Wrestling News & Views – Tom Elling
District 6 rankings: I have been working on updating the team rankings. One of the key challenges is making sure I have ALL of the dual meet results. Sounds simple enough, right? However, I am dependent upon the coaches (or those they assign) to enter their results into TrackWrestling. I post what I have on the District VI website. www.piaad6.org.
Mid-Winter Mayhem: Central Mountain finished 3rd in the loaded event that was dominated by Bishop McCort. McCort recently downed #1-ranked Wyoming Seminary in a dual meet, 37-17. McCort had five champions and three runners-up. The top ten: 1 – Bishop McCort – 299; 2 – Thomas Jefferson – 151.5; 3 – Central Mountain – 119.5; 4 – North Allegheny – 111; 5 – Emmaus – 107.5; 6 – Bald Eagle Area – 107; 7 – Altoona – 106; 8 – General McLane – 100.5; 9 – Butler – 96; 10 – Chestnut Ridge – 94
Our area placefinishers were Champ BEA’s Caleb Close (189); 3rd: BEA’s Caden Judice (133); 4th
BEA;s Tanner Guenot (121); 5th Central Mountain’s Aiden Kunes (127); 6th Dalton Perry (Central Mt @ 145); Bryce Brungard (Central Mountain @ 189) and 8th Patrick Tarantella (Central Mountain @ 133). Perry was injured in the semis and forfeited the rest of the rounds. Hopefully, the injury isn’t too severe.
In the JV Division, CM’s Jaggar Pardoe was second @ 127; 172 Tanner McCall (Central Mountain) finished 3rd @ 172; Easton Grimes (Bald Eagle Area) was 4th. at 133. Teamwise, the Wildcats finished 9th with 54.5 pts.; BEA tied for 17th with three other teams.
On the Girls’ mats, Ashlyn Miller (Central Mountain) took the 235-lb title; Her teammates Kendall Wagner was second at 170 and Austynn Falls took 3rd @ 148. The Lady Cats took 3rd place in the team race. BEA was 6th. Also a little down the Susquehanna, Williamsport’s Lilian Rumsey won the 118-pound championship.
Southern Tier Memorial in New York: Bellefonte was a close second to top team Chambersburg (193 to 189.5). Penns Valley was third with 167 pts. Red Raider Ezra Swisher led the way taking the 152-lb title. Wyatt Long was second at 131. Others placing were 3rds: Cameron Garcia (138), Noah Weaver (160), and Jackson Long (170). Fourth= Andrew Gall, @ 145. Luke Hockenberry was 5th at 190 and Jack McHail (6th @ 190). Two of Mike Maney’s squad were 8th- Gavin Lucas (152) and Quinn Park (190).
Penns Valley captured three titles- 116 – Max Dinges, 131 – Erik Carlile, 160 – Brayden Lisowski, while
116 – Conner Myers and 215 – Landon Hess were third. Wrapping up the medals were 108 – Evan Lisowski (4th) and 131 – Tripp Watson (5th).
Dinges is the son of Troy Dinges- one of the owner/therapists of Central Mountain Physical Therapy in Lock Haven. His grandfather is the late Max Dinges who to this day remains Penns Valley’s only PIAA champion (180lbs in 1963.. The latter was coached by the great Joe Hammaker.
The Shore grapplers (6-11) picked up a big win over Shamokin last Thursday (53-22) then placed 7th at the rugged PHAC tournament on Saturday. Montoursville claimed the title in that tilt. On Thursday Shore will greet Selinsgrove. The Bulldogs managed three fourth places ib the PHAC. They were 139 Louden Spotts , 189- Slate Sechrist, and 285- Owen Vandruff.
The Phoenix of ‘Sugar Valley’ are 3-6. Their most consistant winners have been Hunter Berry (114), .Tobias Conoway (121) and Jarren McCloskey (139).
Checking Out the Girls: We have five local teams, and they are all struggling to get numbers. However, all have quality wrestlers. Central Mountain (4-8) is led by PIAA 8th placer Kendall Wagner (11th) with a 15-3 record. Ashlyn Miller (11th) is fresh off winning the title at the Mid-Winter Mayhem. She is now 16-2. Austyn Falls (10th) has a sparking 18-1 mark. Earlier in the season, the Lady ‘Cats took 3rd in the Lady Bison tournament. This Saturday, they head up the mountain to Philipsburg for the Lady Mountie Invitational.
