Punxsutawney had beaten Hollidaysburg on Tuesday night 58-19. The Chucks are now 3-1 in dual meets this season while the Tide, who hadn’t wrestled since losing to West Branch on December 23, dropped to 1-2.
Curwensville coach Duane Wriglesworth was pleased in a few areas, however, as he said afterwards, “I thought that we fought very hard tonight with a lot of close matches and our conditioning is starting to pick up.”
The Tide jumped out to a quick 12-0 lead, getting pins from Greg Koptchak at 119 and freshman Trey McKenzie at 125.
Koptchak used 2:43 of the clock to pin Chelsea Engleholm while McKenzie took 3:48 to deck Devin Snyder.
Neko Cappella put the Chucks quickly on the scoreboard at 130 pounds by making quick work of the Tide’s Alex Holt with a pin in just 1:07.
With Curwensville leading 12-6 unbeaten Tide wrestler Jake Keller, now 8-0, came out at 135 to meet up with the Chuck’s Kody Young in the night’s featured bout.
Keller trailed 2-0 after the first period as Young worked for the initial takedown. The Tide junior was able to escape and grab a takedown of his own late in the second frame to take a 3-2 into the third period were Keller rode out the entire final two minutes to gather in the one point victory and keep Curwensville out in front 15-6.
The next five bouts determined a huge part of the final outcome as Punxsutawney grabbed each one to lead 30-15 after the 171-pound match was over.
Ceasar Maruca won a hard fought 8-4 victory over Nathan Wriglesworth at 140. Maruca picked up five points in the second frame with a reversal and a three point near fall then added a takedown in the third.
Two quick falls would put the Chucks out in front 21-15 as Seth Spack pinned Austin Pollick of the Tide at 145 in 1:38 followed by Nathan McGregor, at 152, pinning Jason Baker of Curwensville in only 43 seconds.
After Duell Thompson of Punxsy scored eight third period points at 160 to defeat Hunter McCracken by a score of 9-4 the Chucks would add two pins out of the next three bouts to take control of the match.
At 171 Carl Langley pinned Curwensville’s Lewis Rhine in 2:45 with Tige Woodson taking 3:01 to pin Chad Desmett of the Tide at 215.
In between those two falls Kyle Kyler would pick up the final win of the evening for Curwensville as the Tide senior showed Josh Neal the lights in 2:45 of the 189 pound bout.
Two forfeits for Punxsutawney would follow. One at 285 and the other at 103 which extended the Chucks lead to 48-21 with only the 112 match remaining.
At 112 Joel Bowers bettered Tyler Mays of Curwensville 9-5 to set the final 51-21 in favor of Punxsutawney
Wriglesworth added a final positive comment regarding his team, “We looked a lot better on our feet this evening enabling us to get the initial takedown in several bouts which was one of our goals coming in.”
Punxsutawney easily won the junior high match by defeating the young Golden Tide 66-38.
Curwensville won’t have much time to rest as it travels to Coudersport on Saturday to participate in the Coudy Duals with a total of five dual meets. Action starts at 9:30 am at Coudersport Hugh School.
RESULTS
119 Greg Koptchak, Cur pinned Chelsea Engleholm P, 2:43 0 6
125 Trey McKenzie, Cur pinned Devin Snyder, P 3:48 0 12
130 Neko Cappella, P pinned Alex Holt, Cur 1:07 6 12
135 Jake Keller, Cur dec. Kody Young, P 3-2 6 15
140 Ceasar Maruca, P dec. Nathan Wriglesworth, Cur 8-4 9 15
145 Seth Spack, P pinned Austin Pollick, Cur 1:38 15 15
152 Nathan McGregor, P pinned Jason Baker, Cur :43 21 15
160 Duell Thompson, P dec. Hunter McCracken, Cur 9-4 24 15
171 Carl Langley, P pinned Lewis Rhine, Cur 2:43 30 15
189 Kyle Kyler, Cur pinned Josh Neal, P 2:45 30 21
215 Tige Woodson, P pinned Chad Desmett, Cur 3:01 36 21
289 Tyler Titus, P won by forfeit 42 21
103 Josh Schuckers, P won by forfeit 48 21
112 Joel Bowers, P dec. Tyler Mays, Cur 9-5 51 21
OFFICIAL: Jeff Lindenmuth
