Warrior Run takes imposing lead at districts
Feb. 23—WILLIAMSPORT — Plenty of Valley wrestlers saw success on the first day of the District 4 Class 2A wrestling championships Friday at Williamsport High School.
That success was especially present for Warrior Run, which leads the team standings with 73.5 points after advancing eight wrestlers to today's semifinal round. Montoursville is second to the Defenders with 55.5 points.
One of the Defenders' wrestlers in the winner's bracket, 215-pounder Connor Parker, won both of his matches on Friday after being knocked out early with two losses in the district tournament last year.
"It feels good coming back from not even making it out of here last year, and now advancing to regionals," Parker said. "It feels great, and I'm looking forward to it."
Aside from Parker, Max Wirnsberger (133 pounds), Tyler Ulrich (139), Reagan Milheim, (145), Cameron Milheim (152), Eli Butler (160), Cole Shupp (172) and Stone Allison (285) also made it to the semifinals for the Defenders. Ryan Kemock (107), Gavin Hunter (127) and Isaiah Betz (189) will wrestle in the consolation bracket today after each lost a match Friday.
Midd-West sits at sixth place with three wrestlers in the semifinals and four more in the consolation bracket. Evan Maneval (133), Matthew Smith (139) and Grant Yount (172) will look to make it to the finals in their respective brackets.
Yount was involved in one of the biggest upsets in Friday's action. As the No. 11 seed, Yount pinned No. 3 seed Easton Pequignot (North Penn-Liberty) with three seconds left in the first period. Yount will face the No. 2, Milton's Alex Hoffman, today in the semifinals.
Southern Columbia is currently two spots behind the Mustangs at eighth place. The Tigers ended Friday with two semifinalists, Mason Barvitskie at 145 and Garrett Garcia at 189. Garcia kept his undefeated season alive at 25-0 with a pin of Joel Hultz (Williamson) in 37 seconds.
The rest of Southern's contingent landed in the consolations and will seek to avoid elimination with another loss.
Milton and Mifflinburg rounded out the top 10 and advanced three wrestlers each to the semifinals. Hoffman, Ty Locke (121) and Cale Bastian (215) will compete today's semifinal matches for the Black Panthers.
All three of Mifflinburg's sectional champions — Jack Gramly (107), Bradley Wagner (121) and Ben Straub (127) — got through to the semis. After receiving a first-round bye, Gramly had a solid win against a two-time state qualifier in Benton's Seth Kolb. Gramly held a two-point lead that was trimmed to a point when Kolb picked up an escape. However, that was the last point Gramly gave up as he held on for a 4-3 win.
Gramly will face another returning state-qualifier, Montgomery's Manny Stoltzfus, in the semifinals.
Line Mountain sits at 11th place with two wrestlers in the winner's bracket: Brock Rothermel (114) and Nolan Baumert (139). At 160, Kohen Shingara was upset by Sam Persun (South Williamsport) in the quarterfinals after Persun executed a last-second reversal to post a 5-4 decision. Shingara is one of five Eagles who will start today's matches in the consolations.
Lewisburg's lone semifinalist, Landen Wagner, won both of his matches at 139 on Friday. The Green Dragons are in 15th place with four more wrestlers still alive in the consolation bracket.
After starting his day with a pin of Hughesville's Kile Hartman, Wagner pulled an upset of No. 2 seed Rylee Sluyter of Towanda. Wagner entered the final period leading Sluyter 4-2, but Sluyter tied the match by picking up a takedown with 1:18 left. However, Wagner earned an escape that sealed his spot in the semifinals 17 seconds later to win the match 5-4.
"I didn't get worried in that situation," Wagner said. "I knew there was a lot of time left and I could get an escape. He got a takedown because I was wrestling a little dumb there in the third with the lead, so I just gotta make that adjustment. But I didn't worry in that situation. Just trusted my ability."
Wagner will now face Smith in the semifinals. All four semifinalists at 139 took the top four spots at last week's Southern Sectional. Baumert will face Warrior Run's Tyler Ulrich in the other side of the bracket.
Mount Carmel, Danville and Shamokin had no wrestlers advance to the semifinals. The Red Tornadoes have three wrestlers in the consolation bracket, while Danville has two. Shamokin's lone entrant, Chase Pensyl, will take on North Penn-Liberty's Riley Oakes in the first round of the 145 consolations.
Today's action will begin at 9 a.m. with the final matches slated to start at 6:30 p.m.
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DISTRICT 4 CLASS 2A
BOYS WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
at Williamsport, H.S.
