NEWARK – He may be Utica wrestling’s biggest surprise this season. Unseeded freshman heavyweight Dylan Cooperrider took fourth place in Saturday’s Licking Valley Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 9.
After losing his first-round match, Cooperrider took advantage of a second-round bye and some timely advice from his coach, coming back to win his next three round-robin matches in a row — pinning all three opponents before losing in the third-place final.
“I just focused more,” Cooperrider said. “I listened to Coach (Mark) Rakoczy and the advice that he had so I could do better in the final rounds. He told me to ‘be more patient and everything will come to you.’ He also told me to focus.”
Not bad for a guy who has only wrestled a handful of matches, but his coach saw his potential early on.
“All through middle school I tried to get him to wrestle,” Rakoczy said, “He played basketball and I used to tease him. I said that if he had more fouls than he had points, he should be a wrestler. I got Dylan to wrestle last year as an eighth-grader. He broke his finger right away and didn’t even wrestle in the first half of last season. After that, he only wrestled two or three matches.”
Finding someone Cooperrider’s size to spar with is tough. Most of the time, he has to spar with Rakoczy.
“He’s helping me a lot,” Cooperrider said. “I can learn more from going up against him. He can teach me about anything I need to know so I can learn it really quickly.”
Has he beaten his coach yet?
“I’ve been close, but no,” Cooperrider said.
It’s a busy life for a 15-year old, but Cooperrider would do more. He’s doing well academically, especially in Spanish class. He has been a community volunteer, but the COVID-19 pandemic has limited those opportunities lately.
He also throws the shot and the discus for the track and field team, but his favorite sport is football. Wrestling is helping him to be a better offensive- and defensive tackle.
“The conditioning is a big part of it,” Cooperrider said. “Wrestling teaches you how to stay low and square to the line and that helps me in football. We learn inside control for wrestling and football. It helps a lot. It teaches you how to use your hands.”
Also placing in the Licking Valley Invitational were Utica’s Wesley Wydick (fourth, 120 pounds), Brock Wygle (second, 126), Clayton Smith (third, 132), Ash Robinson (fifth, 138), Austin Smith (fourth, 145) and Nolan Hazlett (fourth, 182).
Top placers for Fredericktown were Brock Stute (fourth, 132), Mason Hoeflich (fourth, 170) and Gene Fitzpatrick (fifth, 195).
