CURWENSVILLE — For Curwensville senior Nick Sipes and freshman Derek Brothers, many hours of hard work plus dedication and sacrifice – off season and in season – have culminated in the second most important goal for all Pennsylvania schoolboy wrestlers, the opportunity to display their talents in the PIAA Championships at Hershey.
Number one is winning a medal, and the Golden Tide\’s two Northwest Region Class AA champions will have gold on their minds when they enter the Giant Center Thursday morning for the 9:15 preliminary round.
Sipes, Curwensville\’s first four-time District 9 champion and a two-time region king, is seeking his third medal at 189 pounds. He was runner-up as a sophomore and placed fourth as a junior, when he battled through the season on an injured knee. He was pinned by Pat Bradshaw (41-1) in the 2005 title bout after handing the Saegertown standout his only loss in the region finals. Last year, he was responsible for one of only two blemishes on the record of state champ Kellen Harris of Sharon. Harris moved up to 215 this season.
Sipes will put a 28-2 record on the line against Mount Union\’s Zack Hicks (29-15), who placed fifth in both the District 6 and Southwest Region tourneys. If the Golden Tide standout wins, he\’ll get either Northeast runner-up James Haynes (33-2) of Mount Carmel or Southeast third placer Garret Sukanick (34-7) of Northwestern Lehigh in the quarterfinals Friday morning. Haynes, who placed in the state tourney last year, was the District 4 champ, while Sukanick lost 2-1 in the District 11 finals to eventual Southeast champ Kevin Bolinsky (36-1) of North Schuylkill.
The bottom of the 189 bracket also features District 6 and Southwest Region champ Zac Bennett (36-1) of Westmont-Hilltop. He lost in the finals at 171 as a freshman last year and has been ranked No. 1 at 189 most of this season. Bolinsky and Northeast champ Aaron Karns (32-5) of Berwick are in the top bracket along with Jerico Weitzel (38-4) of Ridgway. Sipes beat Karns 5-2 in the Penn Manor Tournament finals in December and has a 2-1 edge on Weitzel with the wins coming in the District 9 and Northwest Region finals the last two weeks. Bennett beat Weitzel 3-2 during the state duals.
\”Nick probably has the worst draw being in the bottom part of his bracket,\” Curwensville coach Duane Wriglesworth II said. \”Bennett is really somebody to be concerned about. He\’s the real deal. Nick would meet up with him in the semifinals if everything goes right.
\”But you can\’t look ahead. Haynes and Sukanick are very good, too. Right now, we\’re looking to Hicks.
\”It\’ll be interesting, but I think the best is yet to come for Nick.\”
Brothers (30-6), the Golden Tide\’s first freshman region titlist, has his work cut out for him in his state tourney debut, as 103 appears to be loaded even though 12 of the 16 hopefuls are freshmen. His first opponent will be highly-regarded Joe Lascari (36-4) of North Star. The District 5 champ stumbled in the Southwest Regional and placed fourth.
A victory would pit Brothers against either Southwest runner-up Frank Martellotti (38-1) of Shady Side Academy or Southeast third placer Jacob Gerlach (37-9) of Hanover. Also in the bottom of the bracket are Northeast champ Brock Waughen (33-6) of Milton, Southeast runner-up Joe Spisak (38-2) of Boiling Springs and dangerous Southwest third placer Patrick Myers (23-6) of Penn Cambria. Myers beat A.J. Schopp of Tyrone in the District 6 semis, but Schopp (37-3) bounced back to breeze to the Southwest Region title. He\’s in the top of the bracket with Southeast champ Zane Rocco (46-4) of Brandywine Heights, District 6 champ Trevor Kushner (32-6) of Westmont-Hilltop, Northwest runner-up Garet Pisani (40-3) of Ridgway and Northeast runner-up Caleb Lomax (36-7) of Montoursville.
\”There\’s a lot of good, young talent there, kids with a lot of experience under their belts, and we\’re definitely on the wrong side of that bracket,\” Wriglesworth said. \”Derek has a tough match right off the bat. Lascari has been in the rankings all year as one of the best kids. Martellotti\’s first loss was in the regional. We know Spisak is tough. On the other side, Yocco has a lot wins. Schopp had a tech fall in the region semifinal and beat Martellotti 11-4. And Pisani was ranked high for a while.
\”We\’re just going to have one stud after another. But, you know what, Derek is a kid who\’s surprised us many times this year. He\’s just going to have to wrestle hard the whole way through.\”
Wriglesworth feels his two standouts are prepared to make a good showing.
\”Nick had a couple of good practices,\” he said. \”Derek wrestled in the (Area V) section (I) for Junior Olympics at Clearfield tonight, and we had a short practice afterward. He had two tech falls. We were looking mainly at working on takedowns and tilts.
\”Nick know what it\’s all about. He\’s been there and he\’s used to the big-arena atmosphere. Derek wasn\’t even predicted to make it out of the region, and he proved those people wrong.
\”They both seem confident, but they are in tough brackets. There is no easy road. Unless you have someone in there who is just an outstanding athlete, you\’ve got any number of kids who can win. I\’ve told a lot of people you could run that same tournament the next weekend and get a completely different set of results. It all comes down to who wants it the most.
\”I just feel that when it\’s over, there won\’t be any regrets.\”
Starting times for the other Class AA sessions are Friday at 8 a.m. for the quarterfinals, 9:45 for second round of consolations, 6:30 p.m. for the championship semis and consolation quarterfinals and 9 for the consolation semis and Saturday at 12:30 p.m. for the consolation finals and 2:30 for the championships.
