Central Mountain’s Derek Keen Medals at States with Eighth Place Finish

HERSHEY – Central Mountain sophomore Derek Keen finished his second trip to the PIAA state championships with an eighth place finish at 113 pounds. After a strong Friday, a 2-0 performance that assured the Wildcat of a medal, Keen lost two matches on Saturday to end his three days at states with a 3-3 mark, all the while earning the first medal for a Wildcat since Gino Barzona in 2016.

Cumberland Valley senior standout Ben Monn (41-3) dominated Keen in the seventh place bout, earning an 8-0 major decision, breaking things open with a takedown and three back points in the final period.

Earlier Saturday the Wildcat could not get his offense going, falling 3-1 to Nico Taddy (34-6), the WPIAL runner-up from West Allegheny.
After a scoreless first period, Taddy chose down and escaped 15 second into period two; he followed that with a late second period takedown for a 3-0 lead. Keen took down to start period three and worked a late escape to set the final score at 3-1 in favor of Taddy.

Keen finished his second season as a varsity starter with a 32-10 mark.