COUNCIL ROCK WRESTLERS IN QUARTERS
Only two SOL wrestlers remain alive for gold medal dreams in Chocolate Town, USA. And they both hail from the Council Rock School District. CR North’s 106 pounder Aiden Burke won his quarterfinal bout to enter the semifinals in AAA action Saturday morning at 9:30am. Burke will be joined by CR South’s Zack Trampe, who advanced at 126 pounds with a 4-2 decision over Geater Latrobe’s Ethan McCoy. Trampe will take on District One counterpart Lucas Miller from Boyertown. Trampe owns two wins over Miller this season - a 5-1 win and 4-3 victory. But that means nothing, as Trampe himself stated, “Once that you get to this point in the tournament, it comes down to all elite guys, and previous matches in the season don’t mean anything at this point and anything can happen in the semi matches.”
Trampe is poised to do everything right from here on in, including eating right, getting enough sleep, and warming up tomorrow morning in preparation for the big match that could vault him into the finals.
In a way, his loss to Downingtown East’s Wade Cummings in the SE Regional finals cleared a path for him to get to this point as he was down below in the 126-pound bracket and away from Bethlehem Catholic’s Luke Karam, who most likely will be waiting for Trampe in the finals.
Trampe said, “The loss was hard to swallow…but when the brackets came out my coaches called me right away and said everything worked out so don’t worry about that much anymore.” Trampe, who is always confident in his approach to every match replied that he “just has to go and get it done” in regards to this opportunity to have a shot at a state title in only his sophomore season.
Burke, on the other hand, is perhaps a surprise semifinalist at 106, as most of the attention in the SOL was on Pennridge’s Matt Parker who suffered a devastating loss in the quarterfinals to Nazareth’s Tyson Klump. Parker could not get a takedown late in the third to get the win and dropped down into the consolation bracket. There he rebounded with a win to assure himself of a medal. Burke, who quietly dispatched of Becca’s Sean Reddington 2-0 in the quarters, will battle Altoona’s Cole Manley in the semifinals.
Championship dreams ended for Pennridge’s Kyle Gentile in his 170-pound quarterfinal match with a 7-5 sudden victory loss to a rugged Manheim Central wrestler Jared Siegrist. Gentile scored a late takedown at the buzzer with a dump to tie the score at 5, but could not fight off a takedown early in the opening minute of overtime on their feet with Siegrist. Gentile quickly scored bonus points for the Rams with an 8-0 victory in the consis to keep his hopes alive to win the consolation bracket and capture the bronze medal. Oftentimes, when wrestlers who are expected to win a state title lose in the championship bracket, they pack it in the wrestlebacks, thus costing themselves the chance to take third. Which in some cases is the second best place, and for Gentile and Parker who will get another chance, it only makes them more battle ready next season.
Central Bucks East’s Evan Wilson also came up short in his bid to reach the semis with a 7-3 loss to James Buchanan’s Casy Glunt. But Wilson will also get his chance to climb up on the podium with his 19-6 win over Penncrest’s Joe Pyfer in his wrestleback match. Pennridge’s Ezra Outlaw picked up two wins in the consolation bracket to earn his medal at 220 and will look to advance as high as he can on the podium Saturday with his match against Hempfield’s Fred Mantsch. Heavy Bruce Graeber (Neshaminy) pinned his way to a medal, winning two matches in the consolations as well and will continue on with his fine season at the Giant Center.
Pennridge’s title hopes went up in smoke Friday, moving day in Hershey like Saturday’s in the PGA. The Rams did move up one spot in the team standings to sixth place but will be unable to make up ground on team leading Bethlehem Catholic and second place team Franklin Regional without any semifinalist.
Action resumes at 9:30 am with the AAA semifinals and wrestlebacks with the finals slated for 7 pm with all the placement bouts occurring simultaneously on four mats. PCN will cover the finals live on television if you can’t make it to Hershey.
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