CHANGING OF THE GUARD
The subtle changes to the Suburban One League Conferences this wrestling season have created a shift in power and possibly a changing of the guard in two conferences. It has also displayed parity throughout the entire SOL. In the Continental, the North Penn Knights have obviously separated themselves from traditional power Pennridge, as NP was crowned league champs a year ago, and look to repeat as dual champs of the conference. But it will be Souderton this time that will battle the Knights for league supremacy Wednesday night, prior to the District One Duals’ Round One on Thursday.
The Indians will take a perfect 3-0 SOL Continental record into the Knights’ castle on North Penn’s Senior Night. Souderton, 8-5 overall, has just recently jumped into the conversation after a huge win over Pennridge (36-34). The Rams could not match up with Souderton’s top guns, and did not have enough firepower to defeat the Indians. Head Coach Tristan Boyd has to be feeling extremely proud of where he has the Souderton wrestling program this season; after years of hard work, it appears they are the Souderton of old. Souderton added solid wins over Neshaminy , Wissahickon, and Pennsbury as well over the past eight days. Souderton will be in the mix once the District Duals seeds are released today.
In the Pennridge match, Bruno Stolfi, one of the Stolfi band of brothers for Souderton, saved team points holding Josh Stilllings (Pennridge) to just a major decision (14-0) at 160 pounds in the first bout of the dual. Jake Phaup followed up at 170 with a huge fall and bonus points for the Indians over the Rams’ David Blanchard to put the Indians out to an early lead. And after string of wins by Pennridge, including two forfeits by the Indians, Harrison Andrade led the way with three straight pin falls for the Indians. Andrade decked Dylan Haughey at 126-pounds, followed by Brandon Bach’s first period fall over Teddy Zielinski at 132, and then Conner Trowbridge quickly dismissed Arjun Kempe at 138 in 16 seconds to complete the trio of falls. Troy Mokluk completed the scoring for Souderton with a solid 7-3 win over Brandon Lindquist at 145.
The Rams were without Evan Widing for the match, but this time of year team’s rosters are affected by the grueling schedules and multiple dual meet tourneys and individual events. As evidenced by Council Rock South’s recent rash of injuries and other teams’ bumps and bruises, it is often a team’s reserves that answer the call to duty to assure a team’s dual meet success. Hopefully, individuals and team’s have time to heal up and rejuvenate for the long postseason haul of both the team championships and individual championships starting this coming week.
In the American Conference, Quakertown (4-0 in conference), one of two newcomers to the conference, has a grip on first place in the team standings, and only a showdown with Wissahickon remains to decide an outright title for them after Plymouth Whitemarsh held off the Wrestling Warriors from Hatboro-Horsham 36-30 and downed Wissahickon 41-20 in a tri-meet Saturday. The parity in this conference is evident, as Wissahickon narrowly defeated H-H Wednesday night 36-30 and has been hanging around at the top of the standings with a 3-1 record (7-6 overall). Brian Fennell (195) has led the way with a 13-3 record for the Trojans. He bumped up to 220 versus PW and downed Nick Sudell by pin fall to get the Trojans back into their match at 24-14, but it wasn’t enough as the Colonials’ lightweights sealed the deal, winning three of the last contested bouts to thwart the Trojans. Marco DiBittista (120) and Justin Oliver (126) decked their opponents against Wissahickon, as they did earlier against H-H for big bonus points in both duals.
H-H and P-W battled neck and neck with the teams deadlocked four times in the team score at 15-15, 18-18, 24-24, and 30-30 with one bout remaining. Justin Oliver locked up the win for the Colonials with a pin fall at 120-pounds over Sam Negron (H-H), who bumped up for the Warriors to give H-H a chance. Oliver was impressive on the day with two falls to anchor the Colonials. Other highlights of the match featured two overtime victories for H-H as Davis Wheeler came out with a 4-2 tie breaker victory over Zach Wakefield at 160-pounds, and Jalen Edwards won 4-2 in sudden victory with a takedown over the Colonials’ Tommy DiSisto, who came into the match with a gaudy 18-1 record.
In the National Conference, a lot remains undecided as many conference matches must take place; however, CR South remains the team to beat there. Neshaminy stands at 3-0 but must get by both Rock schools over the next two weeks. A few SOL teams have entered the duals, and the bracket will be released later this evening.
CR South will certainly be a top four seed, and Souderton may very well be a top 10 seed. Neshaminy, Pennsbury and William Tennent will be the other teams entering the duals. CR North, North Penn, Quakertown, and Pennridge have all opted out of entering the D1 Team Championships. Just a quick thought here, why is it that in wrestling teams can choose to not participate in playoffs? All other District I playoffs are designated and seeded by the District. It would only make sense for the committee to create the bracket comprised of the top 16 teams period. Well, just my opinion…the way it works in wrestling in the District One Team Championships is that teams request consideration for the dual championship event, and then teams are seeded and placed in the bracket after the committee ranks those team who have entered.
This team tournament has seen many changes over the years with the current 16-team inclusion this season down from the 24-team bracket just a few years ago. Before the expansion to 24 teams, the event was a 16-team tourney. Some would suggest it is still a bit inflated and watered down in competition and would like to see an eight-team bracket to decide the top four teams from D1 to advance to the PIAA (AAA) Team Championships. I for one am from the other school that would like it to go back up to a 24-team event to allow teams and individuals to get on the big stage and increase their level of competition in preparation for the individual postseason. A lot of prestige and importance has been placed on dual meets, and this championship if expanded would only contribute to the growth of the sport with higher-level dual meets and a championship atmosphere.
I know, I know…what about the grind, the wear and tear, and the possibility of injury and weight issues for the wrestlers? It is simple: if you want to win a PIAA Team Championship, then that’s the deal, a three-week ride with a lot of bumps and bruises with glory to be gained. And so it is, that is why teams get to make the choice, and for those that are worthy, enter to obtain greatness.
In other Action: Central Bucks East upped their record to 7-5 overall (2-2 SOL Continental) with three wins at the Buckley Duals at the Haverford School. The Patriots downed Gemantown Academy 46-27, Southern Lehigh 51-21 and the Hill School 42-36. CB East came up short in their quest to win the team title, dropping a 48-27 dual to a rugged JP McCaskey team from Lancaster in Round 4 at Haverford. Neshaminy downed Pennsbury in league action on Alumni/Pink Out Night 42-32 Wednesday. Tennent beat CB South in the Continental 39-27 to up their record to 4-4. And P-W won three league duals this week, adding a win over Upper Dublin Wednesday 46-24 to go with their two Saturday victories noted above to improve to 6-4/SOL 3-1.
SOL TEAM DUAL RANKINGS
1-Council Rock South 7-0/SOL 2-0
2-North Penn 10-6/SOL 3-0
3-Souderton 8-5/SOL 3-0
T4-Council Rock North 9-4/SOL 2-1
T4-Pennridge 5-3/SOL 2-2
5-Quakertown 6-4/SOL 4-0
Teams to Watch: Plymouth-Whitmarsh 6-4, CB East 7-5, Wissahickon 7-6, William Tennent 4-4
Stay tuned for D1 Team Championship seeding and Individual Rankings later today...see you on the mats.
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