SOL Wrestlers Excel on Day 1 of Wetzel Classic (By Glenn Kaiser)

 

Wetzel Classic @ Hatboro-Horsham

Day 1 Results

 

By Glenn Kaiser

 

Day one results at the 20th Annual Wetzel Holiday Wrestling Classic are in, and the tourney kicked off with a reduced field due to late withdrawls from teams dealing with COVID concerns.  Nonetheless, 24-teams put wrestlers out on the mats, and many local SOL grapplers have advanced to the semifinals.  There were also close to 70 individual scratches prior to weigh-ins, but the show must go on.

 

At 106-pounds, there is a possible rematch between #1 seeded Kyle Von Schmidt (Pennsbury) and #2-seed Ryan Allgeier (Hatboro-Horsham) if they can both win their semifinal bouts.  Von Schmidt decked Allgeier in an earlier dual this season.  Von Schmidt will face CB West’s Patirck Kelly in his semi bout.  Semifinalists at 113 include CB West’s Teague McCormack, who advanced with two falls, and Pennsbury’s John Luchansky.  McCormack was a Wetzel champ in 2019 at 106.

 

Pennsbury makes it three in a row with Quentin Kervick advancing to the semis at 120-pounds along with Truman’s Dustin Marion.  Marion will take on #1 seed Victor Quiniliana (Interboro). 

At 126-pounds, Upper Dublin’s Colin Higgins with battle #1 seed Nate Shippey in his semifinal bout.  Shippey placed 8th last year in Hershey.

 

Hatboro-Horsham 132-pounder Chris Staub pinned his way to the semis with a fall over Father Judge’s Robert Baker with a tight bar-half combo.  Upper Dublin’s Danny Gorman will grapple Neshaminy’s Calvin Lederer in the other semi at 132.

 

At 138-pounds Pennsbury’s Zack Mongiello will wrestle Lower Moreland’s Thomas Mavroudis in the lower half of the bracket semi.  Mavroudis upset Kevin Cush (Neshaminy) by fall after trailing initially in the first period.  Pennsbury’s Mason Grodzki heads to the semis at 145-pounds with back-to-back pins.  152 will feature Lower Moreland’s Dereck Morenko in one semi versus Neshaminy’s Dan Hansbury.

 

Two SOL wrestlers advanced to the semis at 160 with Upper Dublin’s Elias Abebe and #2 seed Andrew Pokalsky (Neshaminy) in separate brackets.  Truman sends Terelle Dorceus, who had an 18-second fall in his first match, to the semis at 172-pounds along with Tennent’s Nolan Citaldi.   Dorceus will have his hands full with Dom D’Agostino (Interboro), D’Agostino is currently ranked #2 in the state by PA Power Rankings and finished 6th at states last season in his match.

 

Upper weight semifinalists include John Mellor (Truman) and Cade Gabbett (Upper Dublin) at 189, #1 (PA Power) in the state Carl DiGirgio (CB West) & UD’s Riley Hackett at 215 and Pennsbury’s Caleb Rodriquez at heavyweight.

 

Pennsbury is running away with the team title with 105 points and will be tough to be passed by any other team.  Neshaminy stands in second (79.5 pts.) in the team scoring, and Upper Dublin is in fifth (61.5pts.).  Brackets and team scores can be viewed on TRACK Wrestling.

 

 

 

 

 

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