Lady Wildcats head to Regional Tournament Saturday
By Joe Walker
MILTON-The journey to the first sanctioned PIAA Girls State Wrestling Championships for the seven Lady Wildcats of Central Mountain makes its next stop at the Milton High School this Saturday, as they will compete in the Central Regional Tournament, while trying to earn a trip to the Hershey Giant Center..
The seven Lady Wildcats are Kennedy Metzger (130), Austynn Falls (136), Sophia Hoy (142), Sophie Mitchell (155), Kendall Wagner (170), Callie Cella (190) and Ashlyn Miller (235). Cella and Miller do not have first round matches, as they both received a bye in the opening round.
Taking the mats first at 130 pounds will be sophomore Kennedy Metzger (10-15), who was the District 5/6/9 third place finisher. She will face District 2 third place finisher Summer Pugh (Sr, 14-15) of Western Wayne with the winner moving out to the quarterfinals to face top seeded Emily Murphy (Jr, 30-2) of Montgomery, who was the District 4 champion.
Freshman Austynn Falls (20-5) will meet District 5/6/9 third place finisher Liliana Rodriquez (So, 25-8) of Bradford. Falls, who finished 5th in District 5/6/9 did not face Rodriquez last week. The winner of their bout will face off with second seeded Sara Snook (Sr, 24-2) of Western Wayne, who was the District 2 champion.
Sophia Hoy (2-6) will meet District 5/6/9 third place finisher Shelby Shirley (So, 3-1) of Bradford in the opening round. The Lady Wildcat sophomore was fifth in District 5/6/9 last week and was pinned by Shirley in the consolation semifinals. The winner will face second seeded and District 2 champion Alayna Atos (Fr, 16-5) of Wallenpaupack in the 142 pound quarterfinals.
District 5/6/9 third place finisher Sophie Mitchell (Sr, 4-3) will meet District 2 fourth place finisher Addy Pruss (Jr, 9-13) of Western Wayne in the opening round. The winner will face District 2 champion Juliet Fitzpatrick (Jr, 10-3) in the quarterfinals at 155 pounds.
District 5/6/9 runner-up Kendall Wagner (So, 15-3) will go against District 5/6/9 sixth place finisher Makenna Monrean (Jr, 2-11) of Redbank Valley in the opening round. Wagner did not face Monrean in last week’s District tournament. The winner will face District 4 champion Abigail Wagner (Fr, 19-8) of Athens in the quarterfinals at 170 pounds.
As mentioned earlier, Lady Wildcat Callie Cella (So, 6-11) drew a first round bye at 190 pounds, thus in the championship quarterfinals she will go against District 5/6/9 runner-up Grace Crestani (Jr, 16-10) of Bald Eagle Area. Cella and Crestani did not meet last week at Districts.
Sophomore Ashlyn Miller (15-11) was the District 5/6/9 runner-up last week and gets that first round bye. She will then go against District 4 champion Lean Nason (So, 15-9) of Athens in the championship quarterfinals at 235 pounds.
Action gets underway at 9:00 am on Saturday morning at the Milton High School Gym and the top four place finishers qualify for the PIAA State Championships to be held on March 7,8 & 9 at the Hershey Giant Center. You can follow all the action of the regional tournament on the Floarena Wrestling Website.
