AVON — Olmsted Falls won the matches it was supposed to, won a few matches it wasn’t and went on to win it all.
The Bulldogs finished with nine individual championships en route to winning the Southwestern Conference tournament title and the league’s outright championship for the first time since 2003 — and they did it in dominating fashion. Olmsted Falls finished with 272 points Saturday afternoon, while runner-up Avon totaled 161.
“We definitely wanted to set ourselves apart from the field and show how good of a team we really are,” Bulldogs coach Bryce Burkhard said. “I think we can be compared with some of those Brecksville teams that won some championships in recent years, too.”
Brecksville spent 10 years in the SWC, and won 10 SWC titles. The Bees left for the Suburban League this year.
“It’s too bad that Brecksville is out the year that we were ready to make a run, but we’ll see them at state,” Olmsted Falls senior Noel Caraballo said. “The team wrestled well and I’m pumped to see what we can do in the postseason.”
Caraballo tends to lead the way. The 220-pounder is undefeated this season, and he beat two state-ranked wrestlers to pick up his third SWC title Saturday. The 2015 state runner-up downed Midview’s Spencer Berthold — ranked No. 16 in Division I — 10-3 in the semifinals, then handed Amherst’s Todd Hastings — ranked No. 10 — a 13-3 major decision in the final.
“Both of those guys are great wrestlers,” Caraballo said. “This is the type of competition that I needed to see going into next week. “Not many people from Olmsted Falls have (won three SWC titles), so I’m glad that I can be put up there as one of the best wrestlers to ever do it.”
Caraballo entered the SWC tournament at his normal 220-pound spot, but wrestled recently at 195 — fueling speculation that he might drop to the lower weight for the postseason.
“There’s still a decision that needs to be made,” Caraballo said. “I’m not too sure where I’m going to go, but whatever weight class I do go, I’m going to be giving it my all and I’m going to expect to be going to the (state) final.”
The other Bulldogs conference champions were Michael Shaw (106), Jihad Salti (113), Brendan Jones (126), Josh Jaeckin (138), Brice Locklear (160), Tony Caraffi (170), Michael Iler (195) and Patrick Simon (285).
Salti and Jaeckin won their titles by using last-second moves to knock off top seeds. Salti scored an 8-7 win over Avon’s Tate Zeman, while Jaeckin won 3-2 over Avon’s Adam Kirresh.
“I feel like I made a statement. I was third-seeded and it feels good to beat the top seed in the finals,” Salti said. “I was excited because I really wanted to win the SWC this year and I didn’t wrestle in it last year. I came out and just wanted to improve from last year.
“We’ve been waiting for this. We’re going to put the paint on the wall — 2016 — and we came here to dominate, and that’s what we did.”
The five non-Bulldogs winners were Avon’s Tommy Sear at 120, North Olmsted’s Kevin Kelly at 132, Avon’s Jack Gothier at 145, Avon’s Frank Rizzo at 152 and Lakewood’s Roman Krizan at 182.
It was Gothier’s second conference championship. He won one of the final West Shore Conference titles last year as a junior. He beat Olmsted Falls’ Alec Kirby 2-1 in Saturday’s title match, avenging a loss when they met for their regular-season dual meet.
“I also wrestled him at Bill Dies (at Akron Firestone) in the seventh/eighth-place match and beat him, so I’ve won two out of three,” Gothier said. “They’ve all been one- or two-point matches. So we’ve been going back and forth. I also went to St. Ed’s my sophomore year with him, and then we both transferred out after that year and went our own ways. So there’s a little history … a friendly rivalry.”
The title win capped a big day for Kelly, who picked up his 100th career victory during a quarterfinal win over Westlake’s Eyad Shouman.
“We haven’t had a conference champion since 2011, and that was our (assistant) coach, Kyle Biggs, so getting that conference championship was big,” Kelly said. “That’s a long time without a conference champ. Then getting that 100th win — I’m only a junior — so that’s crazy … all sorts of excitement today.”
But the bulk of the excitement belonged to the Bulldogs, who sent all 12 wrestlers they brought to the semifinals and 11 to the finals.
Every Olmsted Falls wrestler ended up on the podium.
“That just shows a great team effort,” Burkhard said. “We’re not leaning on just one or two guys. They’re starting to peak and we’re right where we need to be right now. It keeps you motivated in the (practice) room. This is great momentum to carry us over into the postseason.”
Burkhard wrestled for Olmsted Falls and was part of several teams that dominated the SWC. He said winning the league title as a coach does have a different feel to it.
“I appreciate it a lot more now,” he said. “I took it all for granted as a wrestler. I didn’t realize how hard it was. It’s earned.”
