Wyalusing wins first round of PIAA Duals

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Published: February 10, 2012

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HERSHEY - Making their first appearance in the PIAA State Dual Meet in Tournament in almost a decade, the Wyalusing Rams got off to a somewhat slow start Thursday with a 36-15 win over District Six runner-up West Branch at the Giant Center, advancing to the quarterfinal round Friday afternoon.

With the win, the Rams will face an old foe in Brookville Friday at noon in the quarterfinals. Brookville won the inaugural PIAA Dual meet championship in 1999 by defeating the Rams in a classic 23-21 decision.

"It was nice to get the first one done and out of the way," said Wyalusing coach Gary Haley. "We don't have anyone that's a returning state qualifier and this place can be a little intimidating if you're here for the first time.

"We felt like we had a favorable matchup in the first round with them," added Haley. "Hopefully we got that out of our system and can have a better showing tomorrow against Brookville."

The Rams got started off in the right direction with Anthony Clark and Dylan Otis at 195 and 220 respectively.

Clark wasted little time putting the Rams in front with a fall in 1:55 of the first period over Trey English before Otis built a 5-0 lead on Reynold Maines through the first two periods and then held on for an 8-5 decision and a 9-0 Wyalusing lead.

West Branch closed the gap to 9-6 at 285 when Morgan Selepack picked up a 4-3 decision over Clayton Force and Wyatt Sankey won a 2-0 decision over Austin Shaeffer at 106.

Brandon Kelley put the Rams up 12-6 at 113 with a 7-1 decision over Abe Albright.

At 126, Justin Haley used three near fall points in the second period and held on for a 3-1 decision over Dustin Fisch giving the Rams a 15-6 lead.

Parker Bumbarger closed the gap to 15-12 for the Warriors at 126 with a 3:19 fall over the Rams' Ryan Force.

Wyalusing the ripped off four straight decisions to essentially wrap up the win.

Ryan Hart needed a reversal with :08 second left in the bout to secure a 4-3 win over John Hayles at 132 for an 18-12 Wyalusing advantage before Tim Kuntz made

quick work of Kaleb Quick at 138 with a :30 fall and a 24-12 Wyalusing lead.

Joe Champluvier narrowly missed bonus points at 145 with a 7-1 decision over Luke Slippey and Tyler Fenton followed at 152 using a reversal and a pair of near fall points in the third period for a 6-0 decision over Ethan Slippey and a 30-12 Wyalusing lead.

Lucas Kristofits picked up the last Warrior win of the night with a 7-4 decision over Tyler Thompson at 160 before the Rams closed out the match with a pair of decisions by Dan Frankenfield and Justin Griffith at 170 and 182.

Frankenfield was a 7-1 winner over Ryan Miles and Griffith picked up a 6-0 decision over Robert Pearce to close the match.

"It was closer than we thought it would be," said Ram captain Tim Kuntz. "I definitely think the whole team can wrestle better, and we are going to need to tomorrow. We are capable of doing it and I think everyone on the team knows we are."

The Rams will now face District Nine champion Brookville, a 72-0 winner over District One champion Lower Moreland Thursday.

"We won a lot of close matches today," said Haley. "We are going to need to be a little sharper tomorrow against Brookville. They looked pretty tough in their win. Hopefully the kids can step up and hopefully today was just nerves of being in this place for the first time.

"No one that we have has wrestled down here, so hopefully we have that out of our system now and we can move on."

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