BRUNSWICK — A week from today, something will likely happen in Medina’s wrestling room that Mike Griffith never saw coming.
As a freshman, the senior stared at the board proclaiming Mark Balog as the school’s all-time win leader with 131 victories and dared to dream.
After Griffith’s win Thursday, the 135-pound senior needs just two more victories to pass Balog, thus etching his own legacy at Medina as the school’s winningest wrestler.
“I never thought I’d be there,” Griffith said after the Bees’ 52-20 Northeast Ohio Conference win over Brunswick. “I used to watch Jake Brown wrestle and think about what it would be like.
“But I never thought I’d have this many wins. It’s nice to know I’ll be leaving something for the kids to look up to and maybe beat.”
The Medina youth program wrestled on the adjoining mat in Brunswick’s gym and saw the Bees wrap up their 19th River Division match in the last four years.
Medina (8-3, 5-0) did it with force, as Ryan Hornack (103), Zach Getto (112), Griffith, Alex Albert (145) and Teddy Hammer (152) all picked up bonus points.
The victory extended the Bees’ league win streak to 15 matches, as Medina avenged its only loss in conference history against a Blue Devils squad that was hurting. Brunswick (8-7, 1-4) was without Joe Schmidt, Dean Warchak and Andy Jastal.
Still, the Bees continued their romp through the River and that wasn’t lost on coach Chad Gilmore.
“We view things season by season, but when you look at the big picture, this is nice,” he said. “It’s pretty special that the seniors only lost one conference match.
“The juniors haven’t lost in the league yet. I was on the first Wadsworth squad to do that. It was nice. It would be great to see it happen here.”
Not everything went Medina’s way, as Dan Perstin (130), Mark Fontana (171), Caleb Curtis (189) and Tim Reagan (215) won for the Blue Devils.
The featured match of the night was between Curtis and Joe Gigliotti. Both predicted to be state qualifiers in the Brakeman Report, the two waged a battle that should likely happen at least three more times this season. Brunswick and Medina will see each other next week at the NOC and will lock horns the rest of the postseason.
Round 1 went to Curtis in an epic 5-4 victory. The returning state qualifier for Brunswick trailed 4-1 to start the third period, but picked up an escape and stalling point to draw to within one before taking Gigliotti down with 11 seconds left.
“Once you beat someone, it’s in their head,” Curtis said. “I know that because it happens to me when I lose. But it’s also in his head that he wants to beat me more, so he’ll work hard because he wants to beat me. I have to work twice as hard because he’ll be coming after me.”
Gigliotti agreed with those thoughts. While he had a four-point lead after reversing Curtis to his back in the second period, he knows it’s just the first of many bouts with his Medina County counterpart.
“It makes me more focused,” Gigliotti said. “It did more to open my eyes and make me work hard. I’ve got to come out more determined.”
Contact Brad Bournival at sports@medina-gazette.com.
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