Team key: Athens, Ath; Benton, Ben; Bloomsburg, Bloom; Canton, Can; Central Columbia, CC; Danville, Dan; Hughesville, Hugh; Lewisburg, Lew; Line Mountain, LM; Loyalsock, Loy; Midd-West, MW; Mifflinburg, Miff; Milton, Milt; Montgomery, Mtg; Montoursville, Mtv; Mount Carmel, MC; Muncy, Mun; Northeast Bradford, NB; North Penn-Liberty, NPL; Sayre, Say; Shamokin, Sham; Southern Columbia, SC; South Williamsport, SW; Sugar Valley Charter, SV; Sullivan County, Sull; Towanda, Tow; Troy, Tr; Warrior Run, WR; Wellsboro, Well; Williamson, Will; Wyalusing, Wy.
Team standings (Top 10): 1. Warrior Run, 73.5; 2. Montoursville, 55.5; 3. Montgomery, 42.5; 4. Towanda, 41; 5. Canton, 40; 6. Midd-West, 30.5; 7. South Williamsport, 30; 8. Southern Columbia, 27.5; 9. Milton, 27; 10. Mifflinburg, 26.5.
Pigtails
107: Rowen Humprhey, SC, pinned Curtis Maynard, Tow, 5:44; Andrew Kapec, Sull, pinned Roman Maiorana, Mun, 1:37; Seth Kolb, Ben, dec. Mason Alexander, NB, 9-3; Manny Stolzfus, Mtg, pinned Ryan Kemock, WR, 4:00. 114: Porter Hall, Mtg, dec. Mason Vanderpool, Ath, 8-6; Tanner Vanderpool, Tow, pinned Tyler Stokes, Milt, 3:04; Hunter Simonds, Will, dec. Nolan Altoft, Lew, 11-4; Kaden Zachman, SC, pinned Jonah Caputo, SW, 1:52. 121: Landon Michaels, Lew, tech. fall Ryan Aguirre, Mtv, 15-0 (5:04); Josh Hill, Mun, tech. fall Zaine Campbell, Ath, 17-2 (4:00); Brayden Pequignot, NPL, pinned Victor Ottman, Mtg, 1:30; Cole Patrick, Wy, tech. fall Bradyn Schadel, LM, 16-1 (3:21). 127: Lucas Persun, Ath, dec. Lukas Carpenter, 10-4; Kayvan Shams, SW, dec. Gavin Hunter, WR, 8-4; Anthony Barra, Bloom, tech. fall Gavin Brown, SC, 16-0 (3:08); Seth McClintock, Mtg, pinned Hunter Comstock, NB, 1:01. 133: Lane Kenamond, Miff, maj. dec. Karson Sipley, 11-0; Evan Maneval, MW, pinned Julius Serrano, Bloom, 1:32; Blaize Vogel, Mtv, tech. fall Quinton Bartlett, Lew, 15-0 (4:51); Keegan Bagley, Sull, pinned Jarren McCloskey, SV, 3:01. 139: Cohen Landis, Can, dec. Alex Hosler, CC, 10-6; Tyler Ulrich, WR, pinned Jonathan Earle, Wy, 5:47; Matthew Smith, MW, tech. fall Brendan Cooke, Ath, 18-3 (5:58); Landen Wagner, Lew, pinned Kile Hartman, Hugh, 1:43. 145: Nevin Beachel, Mtg, dec. Riley Oakes, NPL, 10-7; Holden Ward, Can, dec. Charley Paige, MW, 7-0; Mason Barvitskie, SC, pinned Cooper Robinson, Ath, :51; Chase Pensyl, Sham, pinned Josiah Hosler, CC, 1:44. 152: Chase Geurin, Tow, tech. fall Brennan Emery, Mtg, 20-5 (5:30); Keagan Smith, Hugh, pinned Bryan Reeder, Miff, 1:41; Dalton Schadel, LM pinned Ethan Bartenope, SV; 1:31; Ben Miller, MC, pinned Kenyan Slater, Tow, 4:40. 160: Jacob Hinman, Tr, dec. Jay Yount, MW, 4-3; Conor Knight, Hugh, dec. Connor Davidson, Ath, 7-2; Sam Persun, SW, pinned Jordan Brown, Say, 3:30; Braden Vincenzes, Loy, tech. fall Sam Meloy, Dan, 16-0 (4:56). 172: Chase Wenrich, Lew, pinned Jace Gunther, Tow, 1:19; Cole Shupp, WR, pinned Zachary Wolfe, Ben, 3:29; Grant Yount, MW, pinned Owen Kleinman, Mtv, 3:13; Landyn Gephart, SW, pinned William Steele, Tr, 5:49. 189: Joel Hultz, Will, dec. Josh Worthington, CC, 10-4; Michael Davis, Can, pinned Cyrus Douty, Miff, 1:05; Isaiah Betz, WR, pinned Rylan Breidt, Tr, 2:45; Maxim Johnson, LM, pinned Jayden Hamm, SW, 1:08. 215: Reed Palmer, Tr, dec. Troy Raup, Dan, 5-1; Connor Parker, WR, dec. Owen Bird, SW, 7-1; Cole Yonkin, Mtv, pinned Bryce Hackenburg, MW, 1:17; Ben Freeman, Will, dec. Clayton Whiteknight, 6-1. 285: Landon Morehart, Mtv, pinned Maddox Lamas, MC, 3:48; Aiden Hidlay, CC, dec. Luke Sottolano, Will, 4-1; Sawyer Robinson, Tow, pinned Ethan French, Loy, 1:48; Mason Herald, Can, pinned Jackson Kauwell, LM, 5:12.
