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PENNRIDGE CAPTURES 2023 DISTRICT ONE TEAM TITLE
Council Rock South & Quakertown Advance
by Glenn Kaiser
Fort Washington, PA - Pennridge is back on top after being crowned the 2023 District One Team Champions at Upper Dublin H.S., going 3-0 on the day, downing Spring-Ford 36-22 in the championship final. The last time Pennridge was in the D1 dual championship final was in 2004 when the Rams finished second to a powerful Upper Perkiomen team. That same year the Rams also
finished just behind Upper Perk in the SE Region team race in second-place. Pennridge leads the way for the SOL and D1 to Hershey for this coming weekend’s 2023 PIAA (AAA) Team Championship bracket along with Council Rock South and Quakertown. Three SOL teams advanced along with the lone PAC team Spring-Ford.
Pennridge opened the day with SOL rival Quakertown in the quarter-inals and won a hard fought dual 38-22 to advance to the semifinals against Sun Valley. Pennridge took out the #2-seeded Vanguards rather handily with a 39-18 victory to punch their ticket to the Giant Center in the 20-team AAA bracket. Surprisingly, it was Spring-Ford as their opponent in championship match. S-F advanced after downing PAC rival Owen J Roberts 36-31 after they upset the top seeded Golden Hawks from Council Rock South 36-30 in the quarters.
The Rams were led by Colby Martinelli (107-pounds), Sam Kuhns (139) and Talan Hogan (172) who all went 3-0 on the day with plenty of bonus points. Martinelli had two pins and a big win over Spring-Ford’s Gus Smith 4-2 in the finals. Kuhns notched two falls and a tech fall in the finals, while Hogan posted a major decision (in the finals), a tech fall and a pin during the Rams workmanlike effort throughout the day in UD’s gym. Tremendous efforts were the theme of the day for Pennridge, as they were very business-like, winning their first D1 dual championship, as the team enjoyed the championship run.
Council Rock South rebounded after their disappointing loss in the quarters to OJR, and put together a run of their own in the consolation bracket to secure their spot in the state bracket. South defeated Quakertown in the third-place bout 40-21 after some fireworks at 160-pounds. Colin Gaj, who has been on fire in the new year winning an Escape the Rock title belt, moved up weight classes for the Panthers in these duals and met up at 160-pounds with the rugged Bek Sadriddinov, who has also been grappling well for the Golden Hawks all season. Gaj was victorious over Sadriddinov with a hard-fought sudden victory win in overtime 6-1. Efforts like Gaj’s was evident all day
for the Panthers as they were able to come back from their morning loss to Pennridge. Both Rock South and Q-town won back-to-back matches in the consi-bracket. Quakertown dominated OJR in their consolation semifinal match 51-19 after disposing of Perk Valley 43-24.
The Golden Hawks had a little tougher road after dropping down, as they edged Boyertown 31-27 and took down the two-seed Sun Valley 33-27 with Connor Lenahan (107), Luke Reitter (114) and freshman Pat Woloshyn (121) closing out the Vanguards with three-straight wins in a vicious battle (the match started at 133-pounds). Woloshyn was outstanding against Boyertown nailing down the team win in the final match of that one with South holding just a 1-point lead 28-27 after Lenahan and Reitter were victorious. There were four lead changes during the match. Woloshyn was fabulous, winning 8-2 over Boyertown’s 2022 state qualifier Luke Heimbach to propel the Golden Hawks to the consi-semis.
True indicators of how important matchups are in dual meets were OJR handing CRS a loss in the quarters and Quakertown eliminating OJR easily 51-19 in the consi-semis. In the consolation final, despite Gaj’s big win, Quakertown did not match-up well with the Golden Hawks in their 40-21 defeat.
Pennridge advances straight to Hershey for first-round action Thursday and will await the winner of a preliminary match between District 8’s #1 team Allderdice and District 7’s #3 team Hempfield Area Monday night. Pennridge sits atop the AAA bracket. Council Rock South, on the other hand, will need a home gym win over Wilson from District 3 Monday, Wilson is the #4 team form D3. Quakertown will have to travel all the way to Chambersburg Monday to face-off with D3’s third-place team. South has a rough road ahead should they advance to Hershey for the rugged three-day event, as they would tangle with mighty Bethlehem Catholic from D11 in a first-round dual. Q-town would match-up with Cannon Mac the D7 champ if they get by Chambersburg.
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