WAGNER AND FALLS STILL ALIVE AT STATE TOURNAMENT
By Joe Walker
HERSHEY – The Central Mountain Lady Wildcats Kendall Wagner and Austynn Falls are still alive after the opening day of the PIAA Girls State Wrestling Championships at the Hershey Giant Central.
Wagner (26-7) won her first round bout and advanced into the championship quarterfinals, as the Bucktail junior recorded a fall over Hannah Hornick (23-10) of Seneca Valley. In the championship quarterfinals she will face Alisa Williams (33-8) of Panther Valley and a win by Wagner will assure her of a third state place finish.
Falls dropped her first bout, as she was pinned by Grace Nasman (31-7) of Upper St. Clair, but in the first round of consolations, Falls bounced back with a fall over Dakota Dengler (30-10) of Northern Lebanon. Falls was trailing 11-2 when caught Dengler with a headlock and recorded the pin to stay alive.
In the consolation second round she will face the loser of the championship quarterfinal round match between Western Regional Champion Abigail Dolanch (31-1) of Avella and Southeast regional runner-up Angelina Spachman (37-5) of Parkland.
Canon-McMillan and Montgomery are tied for the team lead after the first day, as both have 13 points, while Canon-Mac has three in the quarterfinals and Montgomery has four. Souderton is third with 12.5 points, while Athens is fourth with 11.5 points. Easton and Central Dauphin are tied for fifth with 11 points.
The Central Mountain Lady Wildcats are currently in 17th place of the 130 teams that had girls at the tournament. The Lady Eagles of Bald Eagle Area have one wrestler still alive, as Grace Crestani (190) dropped her first round bout, but came back and won her first round consolation round bout. Eden Eveleth dropped both of her bouts and was eliminated from the tournament. Williamsports’ Lillian Rumsey (118) is a quarterfinalist for the Lady Millionaires.
The Girls championship quarterfinals get started at 11:45 am on Friday and then the second round of consolations are to follow around 1:15-1:30 pm.
