10 of 11 still alive in state wrestling

HERSHEY - Seven local wrestlers won their first-round matches to advance and remain in the hunt for the PIAA Championship at their respective weights Thursday.

At 112 pounds both Athens' David White and Towanda's Cody Wheeler won their opening round matches.

Wheeler topped Jamestown's Tyler Roberts 8-2, but started out down 0-2 after Roberts had an early take down. Wheeler recovered, though, to score eight unanswered points through two takedowns and two escapes.

"It feels good because when you get it out of the way, when you're here you know what it's feeling like," Wheeler said about getting that first win. "Just one step at a time."

The Black Knight relied on his conditioning to get him past the first round.

"He was getting tired and I just had to not get tired," Wheeler said.

He added that giving up the early takedown was a mistake.

"I was just trying to feel him out and he got one on me," Wheeler said.

White racked up the points before scoring a fall over Dylan Long of Northwestern Lehigh in 5:36.

"I was a little nervous coming in," White admitted. "I had a rough night last night."

The Wildcat controlled Long throughout the match en route to the win.

"It's a huge confidence boost," White said about the nature of his win, but, regardless of the outcome, he knows he has work to do. "But as coach said, I should be able to do that to everyone. I gave up two points and I shouldn't have. It is good for a step towards a state title, but I did screw a lot things up and I need a whole lot of improvement before tomorrow."

While most wrestlers like the break after winning the first match, White is eager to continue.

"I come here to wrestle," he said. "They can do this tournament in two days and I will be happy."

At 135 pounds Canton's Garth Mahosky scored a 15-6 major decision over Johnsonburg's Quinton O'Rourke. Mahosky was on the offensive early on and throughout, leading 6-1 after the first round and 12-4 heading into the third.

"I was kind of nervous I wouldn't wrestle my best," Mahosky said about the match. "But I thought I wrestled pretty good."

It's been an up-and-down postseason for the Warrior, but lately he's been on a high.

"It feels like there is no pressure now because I made it here," Mahosky said. "I really wrestled some pretty bad matches and some pretty good matches. I'm just hoping to do my best down here because I did make it."

Instead of worrying too much about how far he should go, an upbeat Mahosky is focusing more on just wrestling and enjoying the moment.

"That's been my motto since districts," Mahosky said. "I got way too nervous and way too down on myself. Now I'm really just positive about everything and not nervous at all. It's really helped me a lot. There was a couple moments in that match where I tried riding legs, and I've never tried riding legs, and I looked at my coach and he started laughing because he reversed me. It's fun, I love wrestling."

In one of the more exciting matches of the day, Athens' Garrett Russell scored a 10-6 win over Noah Horst of Schuykill Valley in the third overtime.

Russell led after an early takedown, but Horst reversed it for a 2-2 tie into the second period. Horst started on top in the second, but Russell reversed him to take the lead. Horst scored an escape point late.

Heading into the third, Horst tied it up with an escape, but Russell took the lead with a takedown. Just before time ran out, Horst scored a reverse to knot it up at six.

After a scoreless first overtime, Russell scored a point in the second OT as Horst was called for locking his hands. Russell took a 7-6 lead into the third as Horst started on top. Horst let Russell up, giving him the escape point, but it was Russell who out last Horst, scoring a takedown before time ran out to the secure the win.

Russell had a mixed reaction after the match.

"It felt pretty good to get the win," he said, "but I had to get it in overtime."

At the end, the Wildcat focused on the things he needed to do to win, which helped him pull it out.

"Stay down in the same position, don't let him get two and ride him out," Russell said.

Last year Russell lost his first match at states.

"It feels real good," he said about winning the first round match this time. "All I've got to get is one more and I get a medal."

Russell's teammate Mike Testen earned his first state victory at 152 pounds by topping Northern Lehigh's Craemer Hedash 7-6. Testen jumped out to a 7-3 lead, but Hedash rallied late to make it interesting. However, the Wildcat held on to advance.

"I like to get that first match out of the way," Testen said about his first PIAA tournament win. "It's usually the roughest."

"I knew coming in I had to win these matches on my feet," Testen said about his strategy. "I just kept trying to take the guy down. That's what I did; I kept being the aggressor."

Wyalusing's Mike Cobb advanced with a dominating 8-0 win over Forest Hills' Chris Gallagher. In the first period Cobb scored a takedown with two back points, followed by another takedown in the second period. He finished out his match with a reversal.

"It takes a lot of pressure off," he said about getting the first win. "Now I'm just going to go out there and wrestle, hopefully place."

Heading in, Cobb didn't have any knowledge on his opponent, so he did his best to take it to him.

"I figured it would be a pretty tough match," he said.

Going forward, Cobb knows the matches won't get any easier.

"All these kids are good. They made it to states," he said. "Anyone can get beat down here, so I'm just going to keep wrestling."

At 189 pounds Towanda's Travis Chesla easily dispatched Fort Cherry's Gary Kiefer once he was able to get his hands on him. Chesla won by fall in 3:41 after scoring a takedown in the first period, with an escape and another takedown in the second.

