Two NTL wrestlers reach state finals

HERSHEY - Two NTL wrestlers made it to the PIAA finals while four others secured medals during the second day of wrestling Friday.

Towanda got their first finals wrestler as Towanda's Travis Chesla won in the quarterfinals and semi-finals at 189 pounds.

Chesla held off Dylan Scheibt of Schuykill Valley 1-0 with an escape. Chesla then topped Garth Latiksy of Tamaqua 7-2.

"It feels great" Chesla said about being the first state finalist in Towanda history, "I haven't had a better feeling than this."

In the second match the bigger Latiksy tried to rough up Chesla some, getting called for a head butt and body slam, but the Black Knight kept his cool.

"That's all you have to do is keep your cool," he said, "It helps you win more."

Chesla will face Commodore Perry's Stephen Cermunga in the final Saturday.

The other final qualifier was Athens' David White at 119.

The Wildcat won his first match 4-0 over Josh Polacek of Westmont-Hilltop with a takedown and reversal, then he held off Shane Rankin of Union City 1-0 with a second round escape to advance.

"Awesome," is how White described being in the final.

While the Wildcat made it, he wasn't happy with his semi-final match.

"I had a bad match" he said, "I was stiff. I went up there and as soon as I went up there I was like 'oh no' because I was stiff. I was still emotional after Ben's (Knecht) loss, dragging that around all day it just makes me so stiff."

Regardless, winning the match while not at his best gives White confidence going forward.

"It's a high that's hard to describe" he said about being in the final, "I'm trying not to think about (being one away) but it keeps popping in my head."

The Wildcat is hoping to pin his finals opponent Randi Cruz of Bethlehem Catholic in the final today.

"I'm going to do the same thing I do everyday" White said about his preparation, "I take every match the same. You don't you will screw up somewhere."

Athens and Towanda will also have wrestlers in third place bouts.

At 112 Cody Wheeler earned his 100th win of his career in his last win Friday, his third of four matches during the day.

"It feels great" Wheeler said about wrestling for third, "I wish I could be wrestling for first and second but its just the next step down."

The Black Knight was happy with how he wrestled during the day.

"I wrestled decent" he said, "I could have won the Randi Cruz one, he's in the finals. Good luck to him and everything, but all the rest of matches I've been wrestling great."

In his first match of the day Wheeler fell to Cruz 7-2 after Cruz jumped out to a 6-0 lead.

In his second match Wheeler won 2-0 over Nate Giorgio of Schuykill Valley with a takedown in overtime. He followed that up with a dominant 13-2 win over Jamie Walsh of Pen Argyl. In his final match Wheeler won 3-0 over Shane Rankin of Union City.

The last win was the 100th of Wheeler's career.

"That feels good," he said, "My goal is to catch coach Jeremy Sluyter and pass him."

Sluyter has 131 wins.

Wheeler got the extra plus of having it announced at the Giant Center.

"That was what I was looking forward to hearing when I came down here," he said.

Wheeler will face Polacek in the third place match.

At 152 pounds Mike Testen will look to bring home the bronze after a solid day.

Testen won his quarterfinal match with a 6:42 fall over Gus Mizia of Commodore Perry. Testen jumped put to an early 4-1 lead but Mizia came back to tie it at five all to send in overtime. There Testen caught Mizia to get the pin.

Testen lost his next match, though, to Cody Wiercioch of Charlerio 10-0. It was much closer than the score looks as Testen was down 3-0 late in the third when things unraveled for him.

In his consolation bout Testen was down 7-2 in the second but scored an escape and late takedown to cut it to 7-5. In the third he escaped after starting on bottom, followed by his opponent, Craemer Hedash of Northern Lehigh, late in the third to tie it up. In overtime Testen scored a takedown to get the win.

"It felt awesome," Testen said about coming back after the loss to get the win, "Most guys lose in the semis they're mentally out of it. But I just told myself I need to comeback."

Down late, Testen didn't quit and forced his opponent to get called for the stall.

"I kept pushing" he said, "I knew he wasn't going to do anything. He got hit with a stall and I knew I was going to take him down."

Testen has some extra motivation to take third, as his father took third in 1984.

"I want the bronze," he said.

Also securing medals on Friday were Canton's Garth Mahosky and Athens' Garrett Russell.

Mahosky lost his quarterfinal match to Tyrone Area's A.J. Schopp by fall in 3:45. The Warrior returned to top Cole Claar of Claysburg-Kimmell 6-3 to secure his medal. In the third consolation bout Mahosky's opponent, Nikko Stevens of Northern Lehigh, caught Mahosky's knee wrong, causing him to get an injury default.

Even with the injury, Mahosky sees his trip down as a positive so far.

"It felt really, really good," he said about getting a medal, "I think I was a little happier than some of the state champs."

In the last match he felt confident he could have beat Stevens.

"I was wrestling fine," he said, "I have lasting knee injuries from my sophomore year. He just got it in that funk. It was horrible, it still hurts really bad."

Regardless, Mahosky plans on wrestling today against Trey Easter of Bedford for seventh.

Russell will also be wrestling for seventh at 145 pounds.

Russell began the day losing 7-1 to Portage's Shawn Perich, followed by him beating Sam Scheib of Tri Valley 9-4 after taking an early 7-1 lead.

The Wildcat then met up with Warrior Run's Elias Biddle, narrowly losing 3-2 in the third overtime.

"It feels pretty good," Russell said about securing a medal, "I'm just glad I could come down and win the two that I needed."

Russell needed an escape late but couldn't get it against Biddle.

"I just needed to go crazy the last 10 seconds and I didn't," he said.

Last year Russell just missed a medal.

"It feels much better," he said about earning a medal this year, "It sucks to come all the way down here and not get a medal. Its definitely a plus."

For four other wrestlers, they will be going home empty handed.

Fellow Wildcats Ben Knecht (125) and Todd Hall (215) lost in their second round consolations.

Knecht fell to Zac Beitz of Juniata by fall in 2:54 while Hall fell to Brian Hooks of Commodore Perry 4-2 in overtime. Hooks caught Hall with a takedown with one second left on the clock for the win.

Wyalusing's wrestlers Mike Cobb and Pete Champluvier fell short as well.

Cobb lost both matches today at 160, the first to Schuykill Valley's Ryan Maurer by fall in 5:59, then in the consolations to Bryn Bowman of Tri Valley in 4:22.

Champluvier lost his only consolation bout at 285 to Cris Ramirez of Milton Hershey in 2:28.

Third through seventh place wrestling begins at 12:30 p.m. today while the finals start at 2:30 p.m. at the Giant Center.