Photo courtesy of Kim Supko. Check back for photos of the PW/Penn Wood match.
HOLIDAYS FAST APPROACHING, AND
SOL WRESTLERS GEARING UP FOR THE NEW YEAR
by Glenn Kaiser
Area wrestling teams hailing from the SOL are in full swing here in December as the holiday season is upon us. Major tournaments are on the horizon as a few have come and gone all ready. Santa will be delivering a 2-pound allowance to PIAA wrestlers on Christmas Day, which should indicate where some big names plan to drop to. The weight-class drops early with this allowance are good indicators, but not always the best barometer until we get to February, when weight decent plans tighten up and lock wrestlers down to a specific weight-class. Additionally, elite teams start navigating the PIAA Team Championships as well to fill-out their best potential line-up. Nonetheless, it should be a fun run here through the New Year.
Both Council Rock North and South will make the trek down I95 to the University of Delaware to compete in the Beast of the East, one of America’s best scholastic wrestling tournaments. While others take a break before the 23rd Wetzel Classic hosted by Hatboro-Horsham, some will venture to dual tourneys. The Madden Classic at Pottsgrove will feature Cheltenham, Neshaminy, Upper Dublin, Upper Moreland and Wissahickon this coming weekend. Tennent will grapple at the annual Travis Manion Memorial Duals at LaSalle College High School, and North Penn will keep building with new head coach Jim Swiggard at the Lower Merion Quad. Tonight, Quakertown and Pennridge continue on with their neighborhood dual rival at the ‘Ridge. This should be a good one. Council Rock North has no plans on slowing down with their schedule, as they wrestle national power Wyoming Seminary Thursday before the Beast of a weekend.
This past weekend Hatboro-Horsham’s Dominick Morrison won his second Panther Holiday Classic title, this time at 121-pounds knocking off some big names on the way to a crazy 7-6 win over Hickory’s Elijah Scriven. Teammate Ryan Allgeier was fifth at 139-pounds as he continues to wrestle well in the early stages of his senior campaign looking for 100 career wins (he currently holds 87 wins after the weekend).
Council Rock South looked like the Golden Hawks usually do this time of year with a solid fourth place (135-points) team finish at Cumberland Valley, in the newly named and sponsored PennStro Leasing Kick-Off Classic. South was led by 172-pound champion Gavin Cole and runner-up Anthony Mutarelli at 139. Bishop McDevitt appears to be the real deal, as BM’s Camden Baum downed Mutarelli 3-1 as they ran away with the team title posting 234.5 points. Jeff Gessner looks good up at 285 with a third place finish. Ben Brillhart finished fourth, dropping a close 6-5 decision to Sun Valley’s Hunter Delaney. I have a feeling they will meet again with a different result. Pat Woloshyn was fifth for the Golden Hawks at 145 which was clearly the most stacked weight class around anywhere with Tahir Parkins (Nazareth) and McKadden Speece (Wilson-West Lawn) to round out the scoring for CRS.
Pennsbury’s Walker Murray garnered silver at 215-pounds as the Falcons look good early on. Kyle Von Schmidt looks ready to go at 127-pounds with a fifth place finish. Pennsbury (13th) finished right behind the Pennridge Rams (12th) here in the team race. The Rams are struggling a bit at the moment without Quinn McBride in the line-up, but Colby Martinelli hung tough with a bronze performance at 127, downing Luke Magnani (Boiling Springs) 14-love. The Rams have hammers down low with Jake Ramos (107) fourth and Kevin McFadden (114) fifth, joining Martinelli and the start of the middle weights with McBride.
In dual action last week Plymouth-Whitemarsh won over North Penn in a very even match that came down to the last bout at 152-pounds which resulted in the 36-30 victory with Nicholas Nedd’s 7-2 decision. Man of the match though was Jacob Plant with a tech-fall at 133-pounds that brought the Colonials back after being down 22-24. Additionaly, Joe Bussell was patient in garnering a pin-fall at 145lbs. for P-W to help with the team victory. This entire dual can be viewed on www.pa-wrestling.com
Central Bucks West is the real deal, as they won the Carlisle Classic, amassing 162.5 points and finishing just ahead of Garnet Valley (158 pts), another District One team. The Bucks crowned three-champs with the Dennis brothers at 139 and 160-pounds and surprise Kevin Mallon. Super-frosh Daniel won at 139-pounds and big bro up at 160-pounds won by Tech Fall in the finals over Boiling Springs, Nicholas Sanders 17-zip in 3:03. Mallon was the king at 152lbs, cementing a solid middle weight-class for CB West, with Patrick Kelly as the runner-up at 145-pounds, the Bucks look to make some noise.
Sister school to West is Central Bucks East. The CB East Patriots crowned two-champs with hammers Chase Williams at 107 and Sam Hunter up at 127-pounds at the Carlisle Classic. Keep your eyes on these two this season…
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