Quarterfinals
107: Teli Bobotas, Mtv, pinned Humphrey, 1:26; Kapec pinned Mason Kerstetter, MW, :58; Jack Gramly, Miff, dec. Kolb, 4-3; Stoltzfus dec. Bryce Pequignot, NPL, 6-1. 114: Brock Rothermel, LM, pinned Hall, 1:30; T. Vanderpool pinned Aiden Hartman, Ben, 5:05; Ivan Baker, Loy, dec. Simonds, 7-1; Lyle Vermilya, Can, pinned Zachman, 2:44. 121: Colton Wade, Sull, tech. fall Michaels, 16-1 (4:26); Ty Locke, Milt, pinned Hill, 4:33; Bradley Wagner, Miff, tech. fall Bra. Pequignot, 16-0 (5:31); Chase Shaner, Hugh, dec. Patrick, 14-7. 127: David Kennedy, Mtv, pinned L. Persun, 1:21; Shams maj. dec. Brayden Spencer, Tow, 14-6; Barra maj. dec. Kruz McCusker, Sull, 11-3; Ben Straub, Miff, maj. dec. McClintock, 14-0. 133: Brandt Harer, Mtg, pinned Kenamond, :14; Maneval pinned Jazick Brown, Tow, 2:18; Vogel dec. Carson Rockwell, Can, 7-4; Max Wirnsberger, WR, tech. fall Bagley, 19-3 (3:00). 139: Nolan Baumert, LM, dec. Landis, 5-0; Ulrich maj. dec. AJ Kroft, Mtg, 13-2; Matthew Smith, dec. Dylan Brokenshire, Ben, 5-0; Wagner dec. Rylee Sluyter, Tow, 5-4. 145: Reagan Milheim, WR, pinned Beachel, :35; Ho. Ward pinned Cameron Quick, SV, 3:31; Barvitskie tech. fall Hayden Harvey, Mtv, 16-0 (4:00); R. Vanderpool maj. dec. Pensyl, 13-5. 152: Cameron Milheim, WR, pinned Geurin, 2:38; K. Smith dec. Owen Cummings, Will, 3-1; Ayden Hunsiger, Wy, dec. D. Schadel, 7-3; Gage Wentzel, Mtv, pinned Miller, 2:22. 160: Conner Harer, Mtg, tech. fall Hinman, 18-3 (3:23); Eli Butler, WR, dec. Knight, 9-7; Persun dec. Kohen Shingara, LM, 5-4; Hudson Ward, Can, dec. Vincenzes, 3-1. 172: Caden Finck, Mtg, maj. dec. Wenrich, 17-3; Shupp maj. dec. Ryder Bowen, Well, 12-4; G. Yount pinned Easton Pequignot, NPL, 1:57; Alex Hoffman, Milt, pinned Gephart, 5:07. 189: Garrett Garcia, SC, pinned Hultz, :37; M. Davis dec. Coy Bryson, Mtg, 7-4; Kaden Rodarmel, Loy, dec. Betz, 6-3; Mason Higley, Tow, tech. fall M. Johnson, 15-0 (5:32). 215: Austin Johnson, Mun, tech. fall Palmer, 19-4 (1:41); Parker pinned Zack Lantz, Tow, :46; Yonkin dec. Caleb Nason, Ath, 5-0; Cale Bastian, Milt, pinned Freeman, :55. 285: Morehart pinned Josh Nittinger, Ath, 4:33; Stone Allison, WR, dec. Hidlay, 7-4; Robinson maj. dec. Jude Bremigen, SC, 8-0; Ryan Casella, SW, pinned Harold, 1:46.
