Decade of domination

Tigers win 10th straight Marawood dual title

By Casey Krautkramer

It was the Stratford varsity wrestling team’s backup grapplers that were the ‘unsung heroes” that helped the Tigers beat Marathon, 3926, on Friday at the Edgar quad. Stratford has now won 10 consecutive Marawood Conference regular season dual meet championships.

Stratford grapplers wore their normal singlets during the team’s 7212 match win against Edgar on Friday. The Tigers wore their Super Man singlets for the important match against Marathon to determine the conference dual meet champion. Stratford senior Jackson Ormond said donning the Super Man singlet gives he and his teammates an extra boost of confidence on the mat.

“We decided to wear those singlets because we meant business against Marathon,” Ormond said. “We wanted to go out there and show them what the Tigers are all about.”

Stratford prevailed against Marathon in winning both the Marawood Conference dual meet and tournament championships again this season.

“We are the Tigers and it’s hard to dethrone us,” Ormond said. “We are going to be at the top of the confer- ence for a while. “Winning 10 conference championships in a row is pretty dominant. I can’t remember a team that has won 10 conference championships in a row since Athens did it but that was a long time ago. We are starting to become kings of the conference, that’s for sure.”

Athens won 13 straight Marawood Conference regular season dual meet championships from 1977 through 1989. Pittsville won the 1990 conference dual meet championship and then Athens won six straight conference titles from 1991 through 1996. The Bluejays did win 20 consecutive conference tournament championships from 1977 through 1996.

Marathon needed its best wrestlers to gain pins to beat Stratford on Friday, but the Tigers’ No. 2 wrestlers held their own by not getting pinned and thus limiting the amount of team points the Red Raiders earned in the match.

Red Raiders senior Hector Pintor started the dual match against the Tigers with an 11-2 major decision win against Stratford sophomore Jack Tubbs in the 160-pound weight class. Tubbs is listed as one of Stratford’s backups at 170 pounds on the program. Marathon only gained four team points for a major decision instead of six for a pin. A person who’d just walked into Edgar’s gym would’ve assumed Stratford’s wrestler had won after hearing loud cheering from Tigers head coach Adam Davison and his bench.

Stratford wrestlers then reeled off four straight pins against Marathon. Junior Kaleb Krummel pinned sophomore Aidan Lang in 16 seconds at 170 pounds, sophomore Carter Lueck pinned sophomore Juan Gomez in one minute, 40 seconds at 182 pounds, senior Jackson Ormond pinned senior Mason Putnam in 36 seconds at 195 pounds and senior Alex Mueller pinned sophomore Ian Hunter in 1:48 at 220 pounds. The Tigers took a 24-4 lead against the Red Raiders.

Marathon halted Stratford’s streak of pins when senior Logan Werner quickly put Tigers senior Evan Danielson on his back for a pin in 40 seconds at 285 pounds.

Stratford backup junior wrestler Roman Schmidt was thrust into the team’s starting lineup against Marathon, to replace normal starting 106-pound sophomore Jesse Bauer who was out with an injury, to wrestle undefeated Marathon freshman Blake Underwood. Schmidt held his own by only surrendering a 5-2 decision against Underwood at 106 pounds resulting in only three team points.

It was then Tigers backup freshman grappler Lucas Forrest’s turn to prevent Red Raiders freshman Cale Quaintance from pinning him. Forrest only surrendered an 11-3 major decision at 113 pounds resulting in four team points.

Marathon sophomore Levi Krautkramer won a 7-6 decision against Stratford freshman Colin Cournoyer at 120 pounds to gain another three team points for the Red Raiders. Marathon cut Stratford’s lead to 24-20 in the match.

The Red Raiders and Tigers traded wins during the remainder of the match. Stratford sophomore Trenton Cournoyer won a 6-2 decision against Marathon freshman Tate Sonnentag at 126 pounds. Marathon junior Dylan Dodson, who is the squad lone individual state tournament qualifier from last season, won an 8-7 decision against sophomore Cayden Leonhardt at 132 pounds.

