THREE PHOENIX STILL ALIVE IN DKI TOURNAMENT
By Joseph Walker
BLOOMSBURG – The Sugar Valley Rural Charter Phoenix found their season opening action a little rough on Friday in the Darrin Klingerman Invitational Tournament. The Phoenix currently are tied for last place with Danville in the 24 team field.
The Phoenix have three wrestlers still alive in the consolations, as Taylor Cantolina (121), Hunter Berry (133) and Tobias Conoway (133) will all be in Saturday’s consolation quarterfinals and try to get into place finishes.
121 – Seventh seeded Taylor Cantolina dropped his first match to Rylan Reitz of Tamaqua and then received a bye to get into the consolation quarterfinals, as he will face Jake Keller of Blommsburg.
Eighth seeded Leroy Culvey dropped both of his matches and was eliminated, as he fell by a fall in 3:04 on his first round match with Hunter Stevens of Hughesville. In his consolation match, the Phoenix junior was pinned in 19 seconds by Jason Bronson of Honesdale.
127 – Fourth seeded Hunter Berry won his first match by a fall in 1:35 over Cohen Gwinn of Tyrone, but then fell by a 14-9 decision to fifth seeded Brody Walsh of Honesdale in the championship quarterfinals. The Phoenix junior has to wait to see who his opponent will be in the consolation quarterfinals.
133 – Third seeded Tobias Conoway dropped a wild 11-10 decision to Taylor Naugle in his first bout and then received a bye in the consolation second round. In the consolation quarterfinals he will face Mason Ford of Crestwood.
139 – Phoenix sophomore Gabe Standish won his first round match by a fall in 3:34 over Tanner Wildermuth of Schuykill Haven, but then was pinned in 1:15 of his second round bout with Connor Scanlon of Honesdale. In the consolations first round, he dropped a 7-4 decision to Logan Pensyl of Shamokin and thus was eliminated.
145 – Eighth seeded Wyatt Conoway lost his first bout by a 19-4 tech fall in 5:54 to Wyatt Bagley of Sullivan County. In his first consolation round bout, Conoway was leading 8-7 when he got caught and pinned by Brien Reynolds of Carlisle in 56 seconds of first period, thus eliminating the Phoenix senior.
152 – Phoenix senior Ethen Bartenope lost his first bout by a 16-7 major decision to Ethan Miller of Central Columbia and then he lost a 17-2 tech fall in 3:31 to Adam Dickson of Abington Heights and was eliminated.
160 – Phoenix sophomore Daedreynn Hopkins dropped his first match by a fall in 2:38 to Tucker Evans of Sullivan County and then was eliminated when he was pinned by fifth seeded Jah Bushati of Mahanoy Area in the consolations.
172 – Eighth seeded Logan Leeland lost his first bout by fall in 2;24 to Connor Costello of Crestwood and then was eliminated when he was pinned in 2:39 by Aiden Pepe of Hamburg in the consolations.
Honesdale leads the tournament with 105 points and five wrestlers in cham[pionship semifinals, while Abington Heights is in second with 95 points and also with 5 semifinalists. Pine Grove is third with 82.5 points, Hanover is fourth with 71 points and Berwick rounds out the top five with 70 points.
