Firestone, North, Ellet, Buchtel wrestlers take momentum into postseason

Firestone and North will head into Division I wrestling sectional tournaments later this month with four City Series champions apiece.

Firestone won its fifth City Series tournament title in a row on Saturday on its home mats with four individual champions and North placed second with four individual champions.

North junior Elijah Gervins won the City Series title at 126 pounds and was named the City Series Wrestler of the Tournament.

Gervins entered the week with a 37-3 record, a single season school-record 21 pins and 43 pins in his career.

Joe Plouse is North’s career pins leader with 44 and he was atop the single season pins list with 19 pins in 1991.

“I have put in a lot of hard work in the wrestling room and my coaches have helped me out a lot learning all of these new techniques,” Gervins said. “I keep practicing the basic moves and working on improving them, and then adding in the new moves. It is really nice to keep learning stuff.”

City Series teams will compete on Jan. 25 in sectional tournaments at sites to be determined.

Junior Elijah Gervins impresses North wrestling coach

North coach Shane Reed said Gervins is “having a phenomenal year.”

“Elijah is one of our best kids,” Reed said. “Not only is he a great athlete, he is a great student. He is a Merit Roll student above a 3.0 [GPA] the last two years. On the mat, he is a leader, he listens, he knows what to do and he doesn’t make mistakes. His three losses are to Division II state-ranked wrestlers.”

North’s other City Series champions were sophomore Dipesh Chuwan (132, 22-16), junior Sanjil Magar (113, 24-14) and freshman Avinash Mongar (106, 17-16).

Firestone wrestling features Ali Abdelrahim, Braylon Brooks, Richard Cash, Isaiah Moore

Firestone won the City Series team title with 183 points. North finished second with 176 points, Ellet placed third with 140 points and Buchtel was fourth with 106 points.

Firestone’s four champions were seniors Ali Abdelrahim (144), Braylon Brooks (150), Richard Cash (157) and Isaiah Moore (215).

Abdelrahim and Moore each won their third league title and Brooks and Cash earned their second league titles.

“This tournament helps get me prepared for the postseason,” said Moore, who has a 30-6 record. “We are definitely working. ... We have come together as a whole and are getting ready for the postseason.”

Brooks entered the week with a 19-1 record.

“This season we have come together as a family and we continue to work hard in the room,” Brooks said. “We work everyday to get better. We have three more weeks until the sectional and we are going to work hard to prepare ourselves so we all can make it to the district.”

Abdelrahim, who has a 33-7 record, is very familiar with Brooks and Cash.

“Richard and Braylon are my drill partners, and we work hard,” Abdelrahim said. “We focus on technique and stamina. We show up everyday and we are consistent.”

Cash entered the week with a 15-6 record.

“It is always great to win the league even though we feel like we didn’t wrestle well as a collective team,” Cash said. “There is a lot of room to improve. We are on to next tournament. We are looking forward to the postseason.”

Firestone coach Jay Tiedemann said he was happy with the team title, but not totally thrilled with the overall performance in the tournament.

“The top kids came to wrestle and we needed some other guys to step up and they didn’t,” said Tiedemann, the City Series Wrestling Coach of the Year. “We are optimistic with three weeks of practice we can get mistakes fixed for the sectional tournament.”

Tiedeman said Abdelrahim, Brooks, Cash and Moore “bring great leadership through actions and words” to the Falcons.

Buchtel senior wrestler Davian Greenlee wins more honors

The other City Series champions were Garfield’s Mason Pipes (120), Buchtel’s James Neloms (138), Demetrion Duvall (165) and Davian Greenlee (285) and Ellet’s James Williams (175) and Cameron Allen (190).

“I come into every tournament planning to dominate,” said Greenlee, the City Series Wrestler of the Year. “With sectionals and districts coming up, I am thinking about staying in shape and getting better at wrestling.”

Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Firestone, North, Ellet, Buchtel wrestlers ready to win in postseason