CURWENSVILLE-The Curwensville Golden Tide wrestling team suffered their first loss of the season Thursday night at the hands of another very good Ridgway squad, 50-18. The Tide had won their first five dual meets before running up against the Elkers who improve their overall record for the year to 10-2.
With the action starting at 140 pounds the Tide jumped out to a 9-6 lead after three bouts with Jeff Thomas winning 6-2 over the Elkers Zack Zelcs at 145 and Brett McCracken pinning Ridgway’s Brandon Quail at 152 in 3:33 to take the three point lead. Then Ridgway turned on all engines to outscore their hosts 44-9 the rest of the way.
Coach Gary Gerber’s Elkers won the next five bouts to pull out in front 33-9 before Curwensville’s Greg Koptchak picked up a forfeit at 103. Four of those five wins ended in falls for the visitors. One of the best bouts of the evening was at 171 were Derek Johnson of Ridgway won a hard fought decision over the Tide’s Jarrett Sloppy, 15-10.
In one of two featured bouts, Ridgway’s Jerico Weitzel, coming in at 8-0, met Nathan Russell of Curwensville at 215. Weitzel picked up a first period takedown to go out in front 2-0 before pinning Russell exactly when the buzzer sounded to end the first.
In the other featured match up Curwensville’s Derek Brothers went up against longtime foe Garet Pisani at 119. Pisani failed to make the 112 pound weigh in and Brothers moved up from 112 to take on the super sophomore. Brothers came in at 14-2 and Pisani 17-2. After a scoreless first two minutes Brothers got a second period escape and added a takedown to pull in front 3-0. But with just a second left Pisani got the reversal and after two periods Brothers led 3-2. Pisani, starting from the bottom, got the third period reversal and held on to get the big win 4-3.
The Tide’s Tyler Peters showed he’s for real in besting Derek Konen at 125, 11-9 in overtime. Konen gave up two points earlier in the match on “caution” penalties. In overtime, Peters took down the Ridgway senior with just 12 seconds gone to seal the huge personal win.
Curwensville head coach Duane Wriglesworth said afterwards, “We could have worked the numbers in our favor to make the final score closer but we did that to get our guys better, quality matches.” He added, “We had some positives on the night. Tyler Peters beat a quality opponent in his win over Konen. I also thought we wrestled well on our feet tonight. We were more aggressive than in the past and that’s good to see.”
Ridgway also won the Junior High meet 48-36.
The Tide don\’t wrestle again until next Friday and Saturday (Jan. 25 & 26) at the Grove City Tournament.
RESULTS: C R
140 Sam Skraba R pinned Duane Wriglesworth C 3:33 0 6
145 Jeff Thomas C dec Zack Zelcs R 6-2 3 6
152 Brett McCracken C pinned Brandon Quail R 2:41 9 6
160 Jack Urmann R pinned Justin Smith C 2:40 9 12
171 Derek Johnson R dec Jarrett Sloppy C 15-10 9 15
189 Cody Sheasley R pinned Matt Schultz C 1:30 9 21
215 Jerico Weitzel R pinned Nathan Russell C 1:59 9 27
285 Joe Chittester R pinned Walter Koontz C 1:07 9 33
103 Greg Koptchak C won by forfeit 15 33
112 Rick Javier R won by forfeit 15 39
119 Garet Pisani R dec Derek Brothers C 4-3 15 42
125 Tyler Peters C dec Derek Konen R 11-9 18 42
130 D. J. Skraba R maj dec Brett Sutika C 8-0 18 46
135 Jake Bogacki R maj dec Justin Johnston C 18-10 18 50