The 2024 Ant Classic at Westlake showed Demons coach Mike Carpenter a lot.
The young Demons went 3-0 in their dual pool matches, beating Bay, Strongsville and Lorain to match up with Hudson in the title dual round Jan. 13 on their home mats. While the Explorers secured the tournament title with a few matches remaining, both the young wrestlers and the veterans took strides forward on the day.
“We were happy to get a lot of good matches in today,” Carpenter said. “(From) Lorain, Bay, and then Strongsville and Hudson, we got a lot of great competition in. Some outcomes weren’t great – a lot of things to work on for both our new guys and our veterans.
“But we saw a lot of good things, too, where they’re wrestling hard, competing hard and the young guys are coming around.”
At the GLC Duals Tournament a little less than a month before, Westlake ran up against conference dynamo Buckeye, with only returning state qualifier Brad Cerankosky (113) and junior Tanner Moore (132) winning matches that Dec. 22 afternoon.
Several matches in the title round with Hudson went full time or deep into second and third periods, especially among the younger middle and heavyweight wrestlers. One example was junior Sammy Salem (215) gutting out a narrow 2-1 decision. Against Buckeye, he was taken down quickly.
Following that slow start, those newer and less experienced wrestlers like Sosa have started to come into their own. It’s perfect timing, too, with the GLC Conference tournament at Westlake just under a month away.
“Sammy has done a nice job. He struggled a little bit earlier on in the season but he’s come around and been confident,” said Carpenter. “He’s won a lot of matches for us recently. Hopefully, we keep improving him and the whole rest of the team – and get a lot of guys hopefully placing and winning conference, get as many guys as we can at districts and see where we can go from there.”
In the third-fourth place dual, Rocky River and Bay were neck-and-neck, with the lead yo-yo-ing from one side to the other. The two sides tied at the GLC Duals, with Bay prevailing on tiebreaker back in December.
With Rocky River up, 36-34, heading into the final match, Bay had their ace in the hole to close things out at 120 pounds – 2023 state placer Anthony Rocco.
The senior Rocket kept getting takedowns and racking up points initially. While he looked set to go for a tech fall, Rocco quickly finished his opponent off via fall to cap off Bay’s day with a 3-1 team performance with a 40-36 win.
“It was good. It was a lot of fun,” Rocco said of the two duals versus the Pirates. “I know a lot of the people, they’re great wrestlers all-around. It was a lot of fun and I wanted to get a high-crotch in… that’s something I need to work on and work on my shots.
“Then I looked up and my coach was like ‘OK, what are you doing?’ and I’m like ‘all right’, that’s basically it. It was a lot of fun though.”
Strongsville came out ahead of North Olmsted for fifth place, with Lorain and Warrensville Heights rounding out the final two spots in the field.
