CURWENSVILLE – The good news for District 9 champion Jake Keller of Curwensville is that he is one of only three returnees and owns victories over four other hopefuls at 130 pounds in the new-look Northwest Region Class AA Wrestling Tournament this weekend.
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The bad news is the other two with past experience on the Sharon High School mats are Reynolds junior Dylan D’Urso, a two-time regional champion and two-time PIAA placewinner, and Cochranton junior Matt Bryer, also a PIAA placewinner who is responsible for the Golden Tide junior’s only loss in 33 bouts this season.
D’Urso is No. 5, Bryer No. 6 and Keller No. 9 in this week’s Off The Mat state rankings released by Mark Dugan.
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Fortunately for Keller, both of the District 10 standouts are in the upper half of the bracket.
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So, to attain his goal of qualifying for next week’s state tournament as NW Region champ, he would have to contend with only one of them, and that would be in the finals.
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D’Urso (39-5) has bested Bryer (34-3) twice this season, 1-0 in a Feb. 3 dual meet and 3-0 in the D-10 semifinals Saturday.
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He then tech falled Taylor Ellis (24-14) of Conneaut Lake 15-0Â for his third district championship.
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D’Urso reigned at 103 as a freshman when he placed fourth in the state and at 125 last year when he earned a PIAA bronze medal.
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His losses have been to opponents with outstanding credentials, three coming in the rugged 66-team Walsh Jesuit Ironman Tournament at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in early December.
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Seeded seventh, D’Urso finished eighth after losses to Blair (N.J.) Academy’s Todd Preston 2-1, Padua Franciscan’s Brent Fickel 4-2 and Burrell’s Dave Makara 3-1 in overtime.
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Last weekend, Preston won a National Prep Tournament title, two-time Ohio state placewinner Fickel won another district title and Makara (39-3) claimed his third District 7 (WPIAL) crown.
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Makara, a PIAA placewinner two years ago, also beat D’Urso 3-1 when they met during the Ultimate Duals at Brookville in mid-February.
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D’Urso’s other defeat was 6-4 to South Western’s Cameron Throckmorton in the King of the Mountain Tournament at Central Mountain High School in mid-December. Throckmorton (35-0) won the District 3 Class AAA title Saturday.
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Bryer suffered his only other loss in the Fred Bell Tournament at Grove City on Jan. 29.
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After beating Keller 7-4 in the semifinals, he was decisioned 9-4 by Erie McDowell’s Steve Spearman, a returning PIAA Class AAA gold medalist who dropped out of the District 10 tourney when he failed to make weight on the second day.
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Last year, Bryer avenged an 8-6 first-round loss to Curwensville’s Derek Brothers by ending the Golden Tide senior’s career 2-1 in the consolation finals. He went on to place eighth in his first trip to Hershey.
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Bryer has 20 falls while D’Urso has 16 pins and six technical falls.
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Keller was involved in three close matches at 119 in his first venture to the regionals as the D-9 champ.
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He edged Grove City’s Ian Abplanalp 4-2 before falling to Jamestown’s Aaron Roberts 9-7 in the semis and Saegertown’s Sean Byham 3-1 in the consolations.
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Keller, who earned Outstanding Wrestler laurels at the Penn Manor Tournament in December, has racked up 20 falls to go with a pair of tech falls and a major decision.
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He pinned D-10 runner-up Ellis in 47 seconds in the Fred Bell tourney and has four wins over the other three D-9 contenders.
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Last week, Keller blazed through districts with three falls and a 14-0 major decision over Brookville freshman Brodie Zacherl, whom he had beaten 4-0 in their Jan. 27 dual meet encounter.
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Keller had a 9-2 lead in the title bout when he pinned Redbank Valley sophomore Ty Haines at 5:40.
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Finishing third was Port Allegany senior Chet Tanner, who will get a rematch with Keller if he gets by D-10 fourth placer Ossie Bowers (25-13) of Fort LeBoeuf in Friday’s preliminary round.
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Keller, who gets a bye into the quarterfinals, shut out Tanner 16-0 for a tech fall at 5:20 at the Clearfield Duals Jan. 22.
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Also receiving byes are D’Urso, Ellis and District 8 (Pittsburgh City League) champion Darius Moore (13-4) of Peabody.
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Other prelim matches are Haines (29-6) against D-10 fifth placer Cody Schultz (33-10) of Saegertown and Bryer against Zacherl (29-11) in the upper half of the bracket and D-8 second seed Marcus Russell (15-16) against D-10 sixth placer Joey Pagliaroli (26-14) of Sharpsville in the lower half, with the winner to get Ellis.
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The expanded bracket is the result of the PIAA shifting the D-8 wrestlers from the Southwest Region and awarding D-9 and D-10 with an additional qualifier.
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In addition to D’Urso, Shane Rankin (112) of Union City, Corey Bush (119) of Ridgway, Mason Beckman (125) of Reynolds, Austin Matthews (140) of Reynolds, Cody Copeland (145) of Greenville and Steve Ceremuga (189) of Commodore Perry are returning champions.
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Preliminaries will begin at 4:30 p.m. Friday, with quarterfinals and the first round of consolations to follow.
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Action will resume Saturday at 9 a.m. with the championship semifinals and consolation quarterfinals and semifinals.
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Consolation finals are set for 4 p.m., followed by the Parade of Champions at 5:45 and the championship bouts at 6.
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The top three finishers will advance to next week’s PIAA Class AA Tournament in the Hershey Giant Center.
The complete brackets courtesy Bob (Imhof’s) Corner on the www.crossfacewrestling.net website:
