MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – Derek Brothers and Jeff Thomas lost close bouts in the finals and Curwensville had two other placewinners to finish seventh among the 27 high school wrestling teams from three states that competed in the 21st annual Penn Manor Invitational Tournament Friday and Saturday.
Brothers, a junior 119-pounder, and Thomas, a senior 145-pounder, matched 4-1 records to lead the Golden Tide, which earned 117.5 points.
Brothers was nipped 3-2 by 2008 PIAA Class AA 103-pound champion Luke Frey of Montoursville after posting three falls and a major decision.
A takedown by Frey, who was 42-1 in his freshman season, decided the gold medal bout. Brothers escaped, and the two traded penalty points for interlocking.
\”It probably was the best final bout of the night,\” Curwensville coach Duane Wriglesworth III said. \”They went through a series of funk rolls before Frey ended up getting the takedown. Then, they ended up riding each other. Several times, Brothers made good attempts to turn Frey. When he was on the bottom, Brothers spent most of his time trying to get out of legs.\”
Brothers had pinned Elco\’s Shawn Howard in 54 seconds, Spring Grove\’s Jake Verheyen in 5:00 and Riverbend\’s Cristian Rodriguez in 1:17 before beating Central York\’s Andrew Wesner 11-1 in the semifinals.
Thomas traveled a similar path to the finals, pinned Berwick\’s Gio Perla in 1:33, Elco\’s Austin Spangler in 30 seconds and South County\’s John Fitzgerald in 1:34 and major decisioning Spring Grove\’s Logan Wisner 11-2.
Octorara\’s Dan Miller worked a cradle off the opening takedown for a 4-0 lead. Thomas escaped, traded reversals with Miller in the middle period and reversed again in the third period. Miller closed it out with an escape.
\”If you can make it to the finals there, I think you\’ve had a very good tournament,\” Wriglesworth said. \”Thomas just got caught, and Miller is a state quality wrestler. When you get down four points against a kid like Miller, it\’s hard to recover. It was a good match.\”
Curwensville\’s other placewinners were freshman 112-pounder Jake Keller and senior 215-pounder Nathan Russell.
Keller advanced to the semifinals with three wins before losing 13-5 to eventual runner-up Casey Kent of La Salle College High School, coached by Moshannon Valley graduate Vic Stanley.
Another loss dropped Keller into the fifth-place bout, and he responded with a 10-6 win over Northern\’s Kyle Hejmanowski.
\”I was very impressed with Keller,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He had a couple of minor injuries he battled through.\”
Russell lost in the second round and then charged through the wrestlebacks with four wins, including squeakers against Garden Spot\’s John Schonour 3-2 and South County\’s Chris Kichinko 3-1.
He wound up wrestling his eighth bout in the fifth-place consolation finals, losing 6-4 in overtime to Octorara\’s Nate Ronan to place sixth with a 5-3 record.
\”I was very pleased with Russell,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He wrestled with a lot of determination, and he tried a lot of new things. For a long time, Nathan has been one dimensional. He was able to show different dimensions to his attack.\”
Three other Golden Tide matmen had winning records at 3-2, Greg Koptchak at 103, Tyler Peters at 125 and Brett Sutika at 135.
In addition, Jeff Smallwood at 130 and Kyle Kyler at 152 were 2-2 as Curwensville went 33-27 with a majority of the losses to placewinners.
\”We went down against some of the best kids in the brackets, so there weren\’t any disappointments,\” said Wriglesworth, who noted that the majority of the teams were from Class AAAA and Class AAA schools.
\”The Penn Manor Tournament gave us a good gauge where we are right now and the different areas we need to improve on.\”
The Golden Tide (0-1) returns to dual meet action Tuesday at home against Brockway.
TEAM SCORING AND KEY
1. Spring Grove (SG), 195.5; 2. La Salle College High School (L), 177; 3. East Pennsboro (EP), 135; 4. Octorara (O), 130.5; 5. Montoursville (Mon), 125; 6. Garnet Valley (GV), 118.5; 7. Curwensville (Cur), 117.5; 8. Mechanicsburg (Mech), 115; 9. Sussex, Del., Tech, (ST), 113.5; 10. Penn Manor (PM), 108; 11. (tie) Kennet (K) and West Chester Rustin (WCR), 100.5; 13. Northern (N), 96.5; 14. Cape Henlopen, Del. (CH), 94; 15. South County, Va. (SC), 88; 16. Lampeter Strasburg (LS), 85; 17. Berwick (Ber), 71.5; 18. Brookville (Bv), 68; 19. Central York (CY), 67.5; 20. (tie) Lancaster Catholic (LC) and Twin Valley (TV), 55; 22. Garden Spot (GS), 51.5; 23. Riverbend, Va. (R), 46; 24. Elco (E), 43; 25. Woodbridge, Va. (W), 41; 26. North Schuylkill (NS), 32.5; 27. William Penn (WP), 18.
CHAMPIONSHIPS
103 – Zach Ross (N) dec. Patrick Shaffer (SC), 5-4.
112 – Taylor Bidelspach (SG) dec. Case Kent (L), 6-1.
119 – Luke Frey (Mon), dec. Derek Brothers (Cur), 3-2.
125 – Wendell Cannon (ST) pinned Steve Tarbski (O), 3:13.
130 – Ryan Ginsburg (L) major dec. Trey Duncan (SG), 14-4.
