CM’s Simcox, Perry in PIAA Saturday semifinals; Walizer advances in consolations
HERSHEY, PA – Central Mountain will have two semifinalists when the PIAA AAA wrestling tournament resumes Saturday morning at the Giant Center in Hershey. Moving into Saturday’s 9 a.m. semifinal session are junior Luke Simcox at 133 pounds and sophomore Dalton Perry at 139 pounds. Junior teammate Griffin Walizer fell in the quarterfinals but remains alive in the consolations and, for the second year in a row, all three are assured of earning medals.
Simcox (38-4) advanced to the semifinals with a 2-1 Friday win over Ethan Lebin (32-7) from Hempfield Area, the wrestler Perry defeated for Perry’s PIAA title a year ago. On Saturday Simcox will meet Anthony Ferraro (33-4), third place SW region finisher from Pine Richland.
Perry (42-5) notched a 3-1 win over Eli Carr (39-7) from Hempfield Area. His Saturday foe will be Kollin Rath (36-1), a junior from Bethlehem Catholic. Roth edged Perry, 1-0, at the state team duals on Feb. 10.
Walizer (36-11) fell in his quarterfinal bout by a 3-2 score to Southcentral champion Matt Repos (49-3) from Central Dauphin. The Wildcat junior bounced back in his first consolation bout with a 7-1 win over Wyatt Dillon (38-11) from Central York. Now assured of medaling for the second year in a row, Walizer will wrestle a Saturday morning consolation match against Nico Taddy (38-7), Southwestern runner-up from West Allegheny. A win would move the LHU commit into a consolation semifinal; a loss and he would wrestle later for seventh place.
Rocco Serafini at 189 pounds (36-14) saw his junior season come to an end on Friday in a 6-3 second round consolation loss to Aiden Hight (31-11) from Chambersburg.
Also at 189, Jersey Shore senior Haydn Packer (34-1) advanced to the semifinals with a 4-3 win over Brody Evans (30-12) from Waynesburg. The Rutgers commit will wrestle Cody Bartram (34-2) from Northern York on Saturday.
After two days of wrestling Central Mountain is in ninth place with 29 points. Pre-tourney favorite Bethlehem Catholic is running away with the team title with 74 points, Nazareth second with 47.5 and State College third with 45. The Little Lions have four semifinalists.
