Boyertown Hands Wildcats First Loss of Season in State Duals

By Joe Walker

ALTOONA – Some wrestling teams will get labeled as tournament teams and some get labeled as better dual meet teams, well Friday night the Central Mountain Wildcats found out that the Boyertown Bears are a good dual meet team, as the Bears handed the Wildcats their first loss of the season by a 36-18 count in the PIAA Class AAA championship quarterfinals in the Altoona High School Gym. 

The meeting was only the second ever dual meet between the two squads, as the Wildcats defeated the Bears 42-22 in the 2009 state dual meet tournament. In this season’s King of The Mountain tournament, the Wildcats finished second, while the Bears were in seventh place. 

The Bears, who are now 23-2 on the season, won 8 of the 13 bouts wrestled, as their line-up consisted of 11 wrestlers with at least 20 wins on the season and three 30 match winners. The Wildcats fell to 14-1 on the season after the loss and will now fall into the first round of consolations, where they will face District 7 and WPIAL champions Franklin Regional (18-1), who also suffered their first loss of the season to District 11 power Nazareth by a 32-29 count. 

The dual meet started at 107 and Bear freshman Jake Stanchak (21-13) used a seven point move in the second period and a takedown in the third period to come away with a 10-1 major decision over Wildcat sophomore Cale Dorman (14-13) to put the Bears up 3-0. 

Wildcat sophomore Gavin Heverly (28-7) put the locals on the scoreboard with an 11-7 decision over Bear sophomore Boden Waite (28-13). Heverly was in total command by a 9-4 score in the final period when he missed a headlock attempt and gave up a takedown to make it 9-7, but quickly got a reverse for the 11-7 win and made it a 4-3 Bears lead after 114 pounds. 

Bear senior Brody Coleman (34-8) used five takedowns to post a 16-5 major decision over Wildcat junior Collin Bauman (16-15) to give the Bears an 8-2 through 121 pounds. The Bears made it 11-3 score at 127 pounds, as Cole Fogel (15-15) used a five point in the first period to go on to a 5-1 decision over Luke Garman (17-15) at 133 pounds. 

The Wildcats weighed sophomores Patrick Tarantella and Aiden Kunes both in at 133 and sent Tarantella (29-12) out at 133 pounds and he promptly got the takedown, locked up a cradle and pinned the Bears’ Liam Diamond (24-13) in 1:04 of the first period to cut the Bear lead to 11-9. 

The second half of the switch looked good, except for the final 18 seconds, as Kunes (30-7) up at 139 for the first time was leading 4-0 when things took a bad turn. Kunes gave up a takedown to the Bears’ Beck Babb (30-11), who then left Kunes right out and then quickly took Kunes down again with six seconds left to win a wild 6-5 decision and upped the Bear lead to 14-9. 

Wildcat senior Dalton Perry (32-2) used six takedowns enroute to a 24-6 tech fall over the Bears’ Shane Stankina (21-7) with 36 seconds left in the bout and tied the dual meet at 14-14. Bear senior Owen Dykie (29-11) put the Bears back in the lead at 20-14, when he took down and pinned Wildcat freshman Dakoda Packer-Edwards (9-12) in 1:43 of first period at their 152 pound bout.

Wildcat senior Luke Ananea (25-11) bumped up to 160, but surrendered two takedowns along with a couple of stall points and dropped a 9-3 decision to Carter Stouch (31-10) and increased the Bear lead to 23-14. 

Bear junior J.D. Heiser (34-9) built up a 7-0 lead and then pinned Wildcat junior Dalton McDermott (18-12) in 1:18 of the second period and the Bears were now leading by a solid 29-14 score. Senior Bryce Brungard (29-12) kept the Wildcats hopes alive by recording four takedowns to take a 12-2 major decision over Josh Larrimore (26-11) at 189 pounds and cut the Bear lead to 29-18. 

Bear sophomore Kaleb Dumin (25-14) then iced the dual meet when he used three takedowns enroute to a 10-0 major decision over Wildcat sophomore Kai Fravel (15-13), thus locking up the dual meet for the Bears with a 33-18 lead. 

Senior Michael Palmiero (19-11) capped the dual meet off, when he used two takedowns to decision young Wildcat freshman Hayes Henry (11-16) by a 6-0 score and that set the final tally at 36-18 and allowed the Bears to move into the championship semifinals against District 11 power Nazareth (19-1), who defeated WPIAL champion Franklin Regional 32-29. 

As mentioned earlier the Wildcats (14-1) first round consolation match will be against WPIAL Franklin Regional (18-1) on Saturday morning at 8:00 am, while the other consolation match will be District 1 runner-up Council Rock South (18-3) against District 1 third place finisher Council Rock North (14-6). Former Sugar Valley and Bald Eagle-Nittany standout Trap McCormick has been a longtime assistant coach on the Council Rock South staff. 

In the Championship semifinals, District 11 runner-up Nazareth (19-1) will face District 1 champion Boyertown (23-2) and District 11 champion Bethlehem Catholic (15-0) will face WPIAL runner-up Connellsville (13-2). Bethlehem Catholic has won the state Class AAA title the past three years. The championship semifinals will be at 9:30 am, as Class AA and AAA will run corresponding rounds at the same time on four mats. 

BOYERTOWN 36, CENTRAL MOUNTAIN 18 

107 – Jaske Stanchalk (B) maj dec Cael Dorman, 10-1 (0-4); … 114 – Gavin Heverly (CM) dec. Boden Waite, 11-7 (3-4); … 121 – Brody Coleman (B) maj dec Collin Bauman, 16-5 (3-8); …127 – Cole Fogel (B) dec. Luke Garman, 5-1 (3-11); … 133 – Patrick Tarantella (CM) pinned Liam Diamond, 1:04 (9-11); … 139 – Beck Babb (B) dec. Aiden 

Kunes, 6-5 (9-14); … 145 – Dalton Perry (CM) tech fall Shane Stankina, 24-6, 5:24 (14-14); … 152 – Owen Dykie (B) pinned Dakoda Packer-Edwards, 1:43 (14-20); … 160 – Carter Stouch (B) dec. Luke Ananea, 9-3 (14-23); … 172 – J.D. Heiser (B) pinned Dalton McDermott, 3:18 (14-29); … 189 – Bryce Brungard (CM) maj dec Josh Larrimore, 12-2 (18-29); … 215 – Kaleb Dumin (B) maj dec Kai Fravel, 10-0 (18-33); … 285 – Michael Palmiero (B) dec. Hayes Henry,. 6-0 (18-36),