Wildcats’ Andrus and Houtz Advance to Day Two at PIAAs

HERSHEY – Seth Andrus moved closer to the top ten winners list in Central Mountain wrestling history and senior teammate Mahlik Houtz used a five-point move to stay alive, Wildcat highlights in Thursday’s first day of the PIAA wrestling championships at the Giant Center.

Andrus and Houtz each won their first round consolation contests while three Wildcat teammates saw their season end, Johnny Shreffler, Logan Long and Tanner Weaver losing their initial consolation bouts after falling earlier in round one.

For Andrus (32-5) at 132 pounds, his 4-3 win over Dalton Daugherty (34-14) of Dallastown was the 107th of his career. He is in 11th place, according to local wrestling historian Joe Walker. Dylan Caprio, a 2010 CM grad, sits in 10th place with 111 wins. Andrus will move into Friday’s 2:15 p.m. second round of consolations, going against Northeast region champ Pat Gould (28-4) from East Stroudsburg South.

Houtz (24-11) trailed 3-0 late in the second period against Nick Nattoli (24-11) from Bangor. But the Wildcat 220-pounder hit a five point move for a 5-3 lead after two and finished with an 8-4 win to earn a consi round two berth on Friday. His opponent will be Owen Verespy (37-7), a fifth place Southeast finisher from North Penn High School.

Three other Wildcats were not so fortunate. At 112 pounds junior Johnny Shreffler (23-15) fell 5-2 to Zach Martin of Neshaminy (33-12); at 145 senior Logan Long (30-10) lost 10-0 to Jeremiah Oakes (36-7) of Scranton; and at 170 pounds senior Tanner Weaver (33-8) was a hard-luck 5-4 loser to Dominic Falcone (21-12) from Easton. Weaver trailed 4-0 and cut the margin to 5-4 in the final period but could not pick up any additional points.

Collectively the Wildcats went 2-8 on day one.

Erie Prep leads the team race with 25 points, followed by Kiski with 23 and Nazareth with 22.5. Mifflin County leads District 6 teams with 11.5 points, good for 13th place; the Huskies have two quarterfinalists in defending state champ Trent Hidlay at 170 pounds and Christian Fisher at 113 pounds.

Other area wrestlers still in championship contention are Seth Koleno (138 pounds) and Gage McClenahan (152) from Bald Eagle Area and Cole Urbas (190 pounds) from State College.