By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

Despite having only eight wrestlers, Southeast captured the championship of the 10-team Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Tournament on Feb. 8 at Columbiana Crestview by nine points over Garfield.

“We had two kids out sick. We didn’t enter kids at 120, 144 and 165, and our 175 didn’t make weight. To take those team points away …,” head coach Shane Kuberry said, “… Each one of those kids wins matches, and each one of those kids probably places in the top three. All eight of the guys who wrestled, when they realized we had a chance to win … toward the end, we had five guys who were still going. Four of them won and all four of them got pins. The reason we won the team title is because they all performed so highly. All eight placed.”

The four individual champions were seniors Cameron Dye in the 113-pound weight class and Deian Longgood at 150, along with juniors Dominic Kemble (126) and Landon Durstine (190).

Three nights earlier on Feb. 5 the Pirates were victorious against Garfield and Brookfield in a tri-match on Senior Night.

“I thought, overall, we wrestled better than we had been in the last few weeks,” said Kuberry. “Everybody came to wrestle, and I think our seniors played a huge role in that. I think the guys really wanted to perform well for the seniors.”

Dye led the way in beating two state-ranked opponents.

“We bumped Cameron up to 120 against his Brookfield opponent and he won by fall in the first period,” the coach said. “He caught the kid in a cradle and pinned him. We put him back at 113 for the Garfield match, and he wrestled a super tough match against a kid who beat him earlier in the season.”

Longgood (150) and classmate Brice Schoenbaechler (157) both won their respective matches over Garfield opponents (and by forfeits over Brookfield).

“Deian won by fall against his Garfield opponent. He wrestled super tough,” said Kuberry. “It was close for a little bit, but he really separated himself and ended up picking up a pin. It was really good wrestling from him. Brice had a back-and-forth match against Garfield where he really poured it on at the end and did a great job for us.”