By Alex Frazier
No. 1-seed Council Rock South, No. 3 Norristown and No. 6 Upper Perkiomen will advance to the quarterfinals of the District One Dual Meet Tournament Friday at Council Rock South.The Golden Hawks and Eagles had little competition as both won by large margins. South came from a 15-3 deficit to clobber Downingtown East 51-18, while Norristown soared to a 41-6 lead and went on to defeat Quakertown 51-23.
No. 22 Hatboro-Horsham, which pulled off a stunning upset of No. 11 Souderton 34-31 in the first round, fell victim to Upper Perkiomen 40-21.
After taking an 8-0 lead after the first two bouts, C.R. South fell behind 12-8, but Shane Gilmore turned that around quickly with a technical fall at 171.
“We weren’t really worried about it,” said Gilmore. “We start to get our points when I wrestle.”
In fact, the Hawks won six out of the next seven matches, including pins from Tim Riley (189), heavyweight Tommy Trampe whose fall came with eight seconds left, Billy Rappo (103), Mack Moore (119) and Dan Martoccio (125).
“We wanted more pins,” said Gilmore. “They had some guys that really saved bonus points for us.”
Gilmore said that he was in a slump the first five matches of the year, but after that he was back in it. He’s now on a 3-0 streak with a pair of pins and a tech fall.
“I don’t plan on losing for a while,” he said.
In his first match back from a knee injury he suffered in the Escape the Rock Tournament, Matt Rappo finished off the match at 135 with a major decision.
He had hoped to get off the mat sooner since he’d been out for a week.
“We had a lot of snow days and not a lot of practicing,” said Rappo. “We didn’t wrestle our best today, but as the week goes on and we keep competing, by Friday we’ll be ready to go.”
• Last year Norristown pulled a huge 36-30 upset over Quakertown in the district quarterfinals. The Eagles were seeded 13th, while the Panthers were No. 4.
That was then, this is now.
This year the Eagles came in as the favorites and lived up to their billing.
For Norristown, the wins just kept snowballing. The closest bouts of the evening were the first two. Norristown 140-pounder Joe Rowland edged Quakertown’s Sage Malischewski on a two-point near fall in the second period of the first bout. Then Mike Springer took Briar Malischewski down in the first period, which turned out to be the difference in a 3-1 decision.
Then the Eagles reeled off four straight pins, which ended when Larry Gordon figure-foured Chris Burnside’s head for a pin at the 3:46 mark.
After Matt Grill was forced to default at 215 for Quakertown’s first points of the match, Norristown’s Gavin Queenan pinned and 103-pounder Zach Fuentes followed with a tech fall to extend the Eagles’ lead to 41-6 and clinch the victory.
“I did pretty good tech falling him, but it would have been better if it was a pin,” said Fuentes. “But it doesn’t matter. A win is a win. Sealing the victory was pretty good too. I just go out there and keep it simple.”
After the Panthers’ Alex Brulliea pinned at 112, Tyree Gardner came back with a major and Doug Forlano for another fall before the Panthers won the final two bouts. Tyler Seislove collected a tech fall at 130 and Scott Wolfinger pinned at 135.
“We came out pretty ready,” said Fuentes. “Last year was a pretty close match. I was expecting it to be closer. The way we’re wrestling this year is pretty good. We had a lot of jayvee kids making a difference.”
• In first-round action, the Hatters shocked Souderton, which was missing one of its best wrestlers Sidney Outlaw and had to forfeit at 171. Matt Harkins’ major decision at 125 gave the Hatters a six-point lead, putting the pressure on Souderton’s Pat Freed to pin in the final bout. Freed could only manage a 7-4 decision.
“We matched up with them very well down low and in the middle,” said Hatter coach Glenn Kaiser. “We caught a break with Outlaw being out. It was a good team win for us.”
In the other two first round matches, Quakertown overcame three Pennridge leads to win 40-26. Neshaminy couldn’t quite get it done against Downingtown East as the Redskins fell in the final bout 33-30. Joe Simcox stepped on the mat with the score tied but lost 3-2 on a second-period penalty point.
Against Upper Perkiomen, Hatboro forged a 15-3 lead before the Tribe strung together seven straight wins.
“It was definitely a huge momentum builder to beat Souderton,” said Hatter 171-pounder Mike Lynch, who collected a pin and a forfeit in his two matches. “We carried it for the first couple of matches. They’re definitely beatable. We wrestled tough but just came up short.”
Matt Swiacki stopped the bleeding with a come-from-behind win at 125. Trailing 7-5 in the third period, he escaped and took Frank Carpinello down to his back for an 11-7 victory.
Matt Harkins then edged Upper Perk’s Dan Roedenberger 6-5 for the Hatters’ final win.
“We’ve been struggling lately,” said Lynch. “This was definitely a bright point. Hopefully we can feed off that win. Now we know what we’re capable of.”
In Friday’s quarterfinals, the Golden Hawks hope to avenge a 38-35 loss to Boyertown in last year’s district duals championship.
The Bears knocked Council Rock North out of this year’s tournament, so the Hawks have some incentive.
“They only beat them by three and we beat North pretty bad, so we plan on beating Boyertown bad,” said Gilmore. “We’re going to be in the finals (even) if we’re not winning (them).”
Norristown will take on Upper Perk in the other quarterfinal. Action starts at 6 p.m.
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