By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

Kai Gaetjens achieved a rarity in high-school wrestling circles Feb. 13 at the New Lexington Girls Tournament.

Perfection.

Photo: Bob Gaetjens

The Mogadore senior not only won all five of her matches by pin in capturing the championship in the 145-pound weight class, there were zero points scored against her all day.

“Kai dominated. She was solid,” head coach Duane Funk said. “She managed her matches really well on her feet. She’s a very good mat wrestler, so if we don’t see our takedowns on our feet, we have to be patient, and she was very patient with that.”

The Wildcats had just two other wrestlers in the tournament but still finished seventh out of 33 teams.

“There were very few teams with a full roster,” admitted Funk, but I was still pleased with our overall performance.”

Mackenzie Shellenbarger, Gaetjens’ classmate, won the title at 155, also pinning each of her opponents.

“Mackenzie pretty much dominated in every one of her matches,” said the coach. “She has good technique, has a lot of counters and she’s strong.”

Placing fourth at 115 was sophomore Layla Funk.

“Layla had a pretty tough weight class,” the elder Funk said. “She wrestled a girl from (Dresden) Tri-Valley, the No. 1 ranked girl in the state going in, and got tech falled in the second period.”

AURORA

Aurora’s Gulia Zayas knew her 100-pound bracket was stacked Feb. 8 going into the Nordonia Girls Invitational, including two of the top wrestlers in the state —Lorain’s Callie Otero and Poland Seminary’s Ella Thomas.

The sophomore wound up advancing to the semifinals, where she met Otero.

“Callie had beaten Gulia in a tournament in December,” head coach Karli Scaffide said. “Then Gulia had beaten Callie a couple weeks ago, so this was kind of like the tiebreaker match.”

The two combatants went head-to-head for three periods. With the score tied 4-4, Otero took a shot with 17 seconds left, Zayas circled and, with five seconds to go, she was able to get the three and wound up winning 7-4.

“That was a pretty big win for Gulia,” said Scaffide.

Zayas opposed Thomas in the finals, took her the distance but lost by tech fall, her third defeat to Thomas this season.

“Gulia is starting to figure out what Ella likes to do, her style,” said the coach of her runner-up finisher.

Overall, the Greenmen finished seventh out of approximately 40 teams.

ROOTSTOWN

Senior Reise Thomas and sophomore Morgan Giebel turned in solid performances at home in a tri-meet Feb. 12 against Field and Mogadore — Thomas at 115 and Giebel at 155.

Thomas defeated a Falcons opponent before opposing the Wildcats’ Layla Funk.

“Reise went all the way to the final ride-out, so 8-and-a-half minutes of wrestling, winning the match,” head coach Nick Sladky said. “It was probably the best match of the night.”

Giebel went up against Mogadore’s talented M.J. Shellenbarger and lost a heartbreaker before dismantling a Field opponent.

“It was a heck of a match between Morgan and M.J.,” said Sladky. “Morgan had her on her back for a few seconds, but M.J. rolled through and ended up turning the match. We had a chance to win, but M.J. pinned us. Morgan wrestled well, especially with M.J. being a senior.

WATERLOO

Waterloo senior Heylie Camacho did better than head coach Bill Jackson thought she would fare Feb. 8 at the Nordonia Girls Invitational, which had approximately 40 teams. She finished fifth at 235.

“Heylie did really well for the level of competition that was there. I knew it was going to be a little bit tougher tournament than we’d been to,” Jackson said. “She got a little unlucky with her draw, but she battled really hard all day.”

Camacho advanced to the quarterfinals, where she lost 7-4 to a state-ranked opponent from Cleveland Heights. In the fifth/sixth-place match, she secured a first-period pin over a New Philadelphia foe.

“Heylie is quick and really good on her feet,” said Jackson. “When she gets good positions, she doesn’t get herself out of position very often. She does a really good job of getting to her offense or her ties.”