Curwensville\’s Brothers, Thomas Win D9 AA Wrestling Titles

CLARION – Curwensville junior 119-pounder Derek Brothers claimed his second District 9 Class AA wrestling championship and senior 145-pounder later doubled the pleasure for his teammates and the Golden Tide fans in Clarion University\’s Tippin Gymnasium Saturday night.

 

\”I was really happy for both of them,\” coach Duane Wriglesworth II said after his two gold medalists led the Golden Tide to a solid fifth-place finish with 106 points, just a half-point behind Johnsonburg.

 

Be aggressive right away and get the initial takedown to put their opponents in a comeback mode was his advice for both finalists. 

 

Wriglesworth noted, \”I said, \’Let\’s work our shots early. Don\’t hold back. Even if we get the choice for the second period, we\’re gonna pick down so we can score and get a separation of points to make them work in the third period.\’

 

\”And that\’s exactly what we did in both cases.\”

 

The top-seeded Brothers, who reigned at 112 last year, was impressive in blanking Redbank Valley\’s tough Tyler McCauley 3-0 in a duel of returning champions, registering for a takedown 1:03 into the bout, standing for an escape midway through the middle period and riding the final two minutes.

 

The Bulldog junior won districts at 103 and was a state qualifier last season.

 

\”Derek really rode him tough,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He runs a good combination of a tight-waist, spiral ride right into a crab series. He\’s tough to shake. He just keeps you guessing all the time. He really looked good.\”

Brothers (30-2), who didn\’t surrender a point in his three tourney matches, pinned Ridgway\’s Slade Horner at the 1:46 mark in the semifinals.

 

Thomas (28-3) had a tougher time in his afternoon bout, beating Redbank Valley\’s Kasey Haines 5-2 with a five-point move late in the second period. The Bulldog senior reversed with 1:30 left in the third period but couldn\’t turn Thomas.

 

\”That\’s basically his form of the Peterson,\” Wriglesworth said of the No. 2 seed\’s big move. \”He\’s always been good on his sitouts with high turns. And when he makes that high turn, he\’s always good at either popping the head or going right into a Peterson. Those are his trademark moves.\”

 

In the finals, Thomas dumped top seed Nathan Hartless of Brockway for a takedown after 23 seconds and then worked a single-leg for another takedown four seconds before the end of the first period on his way to a solid 6-1 victory over the Rover strongboy. Hartless won 7-5 when the two met in December.

 

\”Jeff debated on what he wanted to do,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He said, \’You know, coach, they\’re going to be look for my dump.

 

\”I said, \’We\’re just going to stick with what got us here. Go right after it right away. If he stops it, fine. We\’ll go to something else.\’

 

\”We wanted to be going into the second period 2-0, and it turned out 4-1. The dump worked perfectly. And he knew it was coming. He was blocking the inside leg, but Jeff just rotated hard and pulled down on it so strong, he couldn\’t stop it.\”

 

Seeing Thomas ascend to the top of the winner\’s stand was especially pleasing to Wriglesworth since Thomas was stunned in two matches after reaching the semifinals in 2008. He was taken to a hospital after being forced to default in the consolation match.

 

\”I felt so bad for him last year,\” Wriglesworth said. \”He got knocked out, physically, and I don\’t think he even knew where he was. To come back here from that and take the championship is a credit to him. This has been a lifelong goal of his.\”

 

Three Curwensville wrestlers missed joining Brothers and Thomas in the Northwest Region Class AA Tournament at Sharon this weekend when they lost in the consolation finals to place fourth.

 

Heavyweight Nathan Russell, seeded sixth after moved up from 215 for the post-season, suffered a heart-breaking 3-2 ultimate tiebreaker loss to third seed Mark Divins of Clarion in a rematch of their quarterfinal bout in which the Golden Tide senior pulled off an upset by the same score.

 

The two traded quick escapes in the regulation bout and Russell forced the fourth extra period when he hit a Granby Roll for an escape with four ticks left in the third overtime period. He chose the bottom position for the do-or-die final 30 seconds and almost got out, but Divins held him down to place third for the second year in a row.

 

\”There were seven seconds on the clock when he hit that Granby at the end, but his foot just caught,\” Wriglesworth noted. \”That\’s how close he came to going to regionals. I thought he wrestled that match well. Everything went well that we had planned. My credit goes to Divins. He was able to hold him down when he needed it to.

 

\”But Nathan had a good tournament.\”

 

Russell (27-7) stayed alive by taking down fifth seed Zach Manning of Port Allegany three times for an 8-3 decision in the consy semis.

 

Golden Tide freshman standout Jake Keller (29-5) also bowed out with a tough loss in what had been projected to be the title match. Top seed Jesse Wolfe of Johnsonburg countered Keller\’s takedown attempt for two points with 27 seconds remaining to prevail 3-1.

 

Keller, always the aggressor, was taken down twice by Ridgway\’s third-seeded Kyle Caggiano in a 5-3 semifinal loss, but rebounded to dominate Keystone\’s Garrett McCleary for a 17-0 technical fall that went the full five minutes.

