By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

Kent Roosevelt hosted a successful Alumni Night tri-meet Jan. 9 in defeating Cuyahoga Falls 53-18 and Mogadore 44-36.

Pacing the Rough Riders were double-winners Michael Hanley, a freshman in the 126-pound weight class, junior Gavin Edwards, a junior at 157, and senior heavyweight Noah Dunlap.

“Michael had a really good day,” head coach Chris Dunfee said. “He’s a young kid who is still developing. He’s new to the sport but is really coming along well. He’s been working hard and is starting to see the fruit of his labor.

“Gavin was the same as he’s been all season – consistent and aggressive. His Mogadore opponent is a good wrestler, and things got interesting when Gavin was on his back, but he came back to win.

“Noah is an undersized heavyweight with a huge heart. He continues to battle these kids who are much bigger than him, but he’s a smart, scrappy, little dude, and he wrestled his matches really well. He put himself in good positions.”

Two days later, on Jan. 11 in the Suburban League Tournament at Medina Highland, Kent Roosevelt finished fifth in both the eight-team American and National Conferences with 218 points. Highland won the competition with 446 points. Aurora finished second with 418 points, and Barberton was third with 264 points.

“That’s about where I thought we’d finish,” said Dunfee. “It was a huge improvement from last year when we were last in both conferences. We had four placers compared to none last year.”

The Rough Riders’ placers were freshman Jacob Dunfee (second at 113), senior Jeremiah Brumfield (fourth at 132), Edwards (sixth at 157) and junior Ethan Humbert (sixth at 215).

“With Jacob,” the elder Dunfee said, “that’s the first time we ever put someone in the Suburban League finals, so it was a big accomplishment for him. He wrestled a really good tournament. He came up in the semifinals against another standout freshman from Wadsworth, fell behind in the middle of the match in getting caught, went into the third period down 4-3, was able to load up his leg riding and was able to put the kid on his back twice. He just kept on battling. He’s relentless from the top position. He won 11-4. In the finals he wrestled the defending state champ at 106 from Highland.

“Jeremiah had a good day. He got off to a slow start but was able to shake that off and found his groove. He wrestled really well through the final couple pool matches. He ran into some tough, state-ranked kids in the bracket play and came up a little bit short. I’m proud of the way he wrestled.

“Gavin took his first loss of the season in the quarterfinals. It was a close match. He got behind early and just couldn’t dig back out of it. Losing your first match of the season is tough. That’s a tough thing to come back from. It says a lot about how you respond to something like that. He was able to find himself, get back into it.

“Ethan is a very aggressive, physical kid, and that’s how he wrestled all day. Sometimes it goes his way and sometimes it doesn’t. He’s come a long way this season, and we were able to see some of those moves on Saturday. I have no issues with the way he wrestled. He just came up a little bit short.”

Kent Roosevelt will be at the Top Gun Tournament at Alliance on Friday and Saturday.