Ansbach’s Dominic Barrale locks up Baumholder’s Trent Carbaugh during their 189-pound match on Jan. 16 at Kaiserslautern High School. Barrale, who pinned Carbaugh, will be aiming for his third DODDS-Europe title in his third weight class in the DODDS-Europe wrestling tournament this weekend. (Ben Bloker/Stars and Stripes)
Ansbach’s Dominic Barrale locks up Baumholder’s Trent Carbaugh during their 189-pound match on Jan. 16 at Kaiserslautern High School. Barrale, who pinned Carbaugh, will be aiming for his third DODDS-Europe title in his third weight class in the DODDS-Europe wrestling tournament this weekend. (Ben Bloker/Stars and Stripes)
Returning champion Ethan Montang, top, could help lead Baumholder to the Division II team championship. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
Led by five returning champions, Europe’s 163 best high school wrestlers open a two-day run at Wiesbaden Army Airfield at 9 a.m. Friday. At stake will be individual championships in 14 weight classes and team titles in three divisions.
One wrestler’s quest stands out in this year’s meet. Ansbach senior Dominic Barrale, the 160-pound champion as a sophomore in 2008 and the 171-pound king as a junior in 2009, is attempting to win his third DODDS-Europe gold medal at a third weight. Bulking up for a hoped-for college football career, All-Europe quarterback Barrale is wrestling at 189 this time.
Unintentionally, Barrale also set up the undercurrent for this year’s finals — a shot at revenge. Last Saturday, Barrale suffered his first loss of the season, a 4-3 decision to Patch’s unbeaten Marshall Haas, who was wrestling in Virginia at this time last year.
Even though Barrale somehow drew the sixth seed at 189, few doubt they’ll be watching Haas-Barrale II in Saturday afternoon’s finals.
"It’s always great to see big guys wrestling at it," Baumholder coach Glenn Pilarowski said Monday in an e-mail. "They’re both very skilled wrestlers, which will make for one of the best matches at 189 that we’ve seen for a while."
Including Haas, 17 wrestlers will be putting unbeaten records on the line. Revenge is in the air there, too.
At 130 pounds, for example, reigning 112 champion Drew Polson of Wiesbaden lost 9-8 to Lakenheath’s unbeaten Adam Carroll during the season. It’s reasonable to think Polson wants payback.
Carroll is one of three unbeaten Lancers. The others are Derek Franco, who’s likely to encounter defending European 160-pound champ Tyler Hall of Vilseck somewhere in that bracket, and 285-pounder Shae Emerton.
There’s a logjam of perfect records at 119, where Charles Cuthbert of Naples — "who’s been beating seniors since he was in seventh grade," according to his coach, Vito Vitulli — drew the No. 1 seed over fellow unbeatens Daniel Amezola of Ramstein and Marco Gonzalez of SHAPE.
Push also will come to shove at 103, where unbeatens Adam Franz of Ramstein and Wyatt Overman of Vicenza could decide between themselves which has a chance to end the season that way in a seven-wrestler weight class.
Unbeatens Joe Boswell of Vicenza and Robert Davis of Patch appear on a collision course at 135, except that Baumholder’s reigning 130-pound champion Ethan Montang is in the bracket, too.
The best of the unbeatens showdowns, however, figures to come at 171, where Vicenza’s Kyle Kaus, runner-up at that weight to Barrale last year, and Patch’s Jason Pinnow seem destined to meet in Saturday’s final.
The exploits of Davis, Pinnow and Haas, along with Matt Seely at 152, put Patch in position to defend its Division I team title against 2008 champion Ramstein and dark horses Vilseck and Lakenheath.
"Patch has to be the favorite," Baumholder’s Pilarowski wrote. "Everyone else is playing catch-up."
AFNORTH coach Greg Blankenship, whose Aaron Black is unbeaten at 215 and appears to face his toughest challenge from Andrew Feazelle of Vilseck, likes the D-II team chances of Baumholder, led by Montang at 135, unbeaten Prince Owusu at 140, and heavyweight contender Sean Ledbetter.
He cautions, however, that the Bucs need to be on top of their game to fend off Bitburg, whose chances might well hinge on a showdown at 152 between the Barons’ Bryce Robbins and Patch’s Seely, a bout Bruce Ballard of Alconbury picked as one he’d like to see.
In Division III, Blankenship thinks Sigonella’s 11-man contingent — led by 2009 bronze medalist Brett Gilbert — as being enough to offset Brussels’ quality duo of Vincent Alonso at 125 and 171-pounder Joseph Kren.
"But who knows?" Alconbury’s Ballard said. "There are always upsets at the European tournament."
Best advice?
Come out and see for yourself.
European wrestling championships
When: Friday and Saturday. Matches begin at 9 a.m. each day. Saturday’s semifinals are to begin at 11:30 a.m. and championship bouts at 3:30 p.m.
Where: Wiesbaden Army Airfield gym.
What’s at stake: Individual championships in 14 weight classes; team titles in three divisions.
Returning champions (2009/2010 weight class): A.J. Remo, Kaiserslautern (103/112); Drew Polson, Wiesbaden (112/130); Ethan Montang, Baumholder (130/135); Tyler Hall, Vilseck (160/160); Dominic Barrale, Ansbach (171/189).
Undefeated participants (School, weight class in parentheses): Adam Franz (Ramstein, 103), Wyatt Overman (Vicenza, 103), Charles Cuthbert (Naples, 119), Daniel Amezola (Ramstein, 119), Marco Gonzalez (SHAPE, 119), Vincent Alonso (Brussels, 125), Adam Carroll (Lakenheath, 130), Joe Boswell (Vicenza, 135), Robert Davis (Patch, 135), Prince Owusu (Baumholder, 140), Andres Nanez (Heidelberg, 145), Derek Franco (Lakeheath, 160), Jason Pinnow (Patch, 171), Kyle Kaus (Vicenza, 171), Marshall Haas (Patch, 189), Aaron Black (AFNORTH, 215), Sean Ledbetter (Baumholder, 285).
Admission fee: Two-day tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for students. Daily tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for students.
