Wildcats head to State Duals Championship
By Joe Walker
MILL HALL-The Central Mountain Wildcat varsity wrestling team will take its 9-0 unbeaten dual meet record to Hershey this week and participate in the PIAA Class AAA State Duals Championships. Action for the Wildcats in the Class AAA portion of the tournament gets underway Thursday night at 6 pm.
The Wildcats first round opponent will be the Bubblers of Boiling Springs, who were the District 3 runner-ups after falling 44-15 to District 3 champion Gettysburg. The Bubblers are 17-3 on the dual meet season, as they are a member of the Colonial Division of the Mid Penn League (South Central Penna) .
The Bubblers are coached by former Lock Haven Bald Eagle grad Kyle Shoop and he previously has done some training of some of the Wildcat wrestlers before getting the Bubblers job. Here is a weight by weight look at their line-up, with the understanding that wrestlers may be moved around during the dual meet to get match-ups coach Shoop may try to get.
107 – Chase Evans (Jr, 18-13); 114 – Alex Mentzer (So, 20-10); 121 – Drew Scherer (So, 30-8); 127 – Jackson Mentzer (Sr, 16-12); 133 – Luke Magnani (Jr, 25-9); 139 – Ian Longenberger (So, 28-8); or Keyen Soto (Jr, 13-11); 145 – Ean Wilson (Sr, 25-8); 152 – Sawyer Young (Jr, 12-10); 160 – Collin Neal (Sr, 28-9); 172 – Ken Lee (Sr, 4-17) or Preston Warner (So, 2-3); 189 – Tyler Whitmire (So, 1-3); 215 – Demetri White (So, 19-10); 285 – Gage Hughes (Sr, 8-9).
Neal is a two time state qualifier and brings a career record of 110-50 in the tournament. Scherer was a state qualifier last year, after placing third in the south regional tournament, while Wilson is a two time state qualifier and has 106 career wins to his credit.
The Wildcat’s will counter with the following line-up and again wrestlers may be moved around to other weights, depending on what head coach Biff Walizer would like in match-ups with the Bubbler wrestlers.
107 – Gavin Heverly (Fr, 25-10); 114 – Caden Stoner (Sr, 7-12), Collin Bauman (So, 1-3) or Luke Garman (Fr, 7-4); 121 – Aiden Kunes (Fr, 28-10) or Jaggar Pardoe (So, 6-12); 127 – Patrick Tarantella (Fr, 19-14); 133 – Tarantella or Mario Serafini (So, 0-1); 139 – Carnell Noone (So, 16-7) or Dalton Perry (Jr, 22-2); 145 – Perry or Luke Simcox (Sr, 18-1); 152 – Griffin Walizer (Sr, 27-6) or Luke Ananea (Jr, 9-11); 160 – Hunter Donley (So, 18-11); 172 – Jacob Weaver (Jr, 23-14), Jacob Nyman (So, 5-6) or Wyatt Kramer (Sr, 6-6); 189 – Bryce Brungard (Jr, 26-13); 215 – Rocco Serafini (Sr, 28-6); 285 – Giovanni Tarantella (Sr, 13-8).
The match-up in the same quarter bracket with the Wildcats is District 1 champion Council Rock South (14-1) against District 7 third place finisher Franklin Regional (20-1), who won a 69-6 match over District 8 champion Obama Academy in Monday night’s pigtail round. The winner of the Wildcat-Bubbler match will meet the winner of the Council Rock South and Franklin Regional match, while the losers will then meet in the first round of consolations.
Other first round match-ups are: (District Finish) School Name (Dual Meet Record) (4-1) Selinsgrove (10-3) vs (7-2) Trinity (11-1).
(11-1) Bethlehem Catholic (12-1) vs (3-4) Central Dauphin (13-4)
(3-1) Gettysburg (21-1) vs (12-1) Lasalle College (14-1)
(2-1) West Scranton (9-0) vs (11-1) Easton (19-2)
(10-1) Erie Cathedral Prep (13-3) vs (1-2) Pennridge (18-4)
(7-1) Connellsville (13-2) vs (3-3) Wilson West Lawn (20-2)
The Class AA Duals Championships get started at 2 pm on Thursday with the first four opening matches and the remaining four opening matches will be wrestled at 4 pm. District 6 runner-up Bald Eagle Area will face off with District 11 champion Notre Dame Green Pond in the 4 pm round on Thursday.