BEA (4-2) was 2nd at the Lady Phoenix event and 8th at the Curwensville Girls’ tourney. Their top performers have been Grace Crestani (12th) 12-4, Eden Eveleth (12th) 9-6 and Addison Tice (9th) 10-5. The Lady Eagles hosted Clearfield this past Tuesday and are off until the 25th when they host their own event consisting of 15 other teams- (Central Mt., Jersey Shore, State College, Sugar Valley and Williamsport among those).
Bellefonte (1-3) features Carly Bair (9th) with a 13-4 record.
Sugar Valley RCS (2-1) Evangeline Andrus (10th) is 7-3, and Marrin Clester (10th) is 5-3 thus far. They, too, will be in Philipsburg this Saturday.
Jersey Shore (2-3) has three girls with outstanding records. Isabella Gottschall (10th) is a sparkling 11-1; Olivia Spotts (12th) is 13-3 and Addison Dangle (12th) is 9-2. The Lady Bulldogs will host a tri-meet with Towanda and Mifflinburg on Saturday.
Those that follow my Tom’s Wrestling Page are aware Gary DiDomenico of Tyrone passed this past week. Gary was not only a great wrestler but also a friend to anyone who knew him. But did you know he defeated the great Geoff Baum of Allentown Allen in the PIAA finals, 9-8. Baum became a three-time All-American and two-time NCAA champion in the early 1970s. Baum’s career after wrestling was as an orthopedic surgeon in Oregon.
On the way to the forum.. not quite.. but I did head to Lamade Gym at Lycoming College after I had spent some of the afternoon attending to some other important and unexpected duties. I had hoped to meet with Rod Laub. Billy Guttermuth, Bill Bachardy, et. al. and watch some great dual meets. I arrived at the gym to be told the event was over. But ti was a nice ride to and from Williamsport.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire won the Budd Whitehill National Duals championship for the third consecutive season..Roger Crebs’s Warriors took 10th out of 16 teams.
And a further note on a ‘rodd not taken’: Greenville HS was on the way to last weekend’s Coudersport Duals when the bus slid off the road about half way to the destination. After the delay and figuring they’d be way too late for weigh-ins, head coach John Reynolds and company made the wise decision to just turn around and head back home. Thankfully, there were no injuries. (BTW does anyone else see the irony in a guy named Reynolds coaching a team that has in the same town another team named “Reynolds High School”?
LHU will renew friendship with former assistant coach Nate Carr, Jr. when The Bald Eagles travel south to Davidson today. However, the two meets they will wrestle will be against Gardner-Webb and Morgan State. The latter school is coached by Kenny Monday. You ‘may’ have heard of him.
Friday night, Cael Sanderson heads out to Nebraska. Let’s hope for good travelling weather for both.
Nebraska has a PA touch with Cathdral Prep’s Jacob Van Dee manning the 133-pound slot. The sophomore is 7-5 and most recently defeated Minnesota’s #11 ranked Tyler Wells of the Gophers.
Milestones: Huntingdon won their 600th dual meet since the inception of the program in 1960. Their dedicated scorekeeper for over 25 years Barry “B” Kline had all of the Bearcat results in Saturday night! Jon Mykut, president of the District 6 Coaches’ Assoc., is in his 24th year as head coach. Tyrone PIAA champ Elwood Reese started the program. Reese was a standout for Lock Haven State Teachers College in the 1950s.
Halifax in District 3 is in their 60th year as a program. Wouldn’t it be a great project for EVERY school in PA to establish a list of all of the coaches in the history of their wrestling programs? Bob Hower of Lewistown did several years ago compile such a list of District 6 coaches.
Mark Manning, the head coach at Nebraska, picked up his 300th coaching win. Mark and Bob Fehrs are old friends. And the current and long time assistant for the Huskers is Bryan Snyder. Bryan was an outstanding wrestler at Easton and then at Nebraska. His father Barry wrestled at Penn State..
Dr. Judith Witmer has finished her book “LOWER DAUPHIN WRESTLING AN UNCOMMON HERITAGE 1960-2024”.. I’ll have more information on that in a future column. I do have a small collection of some schools (coaches) who have produced such. They include Clearfield, Philipsburg-Osceola, Bedford, Manheim Central and Lock Haven. Former LD coach Randy Umberger will keep us updated. Randy wrestled at LD and Maryland and is one of the announcers at the PIAA Championships.
Did you know.. Penn State’s Carter Starocci’s great grandfather Tony Starocci was a PIAA runner-up back in 1948. His weight class was 154, and he wrestled for Erie Tech.
