By Alex Frazier
Nothing is as solid as a rock.
Except two rocks.
After each experienced a disappointing loss the night before, both Council Rock South and North cleared the first hurdle in their quest to earn state medals at the PIAA Dual Meet Tournament Friday and Saturday at the Giant Center.
Both schools are coming off layoffs due to skin infections and are just starting to hit their strides once again.
And both teams were coming off three difficult matches Monday evening at the District One Dual Meet Tournament.
Council Rock South lost a tough championship match to Boyertown, which by virtue of winning the tournament, received a bye into Friday’s second round.
Rock South, therefore, had to wrestle again Monday evening against LaSalle, the District 12 champion, while the Indians had to travel to Whitehall for a 4 p.m. date with District Two champion Hazelton. The match was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. at Hanover Area High School near Wilkes Barre, but with the impending snowstorm, the location and time were changed.
Boyertown also steamrolled North in the semifinals before the Indians rallied to beat Rustin and qualify for the third team spot from District One.
Neither team showed any effects from its three strenuous bouts the night before, as Rock South rebounded to blow out LaSalle 45-18 and Rock North rolled over Hazelton, 48-22.
“They had four or five state-ranked kids,” said North coach Tom Vivacqua. “They’re pretty tough.”
Vivacqua was expecting solid performances from seven of his wrestlers, but was pleasantly surprised to get an additional pair of wins from his 135 and 145-pounders.
Hayden Schenker decisioned James Straight, 9-7, and James Hollawell pinned Ian Kelly in 5:42 to conclude the match.
“They could have been tossups,” said Vivacqua, “but they wrestled pretty tough.”
In between Anthony Dutrow majored one of Hazleton’s better wrestlers, Tim Samec, 13-4.
“He almost pinned him,” said Vivacqua.
Greg Lanctot started the bout off with a technical fall over Tom Biesadesky, 18-3. North lost the next three bouts. When Hazelton forfeited at 215, Vivacqua bumped Jamie Callender to heavyweight where he recorded his fourth pin in as many bouts.
“He was a pretty tough kid,” said Vivacqua. “He had 24-25 wins.”
Lightweight Sean O’Neill (103) and Shane Longstreth (119) pinned around John Dutrow’s forfeit win at 112.
“I felt like we wrestled our best match today,” said Vivacqua. “We had two weeks off, but I feel like we’re getting our stride again. It took a few matches to get us rolling again. We’re wrestling pretty well right now.”
After an upset loss to Boyertown Monday, the Golden Hawks turned it around Tuesday.
“We expect to win and that’s what we did tonight,” said coach Brad Silimperi. “LaSalle’s a very good team. Things didn’t go our way last night. It’s really hard to come back from a heartbreaking loss like that, but it says a lot about their character the way they re-grouped what with the weather conditions and holding their weight, and they just went out and stomped on a good team. I was overly proud of our kids.”
C.R. South’s heavyweights redeemed their performance from the night before. Bobby Lavelle, Tom Dingui and Tom Trampe all pinned for the Hawks.
“They did the job,” said Silimperi. “Hats off to them. They stepped up to the challenge. They rebounded really nice. They got the momentum going for us tonight.
“We’ve been extremely proud of our heavyweights this year. They’ve made huge strides.”
Silimperi also praised the effort of Trey Bolasco, who beat the Explorers’ Bryan Flanz.
“He’s wrested a lot of tough kids the last two weeks and he wrestled another tough kid today,” said Silimperi. “He won a hard-fought decision.”
On Friday South will take on District Six champion Central Mountain.
“They’re ranked second in the state,” said Silimperi. “When you go out to the state duals, you want to be the best, you have to wrestle the best. Our goal is to go out there and get on the podium.”
North’s opponent has yet to be decided, but it will be between District Eight champ Perry and the District Seven runner-up, which will be either Kiski or Canon MacMillan.
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