FALLS RALLIES TO STAY ALIVE IN GIRLS STATE TOURNAMENT

By Joe Walker

HERSHEY – They always say in wrestling that the match is not over until the final whistle, Central Mountains’ Austynn Falls proved that as she recorded a fall while trailing in her consolation round bout to stay alive in the PIAA Girls Wrestling Championships. 

The Lady Wildcat sophomore had given up two takedowns and then four nearfall points from almost being pinned to trail 11-2 in the second period of her match with Dakota Dengler (29-10) of Northern Lebanon. 

After getting off her back and both wrestlers going off the mat, they came back to the center to restart. Falls was able to escape and then promptly went up to Dengler and locked up a head lock, took Dengler down and recorded the fall in 1:15 of the second period. 

Falls, now 30-5, will advance into Friday’s second round of consolations where she will face the loser of the championship quarterfinal round match between Western Regional champion (31-1) of Avella and Southeast Regional third place finisher Angelina Spachman (37-5) of Parkland. 

The Girls Championship quarterfinals will get underway Friday at 11:45 am with the second round of consolations to follow around 1:30 pm. As reported earlier Kendall Wagner will be in the championship quarterfinals and Falls will be in the second round of consolations.