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Health & Fitness

Bulldog Wrestlers Top the Tigers

Stow Wrestlers win dual meet against Falls

The Stow wrestling team hosted its first dual meet of the season on Thursday and defeated Cuyahoga Falls 35-31 in a hard fought contest.

Each coach shuffled their line ups all night trying to gain an advantage with how their best wrestlers were paired, which resulted in several forfeits for both clubs. At 106 pounds, Freshman Anthony Valore of Stow took a forfeit for an early Stow lead. However, Cuyahoga Falls bounced right back with a pin at the 113 pound class against Freshman Justin George to tie the team score. Junior Dylan Hartwig took the mat next and battled his opponent along with a chest cold and prevailed with a 12-2 major decision to give the lead back to Stow. At 126 pounds, Senior Mike Edwards scored an early take down and lead in his match, but eventually lost a 6-2 contest. reducing the Stow lead in the match to 10-9.

Senior J.J. McCaffery stepped on the mat at 132 pounds for a pivotal match to determine the outcome. McCaffery and his Falls opponent wrestled a hard fought match with McCaffery fighting off several late takedown attempts to earn a 4-3 decision. With Stow leading 13-9, Coach Jenkins forfeited the 138 pound class to one of the Falls best wrestlers and moved his Senior, Joe Combs, up to 145 pounds. Combs made the plan work as he took the lead in his match and worked a bar arm for a second period pin. Sophomore Hunter Massey then followed for the Bulldogs at 152 pounds. In another pivotal match in the evening, Massey took the lead and prevailed through a highly contested third period to win a 8-5 decision making the overall score 22-15 for Stow.

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Cuyahoga Falls did not want to send a wrestler against Stow's Connor McMahon and the line up jockeying resulted in Stow's Senior Reece Iovine stepping in to take a forfeit at 160 pounds to give the Bulldogs a 28-15 lead. Junior Caleb Bodjanac competed at 170 lbs. After being head-butted early on Bodjanac lost a major decision but showed a gutty performance by fighting off several hard pinning combinations.

Stow senior Troy Steiger then won a 5-1 decision at 182 pounds with a strong performance giving the Bulldogs a 31-19 advantage in the team scoring. Stow's Gage Finegan followed at 195 pounds with an impressive 15-3 major decision to seal the match for Stow. Stow shuffled the lineup again and sent Senior Jeremy Light at 220 pounds and moved Senior Dan Garner to heavyweight. Light lost by pin, but the Bulldogs remained in command and forfeited the heavyweight class to rest Garner, who was also battling a cold.

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Both teams wrestled hard as is expected in this annual rivalry match. Cuyahoga Falls has been the victor in recent years and the Bulldogs continued their strong start to their 2011-12 season with the win. The Stow wrestlers will compete again next Thursday in Medina and then Friday and Saturday at the Hudson Holiday Tournament.

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