Your scouting report for the Mercer match.
Reynolds opens their 2022-23 dual match season with county rival Mercer on Tuesday night at the RHS gym. This will be the 53rd meeting between the schools with Reynolds having an impressive 50 wins against 2 losses in the long running series. And one loss was one of the infamous forfeit losses during the faculty strike in 1976.
You can see every match score in the series on the web site in the Legacies->History page. (I will post instructions for using the new website options next week).
Reminder: The Legacy club is not streaming live this year. We will tape the match and post it later. Get to the school and cheer them on!
Although hampered by an inexperienced team, the Mustangs have some individuals that have done quite well. Reported records show that Mercer is 0-5 for the season with a 19th place finish at the Hickory Invitational Tournament. Carter Wise(133 ) and Levi Hoffman(172) earned 7th place in that event. Also, Carter is been given an Honorable Mention in the NW Region Rankings. Along with Wise and Hoffman, Jace Angermeier has been coming on strong with 6 straight wins after a slow start.
Mercer Match Results:
Grove City 59 Mercer 15
Slippery Rock 48 Mercer 27
Perry, OH 33 Mercer 31
Harbor Creek 42 Mercer 30
Ellwood City 39 Mercer 36
And their wrestlers' performances:
Class Name record Pins Wt Classes
So Angermeier, Jace 6-2 4 152
Sr Bissell, Jacob 0-2 0 139
So Hites, Kyle 0-8 0 139, 145
Sr Hoffman, Levi 8-4 5 172
Jr Hoover, Kaiden 0-1 0 285
So Martin, Gabe 2-4 0 121
Jr Michael, Nicholas 2-1 1 160, 189
So Schepp, John 3-4 1 133
So Signs, Simba 3-2 0 114
Jr Swartz, Kristen 1-4 0 160
Jr Wise, Carter 10-3 4 127, 133
So Wise, Colin 4-5 2 139, 145
The Raiders are coming from a week off after the always extreme competition at the Ironman Tournament. There, they finished a very respectable 45th place in a 119 team contest. Most of their points came from Louie Gill, making his Reynolds debut, with an impressive 4th place finish in a 113 lb weight class laden with all the top wrestlers in the country. Chase Bell (132), Vito Gentile (157) and Brayden McCloskey (190) all won a match - a commendable achievement.
Reynolds Records for Ironman :
Lamonte, Angelo 0-2
Gill, Louie 5-2
Gustas, Greyden 0-2
Geiger, Connor 0-2
Bell, Chase 1-2
Zagorski, Logan 0-2
Gentile, Tino 0-2
Dejulia, Louie 0-2
Gentile, Vito 1-2
Floch, Rocky 0-2
McCloskey, Brayden 1-2
Wilkinson, Kolton 0-2
Resek, Casey 0-2
(By the way, the great Cole Matthews lost 2 matches and didn't place his senior year in Ironman. Just saying. So don't read too much doom & gloom in the results).
Several Reynolds wrestlers have been recognized with early season rankings. They are:
107 Angelo Lamonte 23rd in State; 6th in NW Region
114 Louie Gill 2nd in State; 1st in NW Region
133 Chase Bell 14th in state; 4th in NW Region
160 Vito Gentile 11th in State; 3rd in NW Region
172 Jalen Wagner 15th in State; 5th in NW Region
215 Brayden McCloskey 12th in State; 5th in NW Region
I caution you to not put too much in the rankings. It is very very early in the year and these are based on previous performance and a lot of opinions. They are fun to look at and talk about but these will shake out as the season progresses.
Finally, we love it when the Reynolds Football team does so well as they have during the past several years. But their post-season run delayed the selection of team captains for this year's wrestling team. Just before Ironman, the two seniors selected to this prestigious honor are Tino Gentile and Brayden McCloskey. This role is a big responsibility on a Casey Taylor team and it is not ceremonial. Good luck to these two young men!
Save a seat at the gym for me.
Note of corrections made to original article. Casey Taylor point out that Cole Matthews record at Ironman his senior year was 2-2. I originally stated it was 0-2. Cole - forgive me for ever doubting!