PERRY AND SIMCOX: Central Mountain Wildcat Duo Advances to PIAA State Wrestling Semifinals in Hershey
By Joe Walker
HERSHEY- The Central Mountain Wildcat duo of Dalton Perry and Luke Simcox advanced into tonight’s championship semifinals in the PIAA Class AAA state tournament at the Hershey Giant Center. Wildcat senior Griffin Walizer is still alive in the consolations, while senior Rocco Serafini saw his great career come to an end in the consolations.
Perry (33-3) advanced to the semifinals with a 9-3 decision over southwest regional third place finisher Blake Reihner (Sr, 47-4) of Trinity. Perry had total command throughout the bout, as he recorded four takedowns and one escape, while surrendering three escapes to Reihner. In tonight’s semifinals, he will face northeast regional champion Jack Campbell ((So, 35-6) of Nazareth.
Simcox (29-3) won his way to the semifinals, as he posted a solid 6-1 decision over south central regional runner-up Gavin Reynolds (Sr, 41-11) of Central Dauphin. Simcox got the initial takedown in the first period, a reversal in the second and another takedown in the third, while riding Reynolds for about one half of each period. In the semifinals Simcox will face southwest region champion Evan Petrovich (Jr, 39-6) of Connellsville. Simcox defeated Petrovich 8-0 in the Top Hat Tournament way back in early December.
Walizer (37-10) dropped his quarterfinal round match by a 13-4 score to defending state champion Callin Gaj (Sr, 43-3) of Quakertown. Gaj is second ranked in the state and is headed to Virginia Tech to wrestle in college. Walizer then dropped down into the consolations to face northeast regional fourth place finisher Parrish MacFarland (Sr, 42-8) of Pottsville.
The Wildcat senior got the initial takedown to lead 2-0 after one period and then he rode MacFarland the entire second period. In the third period, Walizer escaped to go up 3-0, but then got a takedown and almost gave up back points, but rolled through to only get another escape and come away with a 4-2 win. In the consolation quarterfinals tonight he will face northeast region runner-up Keegen Demarest (Sr, 39-8) of Pocono Mountain East.
Senior Rocco Serafini ran into second ranked Aiden Hight (Sr, 34-3) of Chambersburg in the quarterfinals and dropped a 10-4 decision and fell down into the consolation second round, where he was to face southwest region fourth place finisher Julian Marion (Sr, 45-8) of Franklin Regional.
After a scoreless first period, Marion was able to tilt Serafini for two back points in the second period and led 2-0 at the end of two periods. Serafini rode Marion for most of the final period and when he was unable to turn him, he then allowed him to escape with 39 seconds left and tried to score from the neutral position. Marion did not cooperate and thus Serafini dropped a tough 3-0 decision. Marion placed sixth in the state in 2022 and was one win away from placing last year.
Serafini finished his senior season with an impressive 39-8 record and just one win short of placing in the state tournament. That is a successful season for a wrestler he was undersized by as much as 20 pounds in a lot of his matches and the state tournament included a lot of those matches. Serafini finished his career with a record of 105-45.
Jersey Shore senior Brock Weiss was eliminated from the tournament, as he was winning his quarterfinal round match by an 11-4 score, but caught on his back and got pinned by Pat Kelley (Jr, 37-4) of Central Bucks West with just seven seconds left in the second period. Weiss then forfeited his second round consolation round match to finish the season with a 31-2 record and will now head to be a Penn State Nittany Lion wrestler next season.
The semifinals get started at 7:00 pm, with the consolation quarterfinals to start at 9:00 pm.