"The first one is always the hardest," he said. "That's one of the goals I had, to get the first one. Now I have to get the next three."

Getting the pin was a big confidence boost for the Black Knight.

"There was a lot of close 189 matches," he said. "Getting my pin has pushed me ahead of everybody and showing them that they need to be ready to wrestle. Of course you have confidence coming in, having wrestled all the people you have the weeks before, but coming out and getting the fall, it felt good."

Towanda coach Bill Sexton was ecstatic with how the first day went for his wrestlers.

"It couldn't go any better," he said. "What you want to do is come here in the opening round, get your wins and move on. You don't want to wrestle more than once today and both guys accomplished that. We got a nice start out of Cody and Travis, once he caught his man. The guys seemed pretty intent on running from him. Once he caught up with him, Travis dominated and got the fall. You couldn't ask for a better start."

Other local wrestlers didn't fare so well in the first round.

Athens' Ben Knecht lost his first bout to Joe Luscari of North Star at 125 pounds. Luscari came out aggressive, getting up 4-0 on Knecht after a first-period takedown and a second-period reversal. Knecht was able to escape, but another Luscari takedown made it a 6-1 final.

Knecht came back to win in the first round of the wrestleback, 4-2 over Pius X's Justin Mazza. Knecht came out the aggressor, jumping out to a 4-0 lead. A late reversal by Mazza in the third period made it interesting, but Knecht held off Mazza's attempt at a tilt to secure the win.

"It feels good to be alive, but I don't want to be here," Knecht said. "I would rather be in the Championship bracket."

The Wildcat said he wasn't prepared enough in his first-round match.

"I just didn't come to wrestle," he said, "and the rest took care of itself."

Knecht changed that in the second match.

"I got ready better. I went in knowing I could beat this kid and I don't want to lose. It's my senior year," he said. "I want to take top three at least. I just have to win the rest of my matches."

Knecht's teammate Todd Hall also fell in the first round at 215 pounds to Matt Mongera of Seneca 6-0. After a scoreless first period, Mongera started out on top in the second period, then used that advantage to score five back points. In the third, Hall was called for a stall to make it a 6-0 final.

In the consolation round bout, Hall faced Forest Hills' Jeff Meier to stay alive. Meier scored an early takedown, but Hall escaped to make it 2-1 heading into the second period. Hall started on bottom and escaped to tie it up. He followed that up with a takedown to go ahead 4-2. Meier then turned the tables on Hall, escaping and scoring a takedown to go up 5-4. Hall reversed him to take a 6-5 lead, but just before time ran out, Meier escaped to tie it up.

In the third period Hall let Meier up, giving him Meier an escape point and a 7-6 lead. The strategy proved successful as Hall scored a takedown to go up 8-7, but Meier escaped to knot it up at eight, sending the match into overtime.

In OT it was Hall who came out on top, scoring a quick takedown to seal the 10-8 win.

"It felt good" Hall said about the win, "coming off a big loss the first match, I just knew I had to come out here with more offense."

Even though the match went into overtime, Hall wasn't too worried.

"I knew I just had to take him down" the Wildcat said.

With the win Hall is more relaxed and ready to go forward.

"Last year I came down here two and out" he said, "The first one I loss and I was like its pretty much over so I didn't even try. Now I came back so I had to try to get a place."

For the Rams Mike Clark at 171 and Pete Champluvier at 285 both lost their first-round matches.

Champluvier lost to Tyler Unger of Boiling Springs 3-2. After a scoreless first period, Champluvier was called for stalling in the second followed by Unger earning an escape to make it a 2-0 deficit for the Ram heading into the third period. In the final period, Champluvier scored a reversal to tie it up, but couldn't hold Unger, who scored another escape for the win.

However, in the consolation match, Champluvier turned the tables on Briar Stern of Lehighton to score a pin in 1:47 to advance to day two.

"I felt I should have won the first one," Champluvier said. "I lost it close. I had to come back and win the next one to make it to another day. I just have to wrestle tough the whole way through."

Unger's size gave Champluvier a little trouble in that first match-up.

"The kid's big. I think I'm the smallest kid here by far," he said. "He's heavy. He pushed around more than I could him. It was a close match and next time it will be different."

As for the pin, Champluvier found a familiar move that worked.

"He hit me with my own move," he said. "I came back and hit it better and got it done. It felt good to get it done and over with."

Clark fell to Ridgway's Zack Zelcs 10-3. Zelcs jumped out to a 7-1 lead that Clark couldn't overcome. Clark then fell to Hamburg's Glenn Miller 14-1 in the first round of consolations.

In the quarterfinals, Wheeler will face Bethlehem Catholic's Randi Cruz while White wrestles Penn Cambria's Evan Link. Mahosky will take on undefeated A.J. Schopp of Tyrone while Russell meets Portage's Shawn Perich and Testen takes on Gus Mizia of Bentworth.

To round out the quarters, Cobb faces Ryan Maurer of Schuykill Valley while Chesla faces Dylan Scheidt, also of Schuykill Valley.

The quarterfinals will begin at 8 a.m. at the Giant Center today.