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Sports

Lakewood's Ramsey, Abdel-Salam Place At State

Seniors Ramsey (135 pounds), Yousef Abdel-Salam (119) place fifth, eighth respectively.

Lakewood High had three wrestlers qualify for the 74th Ohio High School Athletic Association championships with two advancing to the award stand at the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus on The Ohio State University campus.

The Rangers had their best finish from senior Nick Ramsey, who took fifth at 135 pounds while senior Yousef Abdel-Salam secured an eighth-place finish at 119. The third Ranger to reach Columbus was junior William Abdel-Salam, who lost his two matches at the state meet at 130.

While Lakewood St. Edward won its 26th team title with 187 points, Lakewood was tied for 33rd in the team standings with 14 points along with Grove City Central Crossing.

"It was very exciting to have three guys qualify for the state meet," said Ranger head coach Vinnie Curiale. The most recent state qualifer to place for Lakewood was Patrick Duffy back in 2008, the last season Curiale was Lakewood coach before leaving for two years to coach at Avon Lake.

"The last five years I was here before leaving we had a state qualifier each season," recalled Curiale. "We might have to go back to the '60s for the last time Lakewood sent three to the state meet in the same year."

Ramsey opened his state tournament appearance with a 10-3 win over Adam Sams of Fairfield but was dropped to the consolation bracket with a 5-4 loss to eventual 135-pound state champion Cody Shivener of Springboro.

For Ramsey, his match with Shivener proved to be the toughest the eventual state champ had in Columbus.

"Shivener wrestled four times to win the state championship and his other three matches were major decisions," explained Curiale. "Nick lost 5-4 and lost a point on a caution with 10 seconds that cost him that match."

"The 135-pound bracket was wide open and Nick did the best of anybody against the state champion."

Ramsey bounced back after his loss to Shivener, staying alive for a shot at the award stand by defeating Sam McIntosh of Brush, 8-2, and Mike Griffith of Medina, 6-5.

The 135-pound Ranger senior then met up with Nick Barber of St. Edward and suffered a 14-10 loss, pushing him into the fifth-sixth place match with Alex Sweeney of Mentor. Ramsey concluded his season at 40-4 with a 5-3 win over Sweeney for fifth place.

Abdel-Salam went the heartbreak route to finishing eighth at 119, losing three times by one point. After opening with a 7-5 victory over Josh Hunter of Pickerington Central, Abdel-Salam suffered the first of those three one-point losses, dropping a 9-8 decision to John Dillon of Boardman.

"I thought Yousef came in a bit nervous and could have placed higher, but to place eighth in his first time at the state meet is outstanding," said Curiale.

The Ranger senior stayed alive for a top-eight finish with an 8-0 victory over Aaron Warstler of defending state team champion Wadsworth. Continuing in the consolation bracket, Abdel-Salam lost a 3-2 decision to Brain MacVeigh of Cincinnati Moeller.

That left a seventh-eighth place match for Abdel-Salam with Willie Long of St. Ignatius, where the Wildcats grappler became the third opponent of Abdel-Salam to win a one-point decision, 9-8, to take seventh place. Abdel-Salam finished the season 41-7.

Lakewood's third state qualifier, William Abdel-Salam, lost a first round match at 130-pounds with eventual state runner-up Mike Carlone of Mayfield, 9-0. The Lakewood junior then saw his stay on the mats end with a 9-1 loss to Ryan Miller of Liberty Township Lakota East. The two losses dropped Abdel-Salam to 43-9 on the season.

For Curale, who left Lakewood after the freshman seasons for Ramsey and Yousef Abdel-Salam, it was a fitting conclusion for the trio.

"Ramsey won 36 matches his freshman year and Yousef won 30 times," explained Curale of what he came back to this season after two seasons coaching at Avon Lake. The two combined to go 83-13 this year for the Rangers.

"We had one other kid just miss qualifying when junior Adam Feckler lost his consolation match at the district, 5-3," added the Ranger coach.

While Curiale will lose both state placers to graduation, he has high hopes for the Ranger wrestling program.

"We look for this to be a building block for our program," continued Curale. "This proves that we can be as good as other programs. We hope we have turned the corner and can become one of the elite high school wrestling programs."

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