Bears to see familiar foes
Girls basketball squad will face Highland, possibly Strongsville in postseason tourney
Megan Grospitch and her North Royalton teammates will see some familiar foes come tournament time. Photo by BRUCE BILLOW
Matt Stricker’s strategy was for his team to avoid the heavyweights for as long as possible. That worked out, but the alternative is no picnic, either.
The North Royalton basketball coach is hoping to put a bit of an exclamation point on an up-and-down season with a solid tournament performance.
“The way we kind of went into it, we wanted to avoid playing right away against (No. 1 seed) Berea-Midpark or (No. 2) Wadsworth,” Stricker said. “That was kind of our game plan. The way the brackets went, we chose a route that was most beneficial for our kids confidence-wise.”
The Bears, who were 8-11 when the week started, got the No. 6 seed and will play a familiar schedule throughout the postseason.
They will start with a 1 p.m. game on Feb. 18 at No. 5 seed Highland (11-8), which has had a very good second half of the season. The Hornets headed into the week having won eight of their last nine contests and are a different team than the one that fell 40-34 to the Bears on Dec. 30.
The winner will play at 7 p.m. on Feb. 23 at No. 4 Strongsville (10-9), which has been going the opposite direction as the Hornets, falling in 3-of-4 games prior to this week, and losing three times in the second half of the season to teams it beat the first time around.
The Bears would love to see that trend continue, if they can play Strongsville, which won the teams’ regular-season meeting 42-39 on Dec. 29.
“I know people are saying Strongsville has hit a little bit of a rough patch, but they bounced back with a good game against Mentor and went toe-to-toe with them,” Stricker said.
Should the Bears get by Highland and Strongsville, they will almost certainly see Berea-Midpark in the district semis on Feb. 27 and Wadsworth will almost assuredly await the winner of that game in the March 2 district final.
Wrestling
North Royalton’s wrestling team had a handful of semifinalists and placers at the Suburban League wrestling tournament at Aurora High School, where the Bears finished 10th among 15 teams in the Feb. 4 event.
The SL tourney combined both the American and National Conferences into one large tourney to give it more of a big postseason tournament feel. The Bears placed fifth among National Conference teams, one spot lower than they finished during the dual match portion of the season.
Paul Twarog won his first two bouts at 145 to advance to the semifinals, then fell to eventual champ Antwan Pugh of Copley in the semis and went on to finish fourth.
Hunter Kupniewski followed an identical path, advancing to the 152-pound semis, where he lost to eventual champ Ethan Hatcher of Brecksville. Kupniewski also finished fourth.
Jake Mantle won his first two matches to move into the semis as well, then fell in the semis and also took home a fourth-place finish.
Lazar Gasic won two of three matches on the day, including the fifth-place match.
Jack Nemetz won a pair of matches and placed eighth at 138. Alex Berkes did the same at 182, as did Milo Vicovac at 220.
The Bears will now be idle until the Feb. 25 Division I Sectional at Wadsworth.
Gymnastics
Avery Keller placed fifth on the uneven parallel bars for the Bears’ highest finish at the Suburban League meet on Feb. 4. The Bears finished in fourth place with 122.575 points.
Brecksville, which is heavily favored to win the state championship again this year, won with 142.6. The team will return to action on Feb. 18 the first of three sectional dates at West Geauga High School.
The North Royalton basketball coach is hoping to put a bit of an exclamation point on an up-and-down season with a solid tournament performance.
“The way we kind of went into it, we wanted to avoid playing right away against (No. 1 seed) Berea-Midpark or (No. 2) Wadsworth,” Stricker said. “That was kind of our game plan. The way the brackets went, we chose a route that was most beneficial for our kids confidence-wise.”
The Bears, who were 8-11 when the week started, got the No. 6 seed and will play a familiar schedule throughout the postseason.
They will start with a 1 p.m. game on Feb. 18 at No. 5 seed Highland (11-8), which has had a very good second half of the season. The Hornets headed into the week having won eight of their last nine contests and are a different team than the one that fell 40-34 to the Bears on Dec. 30.
The winner will play at 7 p.m. on Feb. 23 at No. 4 Strongsville (10-9), which has been going the opposite direction as the Hornets, falling in 3-of-4 games prior to this week, and losing three times in the second half of the season to teams it beat the first time around.
The Bears would love to see that trend continue, if they can play Strongsville, which won the teams’ regular-season meeting 42-39 on Dec. 29.
“I know people are saying Strongsville has hit a little bit of a rough patch, but they bounced back with a good game against Mentor and went toe-to-toe with them,” Stricker said.
Should the Bears get by Highland and Strongsville, they will almost certainly see Berea-Midpark in the district semis on Feb. 27 and Wadsworth will almost assuredly await the winner of that game in the March 2 district final.
Wrestling
North Royalton’s wrestling team had a handful of semifinalists and placers at the Suburban League wrestling tournament at Aurora High School, where the Bears finished 10th among 15 teams in the Feb. 4 event.
The SL tourney combined both the American and National Conferences into one large tourney to give it more of a big postseason tournament feel. The Bears placed fifth among National Conference teams, one spot lower than they finished during the dual match portion of the season.
Paul Twarog won his first two bouts at 145 to advance to the semifinals, then fell to eventual champ Antwan Pugh of Copley in the semis and went on to finish fourth.
Hunter Kupniewski followed an identical path, advancing to the 152-pound semis, where he lost to eventual champ Ethan Hatcher of Brecksville. Kupniewski also finished fourth.
Jake Mantle won his first two matches to move into the semis as well, then fell in the semis and also took home a fourth-place finish.
Lazar Gasic won two of three matches on the day, including the fifth-place match.
Jack Nemetz won a pair of matches and placed eighth at 138. Alex Berkes did the same at 182, as did Milo Vicovac at 220.
The Bears will now be idle until the Feb. 25 Division I Sectional at Wadsworth.
Gymnastics
Avery Keller placed fifth on the uneven parallel bars for the Bears’ highest finish at the Suburban League meet on Feb. 4. The Bears finished in fourth place with 122.575 points.
Brecksville, which is heavily favored to win the state championship again this year, won with 142.6. The team will return to action on Feb. 18 the first of three sectional dates at West Geauga High School.