11-0 Wildcats Seek Dual Title
PIAA Berth at Stake at Tyrone Saturday
by John Lipez
BALD EAGLE TOWNSHIP — It would appear coach Doug Buckwalter, his staff and wrestlers have done all they can as they attempt to regain the District 6 AAA team dual crown at Tyrone this Saturday.
The Wildcats (11-0) rambled through the pre-tourney schedule with two recent one-sided wins, 53-14 over State College last Saturday and Tuesday night, 58-9 over Shikellamy.
The number one seeded Wildcats come into the semi-finals at the Tyrone High gym at 10 a.m. Saturday morning with regular season wins over all the remaining teams in the field: 39-24 over #2 Mifflin County, 39-22 over #3 Bellefonte, 38-18 over #4 Philipsburg-Osceola and the 53-14 win over #5 State College (P-O and State were to meet Wednesday night in Philipsburg to determine Central Mountain’s semi-final opponent on Saturday).
A win in the semi-finals will likely set up a district dual final at noon Saturday with Mifflin County (16-4), the defending team dual champs. A year ago Central Mountain won the regular season match over the Huskies but Mifflin County took the team crown with a 31-26 win, ending a Wildcat streak of five straight titles.
Whoever wins the district title on Saturday will travel on to the Giant Center in Hershey for the PIAA team duals, a first round match next Thursday against the District 11 runner-up; top teams in that Lehigh Valley district have been Nazareth (6-3), Parkland (11-1), Bethlehem Liberty (14-1) and Easton (9-4).
The Wildcats have cracked the Pennsylvania Power team rankings for the first time, listed at #24 in the latest compilation. Nazareth is second (although losing 29-26 to Cumberland Valley last Saturday), Parkland is sixth, Liberty eleventh and Easton number 19.
Four Central Mountain wrestlers are state-ranked: Demetri Probst (15-8) at number 22 at 145 pounds; Chad Reese (21-6) number 7 at 160; Gavin Caprio (22-5) number 9 at 170 and Cameron Porter (17-6) number 21 at 220 pounds.
Mifflin County has completed its dual meet season but Central Mountain has three to go, all on the road: next Tuesday at Hollidaysburg (1-7), Feb. 11 at Double-A power Brookville (16-2) and Feb. 13 at likely District 4 AAA team dual champion Jersey Shore (12-2).
