The Rocket wrestling team headed into a weekend that can make or break a season.
They competed in the Portage Trail League Conference wrestling tournament.
Streetsboro finished in fourth place at the tournament with 137.5 points which gave them fourth place in the PTC and second place in the County Division right behind Woodridge.
Metro Division champion Ravenna won the whole tournament with 218.5 points. The boys however, finished .5 points ahead of rival Crestwood.
One of the highlights of the weekend was junior John Fraley winning Streetsboro its first league title since Todd Densmore in 2005.
After opening the tournament with a bye, Fraley pinned Norton’s Billy Paluch in 4 minutes, 58 seconds and then went on to beat Crestwood’s Mitchel Porter with a score of 10-5 to reach the finals.
In the finals, Fraley wrestled against Ravenna’s Randy Carpenter resulting in a 2-0 win, giving him his first PTC championship.
Fraley dropped down from the 140 pound weight class to 135 earlier this season and was a strategic move for Fraley.
It was a decision made because Fraley thought he would have a tough time getting through Ravenna’s Isaac Dukes, who was also crowned champion this year.
Before headed into the weekend, the wrestlers wanted to work that much more to get into their top condition.
”We have been practicing hard lately for PTC’s and Sectionals,” Fraley said before the tournament.Fraley has posted a record of 25-3 so far this season but still believes he could have done even better.
”I have been doing well this year. There have been matches I feel I could have won, but I fell a little short.” he explained.
Along with Fraley, junior Dan Smosny also feels he could have done things different and will look to turn things around in the upcoming tournaments.
“I feel this season has been good but I think I could have done some things different to put me in a better spot.” Smosny said.
Junior Joe Rydzinski also reached the title match in the tournament. After a first-round bye, Rydzinski opened out his first match with a pin in 2:55 over Coventry’s Cody May.
He then won a 20-18 victory over Woodridge’s Lou Leiby to reach the finals.In the finals, Rydzinski went up against Norton’s Drew Leonard who is a state-placer and dropped the match 14-6 to finish in second place.
Junior Mike Oktavec opened with a 6-5 win over Field’s Kyle McGinnis.
Oktavec then nearly beat top-seeded Jerry Boso of Springfield, but ended up dropping the match with a 10-9 loss.
Oktavec rebounded well however, pinning Norton’s Jerry Baughman in 2:30 and then winning a tight 5-4 decision over Woodridge’s Pat Rado to claim third place.
Streetsboro also got third-place finishes from sophomore Mike Formick and junior Garritt Corlett, while junior Anthony Edwards took fourth place and junior Dan Smosny placed fifth.
Streetsboro enters the postseason looking to have a district qualifier, which has not been done for two years.
Results of the district tournament were not available at press time
John Weingart