 

Sophomore Greg Koptchak (15-13), the fifth seed at 103, ran into top seed Corey Bush of Ridgway in the third-place bout, and the Elker freshman had a 9-1 lead when he clamped on a cradle for a fall at 3:41.

 

The Golden Tide bantam had charged through the wrestlebacks with three falls, cradling Oswayo Valley\’s Travis Haupt in 26 seconds and decking Smethport\’s third-seeded Matt Schwab with an arm bar and press at the 4:20 mark on Saturday.

 

Senior sixth seeds Tyler Peters (26-8) at 125 and Jeff Smallwood (18-9) at 130 had their careers end the consolation semifinals after posting major decisions in the consy quarters earlier in the day.

 

Fourth-seeded junior Brett Sutika (20-11) and unseeded senior Justin Smith (7-18) bowed out in the consy quarterfinals.

 

\”It was kind of bittersweet in a way,\” Wriglesworth said. \”I kept telling people I think we\’ll send three (to regionals). We got a shot for six. Whether we\’d have two champions, I didn\’t think that. We hadn\’t beaten Hartless, and I knew Jake was going to have a tough time (with Wolfe).

 

\”We had hoped we were going to wrestle back and take some thirds, and it just didn\’t happen.\”

 

Brothers was one of eight returning champions to repeat.

 

Ridgway junior 130-pounder Garet Pisani became the 30th wrestler, and the ninth Elker, with at least three District 9 Class AA titles by scoring all of his points in the first period for a 7-0 win over Brookville freshman Dylan Zimmerman.

 

Earning gold medals for the second year in a row were Smethport\’s Tim Hubbard at 125 and Jon-Marc Burdick at 140, Coudersport\’s Dirk Cowburn at 152, Redbank Valley\’s Logan Shirey at 171, Port Allegany\’s Dylan Major at 189 (down from 215 last year) and Ridgway\’s Joe Chittester at 285. Cowburn and Chittester are juniors; the others are seniors.

 

In addition to Thomas, the first-time champs were Clarion\’s Mike Bauer at 103, Brookville\’s Brett Smith at 112, Redbank Valley\’s Nic McCauley at 135, Ridgway\’s Zac Zelcs at 160 and Kane\’s Ross Nicholson at 215. Bauer, Smith and Zelcs are underclassmen.

 

The finals didn\’t generate a lot of excitement for the large crowd as points were scarce in many of the bouts. In fact, seven were scoreless going to the second period.

 

At 103, Brookville frosh Trey Constable\’s reversal at the second-period buzzer and third-period ride forced overtime against Bauer, who headlocked him for a 7-2 win.

 

At 112, Caggiano single-legged Smith for a takedown and a 2-2 tie with 17 seconds left in the third period, but the Brookville freshman prevailed 4-2 in overtime by turning a Peterson into a takedown at the buzzer.

 

At 125, Hubbard had his hands full against Redbank Valley junior Trevor McCauley in the first period, leading 4-3 with a takedown and reversal. Another reversal early in the second period set the final at 6-3 with Hubbard riding out the last two minutes.

 

At 135, Nic McCauley and Brookville\’s Dylan Zimmerman spent most of time sparring before the Bulldog senior spun behind the Raider soph with one second showing on the clock in overtime for a 3-1 victory.

 

At 140, Burdick outscrapped Brockway\’s Jaron Licatovich 6-2 in one of the more interesting matches. He reversed and tilted the Rover in the second period and then shot a low single for the clinching points with 29 seconds remaining.

 

At 152, No. 2 seed Cowburn avenged a 1-0 dual-meet loss to top seed Josh Woodford of Ridgway in convincing 9-4 fashion. The defending state champ darted in for a low single at the opening whistle and added three points with a tilt for a 5-0 lead after 45 seconds. He limited Woodford to two escapes and a late takedown, all in the third period, and was chosen for the Joseph Kata Award as the Class AA Outstanding Wrestler.

 

At 160, Zelcs nipped Keystone\’s Mike Switzer 1-0 on an uncontested escape at the start of the third period. Switzer made the decision after failing to get off the bottom in the middle period.

 

At 171, Shirey gave up the first two points when he missed a headlock against Keystone\’s Kyle Jones, but he went on to record seven takedowns in an 18-7 major decision

 

At 189, Major downed Brookville soph Jacob Shields 5-1 with takedowns in the second and third periods.

 

At 215, Nicholson spun behind Brockway soph Joel Yahner with 26 seconds gone and tilted the Rover late in the second period in a 5-2 victory, losing a shutout when he gave up a takedown with 15 seconds left.

 

At 285, Chittester received an uncontested escape at the start of the second period and then punctuated a 3-0 win over Redbank Valley\’s Shane Bowser with a takedown at the end of the third period. They also met in the 2008 finals, with Chittester winning 8-2. 

 

Ridgway, which had two runners-up and three consolation winners, piled up 169.5 points to run away with the team title. Redbank Valley and Brookville trailed with 137 and 124, respectively.

 

Brookville\’s Dave Klepfer received the Lenny Ferraro Award after being named Class AA Coach of the Year for the job he did with a squad that had seven freshmen and four sophomores in the tourney lineup.