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EspañolBURTON — When it comes to postseason wrestling, Pymatuning Valley senior Bennett Claypoole said mat management is everything.
“You don’t want to be too risky, but you still want to be dominant,” he said.
Claypoole won the 157-pound bracket during Saturday’s Division Sectional Tournament at Berkshire High School.
He was one of five Lakers who placed at the tournament.
The top four in each weight class advanced to the district at Independence next weekend. The fifth-place finisher is an alternate.
Caleb Marrison placed second at 120, Damion Shoff took third at 150 and August Marrison and Silas Marrison posted fifth at 132 and 190, respectively.
Claypoole racked up a pair of technical falls on his way to the championship mat where he met Berkshire’s Estevon Huesca.
It was the second meeting of the season between the two.
Claypoole dominated the first meeting, but the rematch was much closer.
He said manage situations more carefully in the postseason is crucial.
“You really don’t want to do anything too risky, but you also want to be dominant,” Claypoole said. “You know, you don’t want to be very defensive and not getting that offense going.”
Claypoole didn’t take the lead in the match until he scored a takedown late in the second period, giving him a 3-1 advantage.
He then had the choice of taking the bottom position for the third period.
It took Claypoole 24 seconds to work the escape, then it was time to wrestle smart, meaning rely on defense and don’t do anything too risky.
“You have to know what kind of wrestler you are,” Claypoole said. “For me, I know my neutral is pretty good, I know I can get out of bottom pretty quickly. I know if I work my mat management right, I can dictate the match.”
Claypoole is now 38-5 on the season. Last year, he finished fifth at Independence.
“I’m ready to punch my ticket this time,” Claypoole said of his hopes of getting to the state tournament in two weeks.
PV coach Dave Miller said being able to manage the mat is often the difference between who advances in the postseason and who goes home.
“It’s vastly more important,” Miller said. “Regular season, yeah, it’s important, but you’re looking at what you can and can’t get away with.
“Here, we want to do stuff that is high percentage, that we know we’re good at. We don’t want to take risks that we don’t need to, because if it doesn’t work out, that can end your season. So, mat management is very important.”
The 120 sectional championship match between Caleb Marrison and Independence’s Mitch Meyer was different.
Claypoole and Huesca wrestled a low-scoring match, Marison and Meyer was not that way.
Marison went out aggressive, however, wound up on his back on two occasions in the first period alone. By the end of the first period, he was down 11-0.
But in the second period, Marrison stormed back, reversing Meyer right to his back for six points.
He eventually lost a 20-12 decision.
Marrison, who did not start wrestling until a year ago, said he knew the mistakes that cost him.
“Two dumb things I did,” he said. “I had him pinned and I pulled my arm out. The third period, I had him in a double underhook and I thought i could throw him. I just ran out of energy. I felt like I was really close to beating him.”
Miller also felt like Marison could have won.
“He went out guns blazing, and it almost worked out for him a couple of times,” Miller said. “I think next time we wrestle that kid, we’re going take a different approach and see if it doesn’t work out a little bit better for us.”
Meyer was the district runner-up a year ago at Independence. Miller believes that if Marison can put together a well-managed match, he can end his season in Columbus.
“He can put together a good match when he needs to,” Miller said. “I think he has a good shot at getting deep into next week. He took sixth last year at 113. He kind of has an idea of what it takes. We’ll see how it goes”
Saint John also competed at Berkshire Saturday.
Bobby Shinault took second at 175, while Alex Echeverria was fifth at 138.
While PV and Saint John were at Berkshire, Grand Valley headed west for the D-III sectional at Beachwood.
The Mustangs brought six wrestlers to the sectional tournament, and all six qualified for the district tournament at Independence.
Joseph Montgomery-Stoltz notched first at 138.
“Joseph Montgomery-Stoltz was very impressive,” Mustangs coach Jonathon Jackson said. “He wrestled with a perfect balance of aggression and composure to pin his way through the bracket.”
Montgomery-Stoltz went 3-0, including pinning Beachwood’s Talmage Bang at 2:30 in the finals.
Luke Giddings and Dexter Plott finished second at 215 and 285, respectively; Zeal Waldo and Jesse DeLisle, third, 113 and 190, respectively, and Ashton Lampman was fourth at 190.
GV finished fourth in the team standings with 116 points.