The Olmsted Falls wrestling program got back to their roots and felt right at home, back at Olmsted Falls Middle School. In their State Duals Round 1 victory over Medina Highland (63-7) and their Regional Quarterfinal victory over Brunswick (41-27) the Bulldogs looked up to the task of one of the last 32 teams standing in the State Dual competition.
The Bulldogs easily dispatched the Hornets to set up a highly anticipated rematch of last year's State Dual at the same location and all. The Bulldogs were also looking to avenge a runner-up finish at the MIT, where Brunswick finished as champion.
The match with the Blue Devils started with a bang for the Bulldogs at 106 with a Michael Shaw pin in 2:57 that put the Dogs up 6-0; following back to back pins for Brunswick, a 9-6 victory at 126, and a major decision at 132, Brunswick took a commanding 19-6 lead early on.
The 138 bout was a pivotal moment of the match, it matched Josh Jaeckin vs Tomas Castaneda, who had split results vs each other earlier in the year. In a hotly contested match Jaeckin edged out a 3-2 victory giving the Bulldogs much more than just the 3 points, but a huge swing of momentum as well. The Bulldogs could not add to the swing just yet, with another major decision at 145 bringing the running total to 24-9 Brunswick.
One match later the Bulldogs regained that momentum with a huge pin by Noah Broski at the 3:04 mark cuttng the deficit to 24-15. At 160 was a matchup of two of the area's finest in Brice Locklear and Nick Kiussis. Kiussis, after jumping out to an early lead, was able to pull out a 12-7 victory bringing the total to 27-15 Brunswick. Following the defeat at 160 came a critical must win for Falls at 170 with Tony Caraffi dominating the action in a 16-0 victory. The Bulldogs gained 5 more points cutting into the lead 27-20.
The 182 bout was what would become the turning point of the match. Jayden Mendluk was pitted against Dean Ramicone. In an even back and forth bout no one could gain an edge, until Mendeluk took complete control leading to a fall at 5:04 this brought the Dogs within a point at 27-26 and the Bulldog faithful in attendance let Jayden and the other Bulldogs know how pleased they were with their effort to scrap back into the match.
In a prematch crucial decision the 195 matchup was circled from the start. The Bulldogs decided to drop Noel Caraballo to 195 setting up a clash of titans between Caraballo and Aaron Naples both had won titles at the MIT last month and are two of the top wrestlers in the state, regardless of weight class. In a must win for the Bulldogs, Caraballo battled his way to a 5-2 victory in what will go down as a classic. This gave OF their first lead since the early stages of the meet at 29-27.
The Bulldogs finished off the Blue Devils with a pair of pins at 220, Michael Iler in 1:34 which won the dual meet for the Bulldogs; and at 285, Patrick Simon in 4:37 which brought the Score total to 41-27 Olmsted Falls.
Next up for the Bulldogs is Senior Night, Thursday January 28th at 6:00 at OFHS vs Amherst and Berea-Midpark.