135 – Kyle Bove (K) major dec. Ian Rineer (PM), 8-6.
140 – Joe Marino (GV) major dec. Andres Arroya (TV), 13-5.
145 – Dan Miller (O) dec. Jeff Thomas (Cur), 7-5.
152 – Evan Baer (M) dec. Andy Eshleman (PM), 8-2.
160 – Randy Abel (SG), pinned Curtis Loeb (GV), :34.
171 – Michael Blaszczyk (LC) pinned C.J. Burns (L) 5:52.
189 – Alex Thomas (ST) dec. Josh Smith (O), 4-2.
215 – Zach Nye (EP) dec. Nick Dawson (Mon), 3-2.
275 – Adam Venhuizen (SG) pinned Shawn Stewart (K), 5:12.
FIFTH-PLACE CONSOLATION FINALS
112 – Jake Keller (Cur) dec. Kyle Hejmanowski (N), 10-6.
215 – Nate Ronan (O) dec. Nathan Russell (Cur), 6-4 (ot).
CONSOLATION SEMIFINALS
112 – Charles Bise (EP) major dec. Keller, 11-0.
215 – Shane Marvel (ST) dec. Russell, 3-1.
CHAMPIONSHIP SEMIFINALS
112 – Kent major dec. Keller, 13-5.
119 – Brothers major dec. Andrew Wesner (CY), 11-1.
145 – Thomas major dec. Logen Wisner (SG), 11-2.
CHAMPIONSHIP QUARTERFINALS
112 – Keller major decision Neal O\’Malley (GS), 12-2.
119 – Brothers pinned Cristian Rodriguez (R), 1:17.
130 – Nick Massetti (K), dec. Smallwood, 10-9.
145 – Thomas poinned John Fitzgerald (SC), 1:34.
CONSOLATION QUARTERFINALS
215 – Russell dec. Chris Kichinko (SC), 3-1.
CONSOLATION FOURTH ROUND
103 – Caleb Pearson (Mon) pinned Greg Koptchak (Cur), 1:43.
125 – Bobby Rehm (PM) dec. Tyler Peters (Cur), 9-8.
130 – Dylan Zimmerman (Bv) won by injury default over Jeff Smallwood (Cur).
135 – Kevin Smith (CH) pinned Brett Sutika (Cur), 3:32.
215 – Russell dec. John Schonour (GS), 3-2.
CONSOLATION THIRD ROUND
103 – Koptchak pinned Anthony Talanca (B), 1:19.
125 – Peters dec. John Young (CH), 7-1.
135 – Sutika dec. Andrew Akuby (GS), 8-4.
140 – Derek Shattenberg (Bv) pinned Wes McGarry (Cur), :50.
152 – Tyler Wood (WCR) won by default over Kyle Kyler (Cur), 3:30.
171 – Chris Myers (K) dec. Zach Dimmick (Cur), 7-6.
215 – Russell dec. Curtis Riddle (WCR), 9-2.
CONSOLATION SECOND ROUND
103 – Koptchak pinned Cory Swartzentruver, PM, :45.
125 – Peters major dec. Austin Soboleski (B), 10-2.
135 – Sutika pinned Matt Pyrih (L), 2:31.
140 – McGarry major dec. Kevin Blank (NS), 9-0.
152 – Kyler pinned Eric Sheffer (N), 4:38.
160 – Sean Fisher (L) major dec. Justin Smith (Cur), 10-2.
171 – Dimmick dec. Errick Pfuhl (M), 10-3.
189 – Garrett Hughes (R) dec. Jonathan Michaels (Cur), 6-2.
215 – Russell major dec. Dale Dashnaw (R), 10-0.
275 – Tony Anater (LC) pinned Walter Koontz (Cur), :32.
CHAMPIONSHIP SECOND ROUND
103 – Kyle Loeb (GV), pinned Koptchak, 2:00.
112 – Keller pinned Chris Young (CH), 5:40.
119 – Brothers pinned Jake Verheyen (SG), 5:00.
125 – Weston Lahr (SC) pinned Peters, 5:22.
130 – Smallwood dec. Garrett Conrad (EOP), 6-5.
135 – Kyle Kunzler (ST) dec. Sutika, 10-5.
145 – Thomas pinned Austin Spangler (E), :30.
152 – Ian Eckrote (CH) pinned Kyler, 3:20.
171 – Burns major dec. Dimmick, 13-4.
215 – Ryan Sitler (B) dec. Russell, 8-3.
CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND
103 – Koptchak pinned Ian Day (ST), 1:32.
112 – Keller pinned Kyle Kramer, PM, :40.
119 – Brothers pinned Shawn Howard (E), :54.
125 – Peters dec. Ian Martin (E), 7-0.
130 – Smallwood major dec. Scott Houser (NS), 18-5.
135 – Sutika dec. Brandon Howard (E), 3-2.
140 – Kevin Kann (PM) pinned McGarry, 3:33.
145 – Thomas pinned Gio Perla (B), 1:33.
152 – Kyler dec. Abbe Stoltzfus (TV), 5-1.
160 – Cha Vang (GS) dec. Smith, 9-5.
171 – Dimmick dec. Nathaniel Traugh (R), 5-1.
189 – David Dicce (K) major dec. Michaels, 10-0.
215 – Russell dec. David Guinn (SG), 6-4.
275 – Jay Weatherington (W) pinned Koontz, :15.