HERSHEY — Two Curwensville Area High School wrestlers will be bringing home medals from the 2018 PIAA Class AA Championships.
Senior heavyweight Steven McClure, the Northwest Region champion, advanced to Friday night’s semifinals with a 5-1 win over Northeast Region bronze medalist Jaron Renn of Line Mountain during Friday morning’s session in the Giant Center.
McClure (33-3), who is guaranteed at least a sixth-place finish, will be meeting a familiar opponent in the semis, Southwest Region titlist Bishop McCoy (47-1) of South Side Beaver. McCoy came out on top, 2-1, when they met in the Fred Bell Tournament finals at Grove City in late January.
Golden Tide junior 113-pounder Blake Passarelli, the NW Region silver medalist, was close to reaching the Final Four, too, taking Northeast Region champ Wyatt Lutz of Montoursville into overtime in a 3-1 loss.
The District 9 champ shook off the tough defeat and came back later to dominate NE Region runner-up Noah Hunt of Warrior Run with four takedowns, two for five-point moves in the third period, for a 17-6 major decision. He also had a reversal in the second period.
That victory assured Passarelli (30-6) of a coveted medal as he can place any where from third to eighth.
How high he climbs on the podium Saturday afternoon will be determined first by the results of tonight’s consolation quarterfinal bout with NE Region third-placer Patrick Edmondson of Southern Columbia and, with another win, a consolation semifinal match against the loser of the semifinal between NW Region champ Beau Bayless of Reynolds and Southwest Region runner-up Brock McMillen of Glendale.
District 9 has two other semifinalists in Brookville 145-pounder Caleb Hetrick and Port Allegany 160-pounder Jacob Kallenborn.
Eight NW Region contenders from District 10 also are still in the gold medal hunt.