CLARION — Two wins by unseeded wrestlers in the preliminaries, expected victories from No. 1 seed Shae Bloom and No. 4 seed Jake Lancaster and a solid consolation second round added up to a good start for the Curwensville Area High School team in the 2015 District 9 Class AA Tournament Friday.
The dozen Golden Tide matmen were 12-12, one of the best first-day showings in years, during the nearly-six hour session in Clarion University’s Waldo S. Tippin Gym.
First-year coach Dean Swatsworth liked what he saw for the most part.
“We only lost two guys. Two out of 12. I’m happy,” he said. “We lost some key matches we thought we could have won. But I thought we looked better in some matches than we have in the past.
“The kids are working hard and you can tell they want to be out here to win.”
Nine Curwensville hopefuls did record at least one win, which is all Bloom and Lancaster needed to advance to the semifinals at 138 and 152 pounds, respectively, after receiving preliminary round byes.
Unseeded Seth Woolcock (113) and Sam Bressler (145) and No. 7 seed Kaleb Witherite (170) posted two victories apiece.
Those three bounced back from quarterfinal setbacks to stay alive, as did Jeremy Gardner (120), Jake Stiles (195) and Seth Connors (285).
Anthony Winebold (106) and Ben Junod (182) also will be competing in the consolation quarterfinals. Both had byes in the prelims before falling to higher seeds in their only matches.
Saturday’s first session will get under way at 10 a.m. with the championship semifinals and consy quarterfinals and will include the consy semifinals at 12:30 p.m.
Survivors will return for the third-place bouts at five o’clock and the championship matches at approximately seven o’clock. The action will sandwich the District 9 Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame inductions and the Parade of Champions.
Bloom, a junior, will be shooting for his third district gold medal to go with the two Class AAA titles he won in a DuBois singlet. He worked quick takedowns in each of the first two periods but found it difficult turning Cranberry’s Sam Lander. It was 7-0 when he engineered the fall at 4:56 with a double arm bar.
Bloom (26-2) gets No. 4 seed Nick Baughman (27-8) of Cranberry in the semis. Two upsets in the lower bracket found No. 7 Adam Shunk (23-3) of Smethport shocking Brookville’s No. 2 Cole Clever 6-5 and No. 6 Luke Gallo (25-10) of Redbank Valley bumping off Cameron County’s No. 3 Paul Etchepare 2-0.
Lancaster (11-4) countered a deep single by Port Allegany’s Eli Knapp and then hooked up a cradle for a fall in 1:31 but must derail top-seeded Jimmy Miller (29-6) of Brookville to earn a crack at a second district crown. He reigned at 126 two years ago.
No. 2 Paul Zacharal (28-2) of Cranberry and No. 3 Gage Arnold (24-7) of Coudersport will tangle in the other semi.
Claiming a ticket to the Northwest Regional Tournament at Sharon next week will require two more wins by the eight Golden Tide contenders in the wrestlebacks.
Only Witherite, Junod (No. 7) and Winebold (No. 8) were seeded.
Woolcock cradled No. 7 Travis Crate of Cranberry in 3:29 and Bressler stacked No. 8 Zachery Huegel of Cranberry at 3:35 in the prelims, the latter’s win really not an upset considering he was unseeded despite a 20-8 record.
Bressler second victory was a mild surprise, though as he earned a very satisfying 9-1 major decision over Brockway’s Dustin Jamison after being shut down, 6-0, by No. 1 seed Jimmy Miller of Brookville.
Jamison, a No. 2 seed who had been edged 4-3 by Coudersport freshman Julian Smith in the shocker of the prelims, prevailed 4-3 in a dual meet bout last week, but Bressler established control with a takedown late in the first period and a near fall at the buzzer. He added a reversal and takedown in the third period.
“”We knew coming in we had a shot and we were going to go right at him,” Swatsworth said. “That was a big win for Sammy, keeping him alive.,”
After being a 15-0 tech fall victim of No. 2 seed Casey Vollmer of Port Allegany, Woolcock staved off elimination by reversing Smethport’s Bryce Hall three times for a 6-5 squeaker.
Connors, who was pinned by No. 2 seed Brylee Shumaker of Redbank Valley in the prelims, also gained a measure of revenge when he opened a 6-0 lead and pressed Johnsonburg No. 8 seed William Peluso’s shoulders to the mat at 4:41. Peluso had pinned the Golden Tide senior back on Dec. 23.
Gardner and Stiles both sidelined No. 8 seeds in the consy round.
Gardner broke up a 1-1 tie by countering a takedown shot by Tristen Duffy of Smethport and catching him on his back for a fall at 4:46, while Stiles used the initial takedown and a second period escape to slip past Dalton Green of Oswayo Valley 3-2.
Witherite, who opened by decking Smethport’s Justin Elder at the 2:46 mark, shook of a very tough 8-6 loss to No. 2 seed Noah Cieleski of Brookville to pin Redbank Valley’s Devin Schimp in 2:02 with a reverse half and press.
The Golden Tide soph fought through a tilt attempt by Cieleski for a two-and-three and a 5-4 lead going to the third period. The Raider gave him an escape point and then, on a restart with 38 seconds remaining, then shot in for a low double-leg takedown and got the winning points on a two-point near fall.
“That was a tough match to watch,” Swatsworth said. “But Kaleb came back with a nice win. That’s the thing, when you’re down and out, you’ve gotta reach deep and see where your character is.”
Winebold and Junod wound up with byes in the consolation brackets after their quarterfinal losses.
Curwensville’s lone first-day casualties were Ethan Collins (126) at 0-2 and Hunter Lancaster (160) at 1-2.
Lancaster was ousted in a bout that was tied with about one minute remaining. Down 3-2 in the third period, he released Ridgway’s Brandon Cherry to go for the tying takedown, which he got with 1:16 left. However, Cherry reversed seconds later and scored a three-point near fall to win 9-5.
Brookville is steamrolling to another team championship with no less than 10 semifinalists, including four No. 1 seeds. Brockway has six wrestlers in the title hunt with three top seeds, while Ridgway, Redbank Valley and Port Allegany each have five.
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