Purely electric.
That was how the atmosphere for the matinee Avon Lake and Keystone dual match Feb. 1 felt as the Shoremen student body provided an extra jolt to the matchup. Everyone felt it during the “Dual in the School” event, as Avon Lake came away with a 54-15 dual win, though the match was a lot closer than the score appeared.
“It was our first time (like this) wrestling in front of the home crowd, getting all of the kids in here and they were fired up,” Avon Lake coach Scott Sedlick said. “I enjoyed it.”
Part of that electric atmosphere showed in the 120-pound match between Keystone’s Dom Warner and Avon Lake’s Abe Gill, with Gill prevailing late in the match via pin.
120: Dom Warner vs Abe Gill (VIDEO)
Gill pins Warner in 5:09
Avon Lake 12, Keystone 0
Thrilling match in the early going pic.twitter.com/XMmKv3p9Sl
— Sean Fitzgerald (@fitzonsportsbsr) February 1, 2023
Though it was far more important for the return of senior 126-pounder Michael Valerino. With the home crowd behind him with some extra juice in his final home dual, Michael came away with a pinfall in 2:30 and improved to 16-0 in his first match back in six weeks.
“It was really amazing because originally my doctors weren’t going to clear me for this dual meet,” Michael Valerino said. “But I wanted to get cleared because it was my last home dual, and it felt really exciting to get the win in front of all my friends and family. It felt great.”
“He came into the season wrestling great, I was really excited for him,” Sedlick said. “Then having that little setback over Christmas break was kind of a sad thing at the time, but he never really let it get to him. He was working out, he was exercising, he was doing everything he had to do and waiting for this moment to come back and finally step on the mat again after six weeks of being out. Now that he’s here and he’s doing it, it looked like he never missed a beat. It was really awesome to see.”
For the elder Valerino, whose brother Jack wrestled at 132 pounds and also won by pin, he didn’t feel rust after the lengthy layoff.
“I felt great,” Michael Valerino said. “I’ve been working to stay in shape even when I was hurt. I was riding the bike, doing as much conditioning as possible and practicing really hard, harder than I usually do. I also think I did a pretty good job mentally of staying mentally on the team by going to everything, filming the matches, doing the stats and everything when I’m not wrestling. I felt my preparation was pretty good.”
Keystone put up a fight the entire way through, despite only scoring three wins from their upperclassmen Diego Moralez (144), Paul Horton (150) and projected Division III state champion Tristin Greene (157). A number of matches were close decisions or late pinfalls.
“They’ve got a lot of seniors on their team and we’ve got a lot of freshmen and it showed,” Keystone coach Chris Vondruska said. “The first few weights, (Avon Lake) was heavily favored. It was a fun event and Avon Lake did a good job putting it together. Their student population was awesome, sportsmanlike and a cool time for wrestling.”
The feeling was mutual on the other side, as the Shoremen had wanted to pull off a "Dual in the School’ before, with Scott Sedlick giving props to Keystone and especially Vondruska.
“Keystone is a great team, they’re coached well,” Sedlick said. “They have great kids and amazing stuff going on in that program. I was really happy (Chris) took this opportunity to come out here and wrestle us.
“We needed it, like we wanted to do this. It was in the book to do a "Dual in the School," and unfortunately we had that snow day. So for him to step up and do it, hats off to Keystone and Chris. That was awesome!”
