The Lake Erie wrestling club sent two teams to Virginia Beach, Virginia to compete at the AAU Junior Olympics in early August.

Nine Lake Erie wrestlers placed, including Ian Miller (Oak Harbor), who went 17-0 and won a Gold Medal and was voted the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler by coaches.

Before traveling to Virginia, wrestlers representing the Lake Erie Monsters and Lake Erie Storm, both club teams, attended a two-week training camp. These two teams are comprised of wrestlers from 17 different schools from Northern Ohio. Wrestle-offs were held to determine what team each wrestler would be on, said head coach Michael Screptock.

Once at the competition, there were 18 teams entered.

“Nine were from Ohio, which goes to show how big wrestling is in the state of Ohio,” Screptock said. “The competition was very tough and each team would wrestle three to five duals per day.

“The Lake Erie Monsters wrestled very well in competition. This was our No. 1 team,” Coach Screptock added.

The Monsters finished in fourth place. Out of 15 wrestlers with the Monsters, the club had nine individual medalists. Other medalists were Nick Bergman (Oak Harbor), who went 13-1 and won Silver, Mike Screptock (Clay) went 16-1 and won Silver, Drew Stone (Oak Harbor) went 13-2 and won Bronze, Angelo Amenta (Clay) went 15-1 and won Bronze, Alex Bergman (Oak Harbor) went 14-3 and won Copper, Nick McCall (Wauseon) went 15-2 and won Bronze, Zane Krall (Wauseon) went 15-2 and won Bronze, Clint Endicott (Crestview) went 14-3 and won Copper.

“The Lake Erie Storm had a pretty tough time,” Screptock continued. “They were a very young team and they were missing a couple weight classes. They did have a few wrestlers who did do pretty well, though.”

Richie Screptock (Fassett) and Dalton Ishmael (North Baltimore) went 11-5 in duals and Chase Leady went 9-7 as the Storm finished in 16th place.

“I would like to thank the wrestlers, coaches, table workers, and drivers for making this trip a success,” said Coach Screptock.

The Lake Erie Wrestling Club finished the season with just over 200 members between three sites—Clay, Maumee, and Delta.

“The junior high teams had a great year as well,” said Coach Troy McLaughlin. “The junior high numbers were up and they competed well.”

Pic-LakeErieClub
The Lake Erie Wrestling Club at Virginia Beach, Virginia.

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