ESCAPE THE ROCK: ALL SOL FINAL AT 152-POUNDS
Holland, PA-Council Rock North’s Cam Robinson will square-off against Hatboro-Horsham’s A.J. Tamburrino late this afternoon in the 152-pound final in the prestigious Escape the Rock tournament at Council Rock South High School. Finals are tentatively scheduled for a 4pm start. Tamburrino and Robinson are no strangers to one another, having wrestled in the SE Regional final last year. Robinson the #2 seed is the returning state runner-up, and Tamburrino the bronze medalist a season ago at the PIAA Individual Championships. Tamburrino has not beaten Robinson in four attempts. The last time they wrestled at the 2019 SE Region final Robinson won 7-5. Tamburrino has been close to Robinson, also losing 4-3 last season at the Rock Yard Duals, but has not been able to turn the table to date.
This match will be epic, with an ETR championship belt on the line. And it won’t be the last as these two will battle all the way to Hershey in the postseason. Robinson is ranked #2 by PA Power and Tamburrino #3 in the latest rankings at 152.
Robinson downed Nick Vafiadis (New Kent, VA) 5-2 in his semifinal. Tamburrino needed every second in his UTB victory 3-2, over #5 ranked (FloWrestling) in the nation Dalton Harkins from Malvern Prep. After a scoreless first period Harkins scored an escape and led 1-0 into the third period over Tamburrino. Tamburrino waited until near the end of regulation to score a perfectly executed switch to lead 2-1 with :17 seconds remaining.
Harkins desperately tried to escape moving forward and kicking back with Tamburrino hanging on to one leg for dear life. With only one-second remaining, he broke free, clear enough for the official to give Harkins an escape tying the score at 2-2. Tamburrino said after the match he believed Harkins could not take him down, but was unsure what Harkins would have for him on his feet. Tamburrino was the aggressor in sudden victory in overtime with a couple of takedown attempts, but could not complete one.
Both wrestlers managed to hold each other down in the first and second 30-second ride-outs, and Harkins had the choice in the ultimate ride out due to him scoring first in the bout. He chose bottom, forcing Tamburrino to ride-out the Malvern Prep star for another period in overtime. Tamburrino, who will serve our country at the US Naval Academy, was up to the task and completed the comeback win in this monster semifinal.
Surprisingly, no host school, CR South, wrestler will place in an ETR since its inception 15 years ago. Additionally, Robinson (#15 Flo) and Tamburrino (#18 Flo) are the only two to have escaped to the finals from the SOL.
CR North’s Luke Lucerne dropped a major decision to Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Ryan Crookham 17-6 in one 126lb semi-final and will have to wrestle back for a high medal. Crookham is ranked #2 in the nation by FloWrestling. The Indian’s Dillon Sheehy also dropped his semifinal match to a ND-Green Pond foe, Anthony Cerniglia 6-1.
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