SHARON – Curwensville Area High School junior Jake Keller saw his dream of a Northwest Region Class AA Tournament gold medal vanish in one of the big surprises of the opening session Friday at Sharon High School, but the 130-pounder still has a trip to the state tourney in his sights.
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Keller, one of three District 9 champions who lost in the quarterfinals, was upset 10-6 by Port Allegany senior Chet Tanner.
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What made the outcome a shocker was the fact that Keller had handled Tanner 16-1 for a technical fall in 5:20 at the Clearfield Duals on Jan. 22.
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They were the top two seeds for last week’s district tourney, but Tanner was nipped 6-5 in the semifinals by Redbank Valley’s Ty Haines.
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Keller then pinned Haines at 5:40 for his second title.
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The revenge win was Tanner’s 37th in 40 bouts. His only other loss was 7-1 to Butler’s Jesse Spohn at the Clearfield Duals.
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Keller, who pinned Spohn in 2:33 that day, did recover from only his second setback of the season to defeat Haines 10-4 in the consolation second round.
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The Golden Tide standout, now 33-2, will have to win three more matches Saturday to claim the bronze medal in order to qualify for the PIAA Class AA Tournament in Hershey next week.
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The first will be another rematch against D-9 fourth placer Brodie Zacherl (30-12) of Brookville. Keller shut out the Raider freshman 4-0 in the Jan. 27 dual meet and 14-0 in the district semifinals.
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A victory would send him to the consy semis against either Reynolds junior Dylan D’Urso, a two-time PIAA semifinalist seeking his third region crown, or Cochranton junior Matt Bryer, another PIAA placewinner who beat Keller 7-4 in the Fred Bell Tournament semifinals at Grove City on Jan. 29.
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D’Urso (40-5) and Bryer (36-3) meet in one semifinal while Tanner takes on District 10 runner-up Taylor Ellis (25-14) of Conneaut Lake in the other.
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In this week’s Off The Mat state rankings by Mark Dugan, D’Urso was No. 5, Bryer No. 6 and Keller No. 9.
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Brookville’s Trey Constable (112) and Logan Stout (215) were the other District 9 champs who lost in Friday night’s quarterfinals.
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District 10, which had all of its titlists and runners-up advance, has 39 semifinalists, and District 9 has the other 17 along with 22 wrestlers in the consolation brackets.
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District 8, represented for the first time, was shut out in the quarterfinals, but nine of the Pittsburgh City League’s No. 1 seeds and one runner-up did win their consolation matches.
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Action gets under way Saturday morning at 9 o’clock with championship semifinals and consolation quarterfinals. Consolation semifinals will begin at approximately noon.
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Evening session times are 4 o’clock for the consolation finals, 5:45 for the Parade of Champions and 6 o’clock for the first title bout.
Complete results courtesy www.crossfacewrestling.net:
