Five Copley High School Wrestlers Advance To District Meet

Five members of the Copley High School wrestling team have advanced to next week’s District Tournament at Lorain High School.

Jon Garrison at 145 pounds and Sam Wheeler at 189 won individual titles. Isaiah Wheeler (171) and heavyweight Karl Hiss each finished second while Zach Walker earned a third-place finish at 125 pounds Saturday at the Medina (High School) Sectional.

Copley finished fifth with 150.5 points. Defending state champion Wadsworth had 281 points, followed by traditional powers Brecksville-Broadview Heights (222), Cuyahoga Falls (161) and host Medina (154.5) in the 12-team field.

Garrison's title win was an exciting 5-2 decision in overtime against Wadsworth's Clay Wenger.

"Jon doesn’t panic in close matches," Copley coach Jim Dies said. "That’s one of his strengths. In his match this morning, he got the lead and didn’t do anything to let his opponent get out of it."

That was a pin over Jeff Feinberg of Strongsville. Garrison followed with a 1-0 win over George Saridakis of Brecksville-Broadview Heights. His title win gave the senior a 37-6 record this season.

"We’d like to think we have a few wrestlers going to state," Dies said. "Jon was there last year and went 1-2. He’s probably in the top five in his weight class this year."

Sam Wheeler moved his record to 40-4 with a 7-3 triumph over Caleb Curtis of Brunswick to claim the 189-pound title. That somewhat avenged his brother's 21-5 technical fall loss at 171 to Marshal Willet of Brecksville-Broadview Heights. Isaiah Wheeler's record dropped to 30-12.

Hiss dropped the heavyweight title match, 4-2, to Jake Crowley of Wadsworth. That put his season record at 27-12.

Walker at 125 pounds battled Anthony D’Amico of Brecksville-Broadview Heights on even terms in his third-place match, entering the third round with a 1-0 lead and improving it to 3-0 with a takedown with 1:22 remaining. He added two more points with 35 seconds left for the 5-0 victory to improve his record to 31-9.

At 135 pounds, Jon Marshall earned his 100th career win by pinning Mark Fontana of Brunswick to advance to the quarterfinals. Marshall then beat Evan Evangelista of Strongsville, but lost to Dylan Good of Brecksville-Broadview Heights. He came back to beat Jacob Jazwa of Berea 9-1 for fifth place, but will not join his teammates next week, finishing the season with a 28-16 record.