Curwensville’s Keller Places Third at NW-AA Region To Qualify for States

SHARON – Senior Jake Keller of Curwensville fell short of two of his three goals at the Northwest Region Class AA Wrestling Championships in Sharon High School Saturday.

The three-time District 9 champ attained the most important one, though.

Shaking off another down-to-the-wire, heart-breaking loss to District 10 runner-up Matt Bryer of Cochranton, Keller bounced back to pin Garrett Hildebrand of Redbank Valley and Brad Malinowski of Fort LeBoeuf and claim third place at 132 pounds.

“It’s about time,” was coach Duane Wriglesworth’s initial reaction after the Golden Tide standout earned his first trip to the PIAA Class AA Championships. “The caliber of wrestler Jake is, he deserved to go before.

“He‘s worked very hard for this.”

A year ago, Bryer’s controversial takedown at the buzzer for a 3-2 squeaker in the consolation finals denied Keller a trip to Hershey.

The two have become very familiar foes in recent Fred Bell Tournaments at Grove City as well as last year’s regional, and the Cochranton senior has been able to slip past Curwensville’s No. 3 all-time winner all four times now.

Typical of their previous two duels in which points scored at or right before the final buzzer of regulation proved decisive, Keller was denied a 2-1 win and the opportunity to wrestle for the gold medal when Bryer was awarded a penalty point as time ran out in their championship semifinal showdown.

Then, the eventual runner-up made Keller take the usually difficult path of battling back through the consolations by engineering a takedown very late in the first overtime period for a 4-2 victory.

“For 3:50, Jake dominated,” Wriglesworth said. “Then, he got two stall calls within 13 seconds of each other.”

The official signaled the second one that gave Bryer the bout-tying point right before the buzzer sounded.

Wriglesworth noted Keller, who had grabbed the lead with a reversal in the second period, was unaware of receiving a stall warning with about 15 seconds remaining.

In the extra period, Bryer countered a takedown attempt by Keller and then re-shot with a low single-leg to a crackdown, Wriglesworth explained.

“Jake was on his hip and tried to counter with a switch, but Bryer stepped over for the takedown,” Wriglesworth said. “He’s come so close with Bryer before, and we had to convince him that it wasn’t anything wrong that he did.

“Once he understood the situation, he got re-focused.”

And Keller wasn’t about to see his career end without the opportunity to compete for a state medal.

He set his final region tourney record at 3-1 with three falls by decking D-9 runner-up Hildebrand in 2:24 while ahead 4-0 and D-10 fifth placer Malinowski at 4:27 after building a 10-0 advantage.

After turning Malinowski twice for three-point near falls with guillotines earlier, Keller ended it with a split scissors.

“It helps when you’ve wrestled some of these guys before,” Wriglesworth said, adding Keller has met Hildebrand several times during their careers, including the Fred Bell tourney in January when the final was 13-0.

“He hadn’t wrestled Malinowski, but we heard Hildebrand was leading him 5-2 when he pinned him (Friday night).

“I was very happy for Jake.”

Keller will take a 35-3 into the first round of the three-day state tourney that gets under way Thursday in the Giant Center.

Golden Tide heavyweight Brad Stubbs will have next season to try to duplicate Keller’s feat after having his season end in the consolation second round.

He had the misfortune of bumping into D-10 champ Jeff Burger of Union City, an upset victim in the championship quarterfinals by eventual runner-up Sam Breese of Lakeview, the D-10 fifth placer.

Stubbs didn‘t back down and actually led 3-2 with an escape and takedown in the second period before the heavier Burger recorded a fall at 2:41. The Union City junior wound up fourth for the second year in a row.

“Stubbs pancaked Burger to his back and almost held him there, but Burger rolled through and ended up on top,” Wriglesworth said.

“Stubbs wrestled tough up here. He had to adjust his style to take on bigger opponents, and he did that well for someone in his first varsity year.”

Stubbs, whose only previous experience was a half season in junior high, finished his junior season with an 11-9 record. He placed fourth in D-9 after being seeded third.

“Stubbs has a lot to be proud of when you look at where he came from,“ Wriglesworth said. “He’s learning with every match. His future looks very promising.”

One year after being represented by only eight qualifiers at the PIAA tourney, D-9 is sending 17 contenders, including five champions and six runners-up.

Ridgway senior 126-pounder Corey Bush, whose only loss this season was 4-3 to Keller in overtime, won his second region crown with a 17-3 major decision over junior Karl Lightner of Smethport. That was a rematch of their district title bout that Bush won 7-0.

Ridgway senior 160-pounder Kyle Caggiano reversed the outcome of his district finals bout with senior Brett Smith of Brookville with a 6-4 decision. Smith had eked out a 2-1 win the previous week.

D-9 rivals also were in the spotlight at 113 as Willie Gruver of Redbank Valley defeated senior Trey Constable of Brookville again 6-1. The Bulldog sophomore had to work overtime to win 4-3 in the district finals.

Also added region titles to their district championships were Kane soph 145-pounder Evan Delong and Brookville senior 195-pounder Logan Stout.

Three other D-9 wrestlers lost in the finals, soph Cody Blankenship of Kane at 103, senior Nate Schwab of Smethport at 120 and soph Brock Zacherl of Brookville at 138.

In addition to Keller, placing third were soph Trent Neely of Smethport at 103, freshman Dalton Zimmerman of Brookville at 120, senior Ty Haines of Redbank Valley at 138, soph Kyle Bova of Coudersport at 152 and senior Jake Himes of Ridgway at 170.

A quartet of standouts with multiple titles topped D-10’s nine champs.

Senior Dylan D’Urso of Reynolds became a rare four-time NW Region champion by besting Bryer for the sixth time in their careers. The Raider 132-pounder won 3-0 a week after edging Bryer 3-1 with a late takedown in the D-10 finals.

Winning their third region crowns were Reynolds junior Austin Matthews at 138, Greenville senior Cody Copeland at 152 and Grove City senior Wes Phipps at 182.

The latter two still are undefeated, as is Sharon junior Jarray Norris, who beat Schwab 12-7 for the 120 title.

Team champion Fort LeBoeuf had two champs in seniors Craig Cihon at 170 and Blake Heim at heavyweight.

The Bison ended Reynolds’ 10-year reign with 109 points. Brookville, which had six semifinalists, was a close second with 103 points.

D-9’s strong showing had two other teams in the top five, as Ridgway (74) checked in fourth behind Reynolds (92) and Redbank Valley (61) tied Greenville for fifth.