Wrestlers enjoy a successful week

The Dukes wrestlers enjoyed a week of success that hasn't been seen in Wellington in quite a few years. The wrestling week began on Thursday when the Dukes traveled to Clearview for a conference quad match with the host Clippers, Keystone, and Oberlin. First up for the mighty Dukes were the Wildcats from LaGrange. In one of the closest team matches of the year, the Wellington wrestlers emerged with a 36-32 team victory. Earning victories for the Dukes were sophomore 119 Anthony Cwalina, junior 130 Justin Bockmore, senior 145 Austin Smith, senior 152 Will Hall, senior 171 Thomas Gronsky, sophomore 189 Nick Sutherland, and senior 215 Josh Roberts.

After the Dukes disposed of Keystone, they next faced Oberlin. The Dukes 57-16 victory came in part because of Oberlin's forfeiting of seven different weight classes. Winning in matches wrestled were Smith at 145 by a 7-4 decision, Gronsky by pin at 171, and Roberts by pin at 215.

After the two conference victories on Thursday night, the Dukes have a Patriot Athletic Conference record of 5-1, with one more conference match to be wrestled.

But the high point of the week came on Saturday evening when Wellington walked out of the Northwestern gym in West Salem with the team champion trophy from the Husky Invitational, outdistancing the host Huskies by 30 points. This is the second team championship that the Dukes have won this season, the first coming two weeks ago at the Chippewa Invitational.

Leading the way were the Dukes two individual champions of senior Josh Roberts and sophomore Sam Rodgers. Roberts finished the day with a 5-0 record, earning the 215 championship with four pins and a forfeit. Rodgers road was a little more difficult. After losing one match in the heavyweight pool, Rodgers won the rest to earn a shot in the championship match against the #1 seeded Dan Neundorf of Northwestern. When Neundorf's hip toss didn't work, Rodgers reversed him, put him on his back, and got the first period pin. It was both Roberts and Rodgers first tournament championship of the year.

But the entire team had a hand in the victory. All twelve of the Wellington wrestlers placed in the top eight at the tournament. Besides the two individual champions, the Dukes also had Bockmore at 130 and Smith at 145 securing second; earning third were junior Scotty Provoznik at 103 and freshman Ben Provoznik at 112; fourth place finishers were sophomore Zach Mandich at 125 and senior Chris Coker at 140; Thomas Gronsky was fifth at 171; Cwalina at 119, Hall at 152, and junior Aaron Martin at 160 each received sixth place; and Sutherland's eighth place at 189 rounded out the scoring for the Dukes.

Another bright spot for the Dukes is the return of senior captain Austin Smith. Smith missed the first month and a half with an MCL sprain, which he suffered in practice. After a couple tough conference losses, Smith seems to have turned it around. "He needs to realize that he is just a little behind the rest of them. The way he performed today (at Northwestern) and Thursday should make him feel a little better", assistant coach Mike Griswald said. Smith and the rest of the Dukes head to Brooklyn on Thursday for a PAC quad match against the host Hurricanes, Brookside, and Oberlin. Wrestling starts around 6:00. Directions can be obtained by calling the high school at 647-3734.