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Not-so-big wrestlers carry load for Comets
(by Tony Lange - January 25, 2012)
Not-so-big wrestlers carry load for Comets
By TONY LANGE
In a sport that gives equal scoring weight to not-so-big athletes, wrestling enables 106-pounders to have just as much of an impact as 285-pounders, and the Solon wrestling team takes full advantage of that.
Solon's lightweight and middleweight wrestlers carried the Comets to narrow victories against Twinsburg, 42-38, and Maple Heights, 40-35, last Thursday and Friday. They also beat Mayfield, 67-11, during a triangular with Twinsburg.
The Comets knew Twinsburg and Maple Heights would be close battles, because their lineup is a little bit unbalanced this year, Solon head coach Tony DiGiovanni said.
"We had four kids not come out this year in the upper weights, so we have a few inexperienced kids in that area," he said. "When our lightweights and middleweight are able to carry the load and get the job done, then we're able to carry out the match against good teams."
During the Comets' three meets last week, Daniel Clement (106), Brandon Thompson (113), Shawn Williams (126), Anthony Collica (145), Justin Kresevic (160) and Shiloh Smalls-Moore (170), all went undefeated in their three matches.
Against Maple Heights, Thompson, Williams and Smalls-Moore each wrestled up a weight class, and against Twinsburg, Collica wrestled up a weight class in order to take advantage of lineup mismatches, DiGiovanni said.
"It was good. We had a lot of exciting matches against Maple, and it was a great crowd and a one-on-one dual meet, so it was great," he said. "It was very exciting. The kids came through. We bumped a lot of kids up, we did a lot of shuffling, and all of our changes turned out right for us."
Against Maple Heights, the Comets soared to a 33-6 lead halfway through the meet after Collica pinned his opponent in the 145-pound match. In the latter seven of the 14 matches, the upper-middle and heavier weights, Maple Heights outscored the Comets, 29-7.
When wrestling a team like Maple Heights, a 27-point lead halfway through the meet isn't as big as it sounds, DiGiovanni said.
"You know that, at the end of the lineup, Maple is going to get some big points with the guys they've got. That's what we had to worry about," DiGiovanni said. "We had the crowd though. We had alumni night. We had pee-wee and middle school there, so we had a lot of support. So that kind of atmosphere drives the kids to perform to their best and not let the team down. So that was pretty big. There's no place like home."
As Solon's dual-meet season ended with Maple Heights, a lot of attention is now focused on 2011 state champions Thompson and Collica, who won the 103-pound and 130-pound titles, respectively, last year.
Now in the 112- and 145-pound weight classes, DiGiovanni said they are not defending their titles but going after new ones.
"Well, to be honest. I really, really try to not look at it like defending their titles, because neither one of them are in the same weight class," he said. "So they can't defend those titles, and they're trying to win a new title in a completely new weight class and a completely new year."
The focus at this point in the season is on correcting the little things, DiGiovanni said.
"It's about correcting things that have gotten us beat or that we have given up points on more than once," he said. "It's eliminating things that have put us in a bad position. The kids themselves need to give their perspective and find what their problems are."
In terms of who Solon's top candidates are to qualify for the state tournament this season, DiGiovanni said he cannot count out any of his wrestlers.
"I've seen a kid win a match or two in the tournament and get a little confidence and then start to wrestle like a completely different kid, so I'd hate to count any of my guys out," he said. "You always have some surprises and some disappointments. So what I want to do is increase the number of surprises and eliminate the disappointment."
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