Rootstown wrestling tops Southeast, clinches outright PTC title

ROOTSTOWN — The question entering Thursday's Portage Trail Conference finale was simple: Could the Rovers rack up enough points early to hold off an expected Pirates barrage in the heavier weights?

Rootstown did exactly that Thursday, winning nine of the first 11 weight classes to capture a 51-28 victory despite Southeast ending the night with three straight pins.

"Forty-three is the magic number," Rovers coach Craig Wise said. "That's the win."

As a result, Rootstown, despite returning precious few letterwinners to start the year, racked up its 11th league championship in the past 12 seasons.

"We had good energy," Rovers freshman Nick Malek said. "We had everybody's heads up. Nobody was down and these boys just work hard. We go into practice. We do the things that no one thinks we can do and we achieve them."

Rootstown freshmen Nick Malek, Nathan Lee provide early lift

Over and over, the Rovers' young lightweights and middleweights stepped up Thursday, including Malek (120 pounds) breaking a 6-6 tie in the team score with a thunderous start to the second period and a pin with a second remaining in his bout against state-ranked Ryan Ramser, a district qualifier for the Pirates a season ago.

After Southeast's Owen Martin (106) and Rootstown's Will McEwuen (113) won via first-round pins, Malek and Ramser found themselves knotted after two minutes.

Starting the second period in the underneath position, with the score knotted at two, Malek managed a quick reversal and then was able to sprawl on top of Ramser for a near fall and a 7-2 lead that stayed strong into his last-second pin.

"He's explosive for sure," Wise said. "He's real explosive, and if we can keep him under control, he's going to be great."

Fellow Rootstown ninth-grader Nathan Lee (126) came up clutch as well in another critical contest against a returning district qualifier in Southeast's Nolan Truex.

Starting the second in the underneath position, much like Malek, and trailing 4-2, Lee's reversal didn't come quite as quickly, as Truex was able to maintain the upper hand for roughly 40 seconds. Finally, at the 1:13 mark, Lee surged on top for a reversal, then knotted at four entering the third, got behind Truex for two points and eventually locked Truex up by the side for a win by pin in 5:13.

"He had some poise," Wise said. "He hung in there and he's a good wrestler. He's very technical and I figured as a long match, as it went on, we would have our moment and he did."

Middleweights come up clutch for Rootstown once more

With a 10-1 decision at 132 pounds, Southeast senior Mason Amodio, a returning state qualifier, drew the Pirates close one last time at 18-10.

The Rovers rolled from there.

Sophomore Tyler Paulus (138) and freshmen Brian Youngblood (144) and Tristen McKibben (150) landed back-to-back-to-back first-period pins.

"They push each other," Rootstown junior Lane McKenzie said of the team's young wrestlers. "We're all a big team. The freshmen, they all go really hard in the room. They want it just as much as us older guys do."

Southeast's Joe Kline, on a bit of a tear of late, gave Rootstown star junior Cody Coontz a battle at 157, but Coontz managed a pin early in the second period.

Rovers junior Sylas Reiheld faced a similar challenge against a Pirates senior in Vinnie Sanderfer who was also coming off a number of key wins, but Reiheld came up with a strong push to get Sanderfer on the mat early for a 2-0 lead and then the lanky Reiheld proved tricky to score on the rest of the way for a 9-1 victory.

"He's long," Wise said. "He's strong. He's definitely hard to take down."

McKenzie capped the streak with a first-round pin at 175.

The good news for the Pirates?

Jaidyn Sapp, Spencer Mesaros and Preston Bello were up and the big three came up with a series of first-round pins.

The good news for the Rovers?

They already held an insurmountable 46-10 advantage at that point.

"All the freshmen stepped up," Wise said. "It's a young group, so the future is bright."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Rootstown wrestling tops Southeast, clinches outright PTC title