School Record 6 Leopards Qualify for State Meet – Wrestling

Louisville – 145.5 (3rd Out of 41)

The Louisville Leopards Wrestlers competed at the Division II Alliance District Tournament on Friday and Saturday at Alliance High School. Louisville placed 3rd out of a competition field that featured wrestlers from 41 different schools. A school record 6 different Leopards finished in the top four to qualify for the State Meet next week at the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus.

Garrett Lautzenheiser was the only Louisville District Champion as he completed a perfect 4-0 run through the 120 bracket. Lautzenheiser pinned Jaden Farris (Chardon) in 5:14 during his opening round bout to advance to the quarterfinals. He then earned decisions over Daniel Adams (Poland Seminary) and Jason Mayes (Jefferson Area) to advance to the championship match. Lautzenheiser won a thrilling 2-1 sudden victory over Christian Wayt (West Branch) to claim the district crown.

Louisville was well represented as 4 wrestlers advanced to their championship matches and 7 placed overall. Leopard District Runner-Ups included Davin Rhoads (126), Jax Leonard (152), and Blake Robbins (220). Brent Paulus (195) also took 3rd, Riley Brendle (285) placed 4th, and Daniel Kennedy (145) finished 6th.

Just like Lautzenheiser, Rhoads won via pin in his opening match before earning decisions in the quarterfinals and semifinals. The Louisville Sophomore defeated Senior Jack Gorman (Aurora) 4-1 to advance to the 126 final. In the championship bout, Rhoads took a 3-1 lead into the third period. However, CVCA’s Matthew Williams knotted the match at 3-3 to send it into overtime. Williams would end up victorious 4-3 in six periods and Rhoads would take 126 Runner-Up.

Leonard set the tone early in defending his 2018 District Title. He defeated Dillon Smith (Poland Seminary) by technical fall 19-3 before earning a 6-4 decision over Zayne Lehman (Revere) in the quarterfinals. Leonard pinned Caiden Rodgers (Streetsboro) in the semifinals to advance to the title match. Leonard was only outdone by Dylan Fishback (Aurora) by a count of 7-2 to finish as 152 runner-up.

Robbins was dominate in pinning all three opponents in his path to the 220 District Championship match. Robbins pinned Kyle Drik (Streetsboro) in just 18 seconds to open his run. He also won by fall against Dakota Kirksey (Alliance) and Ethan Depp (Revere). Despite the dominance, Robbins was edged by Ohio State bound Tyler Stein (Canfield) 2-1 in the finals matchup.

Even with a third place finish, Paulus was dominate through the 195 bracket earning three pins in a total of 2 minutes of match time and a major decision. His only setback was a 3-2 loss to Nick Crawford (Canfield) in the championship semifinals. That only seemed to fuel him more as he rampaged through the consolation bracket pinning Owen Weaver (Lake Catholic) in 28 seconds and pinning Kenny Mara (West Branch) in only 16 seconds in the third place finals.

In the heavyweight bracket, Brendle blanked Jacob Hurst (West Branch) 5-0 and pinned Marcus Barroun (Aurora) to earn a trip to the semifinals. He was edged by David Hooks (St. Vincent-St. Mary) 2-1 in the championship semis, but bounced back with a pin of Jaret Hall (Chardon) in the consolation semifinals to clinch a state birth. Brendle would lose by fall to Jacob Petit (Hoban) in the third place final to finish in fourth.

The 6 state qualifiers eclipses the previous record set by last year’s team that sent 5 to Columbus. 

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DII Wrestling State Meet 2019 Schedule

UP NEXT: The Leopards who qualified will move on to the DII State Meet held at Ohio State’s Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus March 7-9. The schedule is as follows: 

Thursday, March 7
2:00pm – Doors open
3:00pm – Session #1 starts (Championship Preliminaries & Consolation Round 1)

Friday, March 8
9:00am – Doors open
10:00am – Session #2 starts (Quarterfinals & Consolations Round 2)
5:30pm – Doors open
6:30pm – Session #3 starts (Semifinals & Consolation Quarterfinals)

Saturday, March 9
9:00am – Doors open
10:00am – Session #4 starts (Consolations)
4:15pm – Doors open
5:30pm – Session #5 starts (All Finals)

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DII Alliance District Wrestling Tournament
Team Scores

DII Alliance District Wrestling Meet
Individual Results