By Rob Sherrill, W.I.N. High School Editor
New York’s Section 11 has done the right thing after all. Now it’s up to the state association to follow suit.
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, the section’s overturned a Jan. 4 ruling by the New York State Public High Schools Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) that made defending state champion Jesse Jantzen ineligible for the rest of the season for his competition in the Midlands Wrestling Championships in Evanston, Ill. over the holidays.
A NYSPHSAA rule prohibits high school athletes from competing against collegiate athletes.
The Long Island newspaper Newsday reported that, though Jantzen technically did break the rule, the Athletic Council’s ruling to overturn was based on miscommunication between officials at Jantzen’s high school, Shoreham-Wading River High, and officials of Section 11 and the NYSPHSAA.
According to Newsday, Don Jantzen, Corey’s father and the school’s coach, originally contacted Suffolk wrestling chairman Joe Giani, who instructed him to contact Section 11 director Ed Cinelli for clearance. Athletic director Jim Cranmer contacted Cinelli, who instructed him to contact PYSPHSAA assistant executive director Lloyd Mott.
Cranmer subsequently drafted a letter to Midlands director Ken Kraft, stating that Jantzen was cleared to wrestle as an unatttached entry. However, Cinellt and Mott stated they were never informed that the Midlands was a collegiate tournament.
Jantzen was back on the mat Wednesday night for Shoreham-Wading River’s League 6 dual meet against Westhampton High, winning by forfeit. Though Jantzen has been cleared to compete against Section 11 competition, he still must be cleared by the NYSPHSAA office to compete in the state tournament series. Section 11 will forward its findings and its decision to reinstate him to the NYSPHSAA office for a final ruling by executive director Nina Van Erk.
“We are very pleased with the turn of events and the outcome of the appeal,” Ron Friedman, an attorney respresenting the Jantzen family, told Newsday. “They came to the right resolution and the process worked.”
Jantzen, who is 148-7 in his five-year varsity career and is the defending Division I 125-pound state champion and defending national champion, has won 57 consecutive high school bouts and is the top-ranked wrestler in the country at 133 pounds.
St. Edward wins 10th straight, but Moeller doesn’t make it easy
For the 10th year in a row, No. 1 Lakewood (Ohio) St. Edward High won the Division 1 State Dual Meet Championships, Jan. 7, at Wadsworth High.
But after years of end-of-the-season disappointments, Cincinnati Archbishop Moeller High may have proven a worthy challenger to the Eagles and the rest of the Division 1 field.
After strong performances in the Walsh Jesuit Ironman Invitational and The Clash National Duals, the Crusaders gave St. Edward a strong run in the finals, winning seven of the 14 bouts in a 39-27 loss.
St. Edward was resting three starters, including Ohio State recruit Sean Nemec (160), but got plenty of bonus points from its winners. Jamie Clark (103), Nick Sulzer (112), Collin Palmer (125), Neil Birt (130) and Chris Honeycutt (189) all scored pins and Brian Roddy (171) won by injury default for 36 St. Edward points. The seventh came on a 7-2 decision by Dan Gonsor over Eric Gobin in a battle of state placewinners at 145.
Clark, Palmer, Birt, Gonsor, Roddy and Honeycutt all went 3-0.
Two Moeller wrestlers scored surprise wins. At 140, red-hot Germane Lindsey scored a takedown with 48 seconds left to beat Shawn Harris 3-2, repeating his victory over Harris in the state tournament a year ago. And at 275, former state runnerup Ben Kuhar was pinned by University of Cincinnati football recruit Frank Becker.
California’s top two 171-pounders fall
What in the world is going on at 171 pounds?
Is it something in the water? Or does that weight class just have that much depth?
First, it was Junior National freestyle champion Kirk Smith of Boise (Idaho) Centennial High, knocked off the top of the mountain by Gilroy (Calif.) High’s Hunter Collins in a 5-2 loss in the finals of the Reno (Nev.) Tournament of Champions.
A week later in the very same arena, Kelso (Wash.) High senior Andrew Buck took the Sierra Nevada Classic title with a victory over junior two-time state champion Louis Bland of Modesto (Calif.) Central Catholic High. Buck, who had pinned his way to the finals to set up his victory over Bland, had himself been humbled less than two weeks earlier by another Seattle-area standout, Auburn High’s Shane Onufer, who beat him 12-6 in the finals of the Tri-State Classic in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Last weekend, it was Collins’ turn to taste defeat. Senior Justin Danz of Shingle Springs Ponderosa High was the culprit, spilling Collins 9-4 in the finals of the Doc Buchanan Tournament at Clovis Buchanan High.
So the state’s two super juniors both have lost in the last two weeks. Incredible.
There’s an interesting battle going on at 171 in New Jersey as well. Oakhurst Ocean Township High’s Kyle Kiss fired the first shot Jan. 4, beating Cherry Hill Camden Catholic High’s Anthony Trongone 5-1 to avenge a state tournament loss. Newton Kittatinny High’s Tom Spellman also is in the mix at the weight.
Not much else went right for Ocean that night, Camden Catholic scoring a 44-16 win…though Ocean may get injured senior Jeff Siciliano (189), the 2005 state runnerup, back soon.