gas tank and people are starting to be aware," Wise said. "They know when they got to wrestle this guy, it's going to be six minutes of craziness, so he's fun to watch for sure. He is a pleasure to watch."

The Rovers' other ranked wrestlers were: junior Will McEwuen (11th, 106), sophomore Nick Malek (11th, 120), Lee (11th, 126), junior Tyler Paulus (15th, 138), sophomore Tristen McKibben (15th, 157) and McKenzie (18th, 190).

"The five freshmen (now sophomores), including Brian Youngblood, Tristen, Dominic, Nick and Nathan Lee are going to be really good," Wise said. "They're all going to be very good. By the time they're seniors, they'll be right there for sure."

Full Portage County wrestling rankings

Here's a full list of the local wrestlers noted in the latest BoroFan rankings:

Division I

Aurora (5): SO Johnny Green (2nd, 113), SO Luke Green (9th, 106), FR Drake Brasiel (10th, 132), SR Kyle Bizjak (18th, 150), SR Shane Cheatham (19th, 138)

Division II

Streetsboro (5): SR Donovan Paes (1st, 132), SR Anthony Perez (4th, 126), FR Anthony Sindelar (9th, 106), JR Aidan Carone (15th, 113), SO Cohen Klimak (15th, 157)

Division III

Crestwood (2): JR JP Wrobel (2nd, 126), FR Nolan Huntington (20th, 144)

Garfield (4): JR Keegan Sell (1st, 190), SR Hunter Andel (2nd, 165), SR Grayson Hoover (10th, 126)

Mogadore (1): SR Tyler Shellenbarger (11th, 285)

Rootstown (10): SR Cody Coontz (4th, 165), JR Bryce Edwards (6th, 113), SO Dominic Duvall (9th, 144), SR Sylas Reiheld (9th, 175), JR Will McEwuen (11th, 106), SO Nick Malek (11th, 120), SO Nathan Lee (11th, 126), JR Tyler Paulus (15th, 138), SO Tristen McKibben (15th, 157), SR Lane McKenzie (18th, 190).

Waterloo (1): SR Justin Fox (4th, 157)

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Rootstown concludes scorching summer with 10 ranked wrestlers