Stratford sophomore Brandon Knetter pinned Marathon freshman Grant Salber in 1:18 at 138 pounds. Red Raiders junior Derek Vesely won a 10-4 decision against Tigers senior Sawyer Grabow at 145 pounds.

Tigers senior Ryan Becker pinned Red Raiders freshman Reed McCain in 1:25 at 152 pounds to conclude the match.

Coach Davison was proud of his team’s backup wrestlers who didn’t surrender pins against Marathon’s best grapplers, in order to help the Tigers defeat the Red Raiders.

“We believed going into this match against Marathon that some of our number two wrestlers could compete with their best on the mat,” he said. “Man it just goes to show that sometimes you just need to give a kid a chance and he will go out there and impress you. It speaks volumes of those kids to not give up on themselves just because they are the number twos and not the starters, because they know there is a spot for them on this team.”

Having a deep bench allows coach Davison to move wrestlers up and down weight classes to help the team defeat its opponents like Marathon.

“From youth all the way up these Stratford kids love wrestling, so it’s great to have that kind of depth where we can move kids around in the starting lineup,” Davison said. “We were not sure how we wanted to match up against Marathon and as the week went on kids like Jack Tubbs and Lucas Forrest, who are great wrestlers in their own right and would be starters on a lot of other varsity wrestling teams in the state, went out on the mat and didn’t give up pins. This allowed us to move guys around the starting lineup like Kaleb Krummel up to 170 pounds where he did a great job for us against Marathon.”

Coach Davison said Stratford winning 10 straight Marawood Conference regular season dual meet championships “speaks volumes of the type of kids in the school’s wrestling program.”

“I am just so proud of them and it’s great to be along for the ride with these guys,” he said.

Tigers dominate ‘Cats

Stratford easily beat Edgar, 72-12, on Friday. The following Tiger wrestlers gained competitive wins against their Wildcat opponents: Krummel pinned freshman Preston Erickson in 30 seconds at 160 pounds, Lueck pinned sophomore Jase Apfelbeck in 1:18 at 170 pounds, Mueller pinned sophomore Dakota Ellenbecker in 55 seconds at 195 pounds, Leonhardt pinned junior Corey Schilling in 2:58 at 132 pounds and Grabow pinned sophomore Austin Schreiber in 1:38 at 145 pounds.

Edgar grapplers gaining competitive wins against Stratford were junior Harrison Graveen pinning sophomore Mason Oertel in 5:31 at 220 pounds and sophomore Corey Koeppl pinning Danielson in 38 seconds at 285 pounds.

Edgar lost, 63-12, against Auburndale on Friday to end its home quad. The Wildcats didn’t win any of the competitive matches against the Eagles. Apfelbeck received a forfeit win at 170 pounds and Koeppl received a forfeit win at 285 pounds.

The Wildcats wrestling program honored its lone senior grappler, Keghan Hartway, and its only senior team manager, Sondra Pilgrim, during Friday’s home quad.

Raiders defeat Eagles

Marathon beat Auburndale, 45-33, on Friday in its opening match at the Edgar quad. McCain began the match by pinning Auburndale freshman Gannon Sweeney in 4:53 at 152 pounds. Hector Pintor then pinned sophomore Hayden Lobner in 48 seconds to capture the 100th match victory in his Marathon High School wrestling career. Family members and friends held up signs to signify his 100th career match win.

Other Red Raiders to gain wins against the Eagles were Quintance pinning freshman Dawson Raab in 1:14 at 113 pounds, Sonnentag with a 4-3 decision against freshman Trevor Trowbridge and Dodson pinning sophomore Tanner Wargowsky in 1:18 at 132 pounds.

SUPER MAN DOES IT AGAIN- Stratford varsity wrestlers like senior Jackson Ormond say they feel unstoppeable when they wear their Super Man singlets. Pictured is Tigers senior Ryan Becker being declared the winner of his 152-pound bout on Friday night after pinning Marathon freshman Reed McCain at the Edgar quad.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER

MARATHON SENIOR GAINS 100TH WIN- Hector Pintor reached his 100th win career milestone on Friday night by pinning Hayden Lobner of Auburndale, pictured above, in 48 seconds in the 160-pound bout during the Edgar quad.STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER