Wildcat Boys Wrestling Downs Shikellamy 49-15; Wildcat Girls Fall to Shikellamy 30-24

PublisherDecember 22, 2023Last Updated: December 22, 2023

4 minutes read

Photo By Tim Weight

By Joe Walker

MILL HALL-The Central Mountain Wildcats remained unbeaten in the early season, as they used four falls and two tech falls enroute to a 49-15 victory over the Shikellamy Braves to improve to 3-0 on the young season. The young Wildcats showed their stuff to the old Wildcats, as in honor of the 25th season of Wildcat wrestling the first Wildcat team of the 1999-2000 season was honored prior to the varsity match.

Winning matches by fall for the Wildcats were Patrick Tarantella (139), Carnell Noone (145), Dalton Perry (152) and Gavin Heverly (107). Aiden Kunes (127) and Bryce Brungard (189) both record tech fall wins. Winning by regular decision were Griffin Walizer (160), Rocco Serafini (215) and Luke Garman (114), while Giavonni Tarantella received a forfeit at 285.

The Wildcats were without reigning state champion Luke Simcox, who was held out of the line-up with a minor injury. Simcox took night off to rest up and get ready for the very tough Powerade Tournament, which is the Wildcats next action on December 29-30.

In the premier match-up of the night Rocco Serafini recorded a solid 5-2 decision over the Braves’ Brody Rebuck, who was 9-1 coming into the bout, while Serafini was 10-1. Serafini led 2-0 after one period and then used an escape early in the second period to go up 3-0, only to have Rebuck get a takedown to make it 3-2. Serafini got a reversal late in the second period to take a 5-2 period into the final period, where he rode Rebuck out the entire period.

Serafini defeated Rebuck four times last season, the final win was a tough 1-0 decision in the third p[lace match at last year’s Northwest Regional tournament. The win allowed Serafini to advance to the state tournament, as only the top three place winners advance to the state tournament from the Northwest tourney.

Walizer found himself down 3-1 heading into the final period in his match with the Braves tough Cole Wetzel. Walizer got a third period escape to cut it to 3-2 and then recorded a takedown with 13 seconds left to come away with a tough 4-3 win. Garman led 3-0 heading into the final period at 114, as he gave up an escape to make it 3-1, but then got a takedown midway thru the final period to go up 5-1. Garman gave a reversal in the closing seconds to avoid any more trouble and held on for the 5-3 win over Max Hallman.

“We had to shuffle some things around with Luke out of the line-up, thus we decided to bump some guys up a weight. We wanted to get the best match-ups we could get, as they have some really tough kids in those upper weights. But all those guys came thru with wins and it was nice to see all the kids come out and be real aggressive after coming off the very tough King of the Mountain tournament. We still have some things to correct and work on to get ready for a very tough Powerade Tournament” stated head coach Biff Walizer after the win.

It was a triple header night, as the Wildcat junior high team posted a 50-36 win over the Little Braves and then the Shikellamy Varsity girls team posted a 30-24 win over the Lady Wildcats in the varsity girls match.

In the Junior High dual meet, the Little Wildcats got falls from Hunter Nace (87), Beckham Weaver (91), Dalton Haagen (145), Dakoda Packer-Edwards (155), Kyle Everett (170), Evan Batterson (190) and Todd Caris (250). Ashton Falls (122) won a 4-2 overtime decision and Tanner McCall (210) received a forfeit in the Little Wildcat victory.

Photo By Eric Frank

In the girls varsity match, Emma Scarborough-Perez (112,) Kennedy Metzger (130) and Austynn Falls (142) recorded falls for the Wildcat ladies, while Ashlynn Miller received a forfeit at 235.

As mentioned earlier, with this being the 25 season of Central Mountain wrestling, the very first Wildcat team of the 1999-2000 season was honored prior to the varsity match.

Members of that team were Mike Kleese, Eric Buskirk, David Pick, Jesse Rathmell, Mike Houser, Tom Culvey, Jordan Nyman, Mat Frank, Jason Crust, Tory Leitch, Terry Leitch, Mike Bower, Nick Arnone, Ryan Geyer, Dustin Best, Jordan Proctor, Charles Bechdel, Tyler McCall, Tim Meyers, Bobby Miller-Mitchell, Craig Mark, Andrew Quenga, Brett Kleckner and Jason Sweeley. Head Coach was Mike Rogers and his assistants were Robbie Weikel, Mike Brown and Eric Coleman.

Central Mountain 49, Shikellamy 15

127 – Aiden Kunes (CM) won tech fall over Eben Kisner, 17-2, 5:35 (5-0)

133 – Isaac McGregor (Shik) won by forfeit. (5-6)

139 – Patrick Tarantella (CM) pinned Derek Brubaker, :43 (11-6)

145 – Carnell Noone (CM) pinned Connor Slear, :20 (17-6)

152 – Dalton Perry (CM) pinned AJ Benedict, :47 (23-6)

160 – Griffin Walizer (CM) dec. Cole Wetzel, 4-3 (26-6)

172 – Connor Wetzel (Shik) dec. Jacob Weaver, 7-3. (26-9)

189 – Bryce Brungard (CM) won tech fall over Christian Boetsch, 17-0, 4:28 (31-9) 215 – Rocco Serafini (CM) dec. Brody Rebuck, 5-2 (34-9)

285 – Giovanni Tarantella (CM) won by forfeit (40-9)

107 – Gavin Heverly (CM) pinned Jacob Hendricks, 3:07 (46-9)

114 – Luke Garman (CM) dec. Max Hallman, 5-3 (49-9)