Photo from Saturday’s District Duals courtesy of Kim Supko. Check the gallery for photo coverage: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/f843008868
GOLDEN HAWK GRAPPLERS ADVANCE TO HERSHEY
PIAA Pigtail-Prelim Win Over Wilson (West Lawn) 41-25 Propels Council Rock South into the
First Round of the 2023 PIAA (AAA) Team Championship
by Glenn Kaiser
Holland, PA-Council Rock South Head Coach Brad Silimperi admitted prior to the Golden Hawks PIAA (AAA) Team Championship preliminary match with Wilson-West Lawn that they have not had much success at home, on a Monday, with a spot in Hershey on the line. History says he was correct. The Golden Hawks had been unsuccessful at least three-times prior, losing to these same Wilson Bulldogs once before in 2014 30-26. Central Dauphin also knocked CR South out on a Monday as well. But this year, the Golden Hawks got some redemption from their quarterfinal D1 dual loss to Owen J Roberts, and ridded the demons, with their impressive 41-25 victory over Wilson in their home gym.
It didn’t look good out of the gate as the Golden Hawks dropped three straight matches by pinfall, and the Bulldogs were up 18-love after starting the match at 189-pounds. However, after the turnaround to the light-weights CR South got back in the match when Connor Lenahan posted a huge 6-3 win at 107-pounds over Wilson stud McKaden Speece, who came in at 39-2. Lenahan used two slick sliding merkel’s to score two takedowns, which were the difference in the match. The CRS lightweight trio of Lenahan, Luke Reitter (114) and Pat Woloshyn (121) for South has been devasting as of late, and they kept it going with Reitter and Woloshyn notching back-to-back falls with Reitter using a tight cork screw/double-trouble “butcher” and Woloshyn a tight half/bar stack, making the score 18-15 and a momentum switch to South’s bench. CR South wrestled with a purpose from there on in, as Roman Vega kept the Bulldogs’ James Garcia to just a major decision at 127-pounds, and Ajay Bhatt downed Wilson’s Miquel Herrera at 133 with his own 11-0 major.
With things getting tight on the team scoreboard at 22-19 in favor of Wilson, Ben Brillhart up at 139-pounds and wrestling with essentially one arm due to an early injury in the match, posted another major decision for CRS, pushing them ahead for the first time in the match at 23-22. With momentum staying on the home team’s side, and with the Golden Hawks duo of Gavin Cole (152) and Bekhruz Sadriddinov (160) ready to close out the Bulldogs, you could sense redemption for CR South, and just like that, with two iron clad cradle pins, and some icing on the cake by Ryan Gottwalds’ reinforced bar-tilt fall at 172-pounds, it’s off to Hershey again for the CRS wrestling family.
Coach Silimperi and assistant Trap McCormack were able to move wrestlers around to their advantage after the coin-toss, but mostly because of the additional weight-allowance coming off Saturday’s D1 duals. CR South will now have to square up against a very good Bethlehem Catholic team from District 11 on Thursday night at the Giant Center. BECA recently knocked off a highly nationally ranked team in Malvern Prep and come in with a win over their always tough Lehigh Valley foe, Nazareth (Coach Sils alma mater).
Meanwhile, in Chambersburg Monday night, Quakertown made over a 2-hour drive to battle District Three’s #3 team with a chance to advance to Hershey. Unfortunately for the Panthers, they came out on the wrong side of close 36-31 match won by Chambersburg that came down to the last match of the dual. Q-town won six matches, matching the Trojans four falls, but fell short in their bid to move into the Hershey portion of the state bracket.
Pennridge, the D1 2023 Team Champions got to rest-up and begin preparations for their trip to Hershey and their first-round match-up with District Seven’s Hempfield Area. Hempfield Area demolished Allderdice, the District Eight champs, 72-6 Monday. Triple-A action kicks-off Thursday at 6:00pm for the Rams in the Giant Center, Chocolate Town, USA. CRS battles BECA at 8:00pm.
Pennridge is looking to get past HA and onto the quarterfinals versus either Central Mountain (D6-champs) or Cumberland Valley (D3-runner-up). The bracket is loaded with rugged competition from around the state, and Pennridge’s chances to medal will have to be grounded with the cliche, one-match-at-a-time mentality for them to do so. Nonetheless, for both SOL teams the opportunity to wrestle up against top-individuals will only help when it comes time for the PIAA Individual Wrestling Championships in March.
Chambersburg 36, Quakertown 21
114: Zach Sherman (CAH) over Isaac Williams (QUHS) (MD 10-0)
121: Mason Ziegler (QUHS) over Ethan Paszkowski (CAH) (Fall 0:48)
127: Luke Mentzer (CAH) over Logan Pfistner (QUHS) (MD 14-6)
133: Ashton Romberger (CAH) over Evan Hilton (QUHS) (Fall 1:46)
139: Logan Mickey (CAH) over Cody Stank (QUHS) (Fall 5:05)
145: Gavin Carroll (QUHS) over Tyler Frye (CAH) (MD 12-2)
152: Maxwell Hibsman (QUHS) over Judge Rieck (CAH) (Fall 3:46)
160: Collin Gaj (QUHS) over Ivan Mixell (CAH) (Fall 1:27)
172: Zachary Borzio (QUHS) over Jaccob Stoner (CAH) (Fall 3:52)
189: Aiden Hight (CAH) over Dylan Fenstermacher (QUHS) (Fall 0:57)
215: Calvin Lachman (QUHS) over Zack Evans (CAH) (Dec 7-6)
285: Avery Kuhns (CAH) over Keondre Lopez (QUHS) (Fall 0:55)
107: Ben Hoover (CAH) over Waylen Strzelski (QUHS) (MD 11-0)
Council Rock South 41-Wilson (West Lawn) 25
189- Blaise Eidle (Wilson-West Lawn) pinned Aidan Murray (CRS)
215- Drew Koller (WWL) pinned James St. Thomas (CRS)
285- Ryan McMillan (WWL) pinned Micky Trampe (CRS)
107- Connor Lenahan (CRS) dec. McKaden Speece (WWL) 6-3
114- Luke Reitter (CRS) pinned Issac Eidle (WWL)
121- Pat Woloshyn (CRS) pinned Chase Ulrich (WWL)
127- James Garcia (WWL) major dec. Roman Vega (CRS) 14-6
133- Ajay Bhatt (CRS) major dec. Miguel Herrera (WWL) 11-0
139- Ben Brillhart (CRS) major dec. Kamron Koch (WWL) 15-7
145- Matteo Garcia (WWL) dec. Andrew Lindros (CRS) 6-2
152- Gavin Cole (CRS) pinned Logan Faller (WWL)
160- Bekhruz Sadriddinov (CRS) pinned Dominic Delgaldo (WWL)
172- Ryan Gottwald (CRS) pinned Logan Beidelman (WWL)
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