LEXINGTON — The field was loaded and Lexington acquitted itself well.
The host Minutemen opened the season by going 3-0 at the ultra-competitive Blackstone Insurance Kick-off Klassic at Lexington on Saturday.
The dual format event featured teams from Wadsworth, Olentangy Liberty, Bellbrook and Oak Harbor.
“Every team that was here will be a top 10 team in the state by the end of the year,” Lex coach Brent Rastetter said. “We had some projected state champs wrestling here today.”
Lexington beat Oak Harbor (46-24), Bellbrook (48-32) and Liberty (47-31).
The competition was outstanding,” Rastetter said. “There was one kid here from Oak Harbor who was one win away from going to state last year and he didn’t win a match today.”
Gracious Host: Lexington used to host a dual tournament, but hadn’t done so in a while.
“We had gotten away from it,” Rastetter said. “Our new athletic director wanted host an event.
“We want to keep it going now. I’m not sure if we will build it up or stay with what we’ve got now because all the teams we invited are good, quality teams.”
Building for the Postseason: With returning state qualifiers Bailey Faust (fifth at state), Nate Temple (seventh), Jon Watkins, Drew Kasper and Brandon Leynaud and returning district qualifiers Chuck Mikelait, Jacob Dalton and Xavier White, expectations are higher than usual at Lexington. Rastetter has put together a schedule that will guarantee the Minutemen are ready for the tournament.
“We want to challenge our guys,” Rastetter said. “We had three state qualifiers who took losses today.”
Faust and Temple will be at the Walsh Jesuit Ironman Invitational next week while the rest of the team will be in action at the Jeremy Ammons Classic at Highland. Lex will be at the Fricker’s Duals hosted by Archbold later this month and the Gorman Invitational next month.
“We want to prepare the guys for the postseason,” Rastetter said. “Today was a good start. All of them were good matches.
“Our good guys alal got pushed and our young guys got a good wake-up call for what varsity wrestling is all about.”
