Waite, Northwood go one-two in City League wrestling

At the Toledo City League wrestling meet, Waite came shooting right out of the gun to quickly take four weight classes and then hold on to defeat Northwood for the team championship.
The two east side schools proved to be the most formidable as Waite won 177-159 over second place Northwood. Bowsher (126) was third, followed by Woodward (76), Rogers (61), Start (51) Scott (26), and Toledo Christian finished last.
Matter of fact, it is not just Waite and Northwood on this side of town. Of nine schools that boast wrestling as one of their varsity programs in the Eastern Maumee Bay community, four won league championships — Clay repeated in the Three Rivers Athletic Conference, Eastwood won the Northern Buckeye Conference and Gibsonburg won the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division. Even Oak Harbor finished as runner-up in the SBC Bay Division, the only league one of our local teams did not win.
Waite coach Russell Jennings doesn’t think that his team and Northwood have developed a full blown rivalry yet, but they’ve been contending for a City League title every year. This is Waite’s fourth straight championship.
“I’m really good friends with (Northwood) their coach (Nick Encheff), have a lot of respect for what they do over there, and we have a lot of the same philosophies with our kids,” Jennings said.
“They have hard-nosed kids just like us. We were on the better end of it this time, you know. It was close. I knew it would be close with them. I knew also if we took care of business on our lighter weights, we would be where we were at, at the end of the day,” Jennings continued.
“It was fun. It came down to every single bonus point that we could get from the pins that we got. It was very gratifying with the young group that I have, and I look forward to the challenge next year of putting it back together and doing it again.”
At 106, Waite wrestler Dylan Chavez (15-11) got it started, winning by injury default over Woodward senior Miguel Barcenas (17-7), who had to leave the match 50 seconds in.
Waite junior Christian Cintron (19-9) followed, pinning Woodward freshman Daniel Cunningham (4-6) in 18 seconds.
In the 120 championship, Waite senior Ricardo Oviedo (18-2) pinned Northwood sophomore Joseph Yarad (9-18) in 37 seconds.
So far, the championship round had seen one minute and 45 seconds of wrestling, and already the Indians had three league title holders.
However at 126, Start sophomore William Zaborski (33-8) got a late pin over Waite sophomore Arnoldo Cintron in 5:23.
Waite senior Devon Wheeler (31-9), who got his 100th career victory this year, rebounded for Waite, pinning Bowsher junior David Hershey (14-17) in 3:52. Northwood junior Nathan Warfel (12-16) finished third after winning by injury default over Rogers senior Detreon Bell (6-14) after 39 seconds of wrestling.
Wheeler, who lost to David Hershey’s brother, junior Dylan Hershey, in a regular season dual meet loss to Bowsher, said this time things went much smoother.
“It went really well. I felt much better in this match, more confident, and I was at the right weight, and I knew that this was a big match for my team so we can win the team title, and I went out there and wrestled and got the results I wanted,” Wheeler said.
Jennings added, “That was pretty cool to see him beat the kid from Bowsher for his third City title.”
Wheeler said the team’s quick start helped the team’s confidence as they got to the upper weight classes.
“Chavez at 106 came through with an injury default championship, Christian Cintron came in at 113 with a pin, Ricardo Oviedo came through with a pin at 120, and then I had to step up at 132 and come in with a pin,” Wheeler said.
“Almost all of our wrestlers were in the finals, which was great, which means we all contributed to the win, and everybody came up big.”
After those first five classes, Northwood made their climb back, winning four championships of their own. Waite had to score on bonus points and got a placer in all but one weight class to pull out the league championship.
At 138, Northwood sophomore Braden Alore (16-15) was runner-up, losing by a 17-2 technical fall in the championship to Dylan Hershey (22-9). Waite sophomore Santos Hernandez (23-16) won the third place consolation match by pinning Rogers senior Demetrius Bell (5-13) in 4:49.
At 145, Northwood senior J.J. Poiry got the Rangers their first championship, winning a 10-2 major decision over Waite senior Jesus Quintero (8-4) in the final.
At 152, Waite wrestler Dayvon Levy (8-2) pinned Bowsher junior Mickey Kier (12-9) in the consolation final. However, it was Levy’s march to the finals that made a big difference in the final score.
“The pivotal match for us was at 152 pounds — Dayvon Levy knocked out the Northwood kid in the consolation semis. So, that was pivotal for us because Northwood and us were neck-and-neck in the standings.”
At 160, Northwood junior Hunter Schmoekel got the Rangers back on track, pinning Waite senior Roland Mackay in 2:50 during the championship.
Waite wrestler Jaime Vasquez (8-22) placed fourth, losing a 6-5 decision in the consolation final to Rogers sophomore Daniel Thompson (13-7).
Northwood senior Thanawat Chaisiri (10-11) was league runner-up at 182, losing to Bowsher senior Jamon Johnson (23-9) in the final. Waite sophomore Gary Moody (4-19) placed fourth after getting pinned by Start junior Daniel Claytor (14-14) in 4:34 during the consolation final.
At 195, Northwood senior Erik Marazon (14-6) lost a 9-6 decision to Start senior Donovan Latimer (28-9) in the championship.
Northwood senior Austin Cole (38-4) won the 220-pound championship, pinning Bowsher senior Kyro Cameron (19-10) in 3:25 in the championship. Waite freshman Joseph Miller (5-15) won the third place match, pinning Scott freshman A’lysha Stewart (0-2) in 34 seconds.
Northwood senior Joseph Miller (26-9) made it two in a row for the Rangers, pinning Bowsher junior Zachary DeBien (4-3) in 3:25 in the championship. Waite junior Dylan Campos (13-16) placed third.