Great Weekend for Orrville Wrestling

The Rider grapplers had another solid showing at the state meet, placing 3 wrestling on the podium, including Dennis Raber, who finished 2nd at 171. The team of Jake Strasbaugh, Jeremy Maiwurm and Raber finished 7th in the team standings with 38 points, easily their best showing in over a decade.

Here's how the Riders have fared at state since 1999.

2009 - 7th (38 pts)
2008 - 18th (30 pts)
2007 - 55th (6 pts)
2006 - did not place
2005 - 41st (10.5 pts)
2004 - did not place
2003 - did not place
2002 - 28th (18 pts)
2001 - 70th (2 pts)
2000 - 35th (16 pts)
1999 - 63rd (5 pts)

Here's each of the brackets that Orrville's 3 competed in...
D2 - 130(Jake)
D2 - 135 (Jeremy)
D2 - 171 (Dennis)

I don't know that the Riders have ever had 3 wrestlers place in the top 8. We've alway had 1 or 2 wrestlers have individual success, but I can't recall 3 placing in one tournament.

Here's a link to every weight class. Notice all of the success by St Paris Graham in Div. 2? They just secured their 9th straight team title and did it in typical dominating fashion, netting 282 team points, better their previous team high by 60 points and grabbing 7 individual titles in the 13 weight classes they competed in. Just ridiculous.

Lastly, here's Dennis Raber's championship match. I'm sure he won't want to watch this for a while, but in time, I'm sure he will realize what an accomplishment this was. For the record, Zach Garbrandt (Raber's opponent) finished 8th at last years state tournament at 160.

DII 171: Zach Garbrandt (Claymont) vs. Dennis Raber (Orrville)

Congrats Dennis, Jake and Jeremy. And congrats to Coach Budd and Coach Vance and all the coaches in the lower levels.