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Once again Ridgway led the local charge with four state qualifiers, all of whom were regional finalists. Elkers Corey Bush (103) and Joe Chittester (285) book-ended the finals with wins, while in between teammate Garet Pisani captured his second straight regional crown. Elker Zack Zelcs dropped a tough overtime decision in the 171 finals.
Bush and Zelcs are both making their state debuts.
Coudersport's Dirk Cowburn won District 9's only other title, while Johnsonburg's Quinton O'Rourke (135), Redbank Valley's Trevor McCauley (130) and Brookville's Jacob Shields (189) all made the finals before losing. O'Rourke is Johnsonburg's first state qualifier since Keith Miller nearly a decade ago.
A total of 30 area wrestlers hit the mats in Sharon Friday and 16 won their quarterfinal bouts. Of those 16, seven reached the finals, guaranteeing themselves a trip to states. The consolation finals weren't as kind, however, as area wrestlers went 0-5 and missed a trip to states by one win. Smethport's Nate Schwab (103) was the lone D-9 wrestler to win in the consy finals as D-9 as a whole got just nine wrestlers to states.
Ridgway's four state qualifiers is two more than last year when only Pisani and Chittester made the trip.
Bush (33-3) opened the finals with a bang as he used a tilt to pin Harbor Creek's Tyler Pier (36-7) with seven seconds remaining in their match. Pier, who pinned Bush in last year's 103 consy final, jumped out to a 7-2 lead, thanks to a spladle for a five-point move in the second period.
Bush took down Pier to open the third and let him up to trail 8-4. Bush then notched another takedown and tilted Pier in the final 30 seconds for three backpoints to take a 9-8 lead. The Elker tilted Pier one last time and got the fall in 5:53 for his first regional title and first trip to states.
Bush opened with a 4-2 win over Lakeview's Landon Clayton, then beat Jamestown's Jonas Reaugh 3-0 in the semis.
Pisani (34-2) pinned his way to the finals, decking Harbor Creek's Kevin Nowakowski (1:22) and Saegertown's Tim Clark (1:20). In the finals, he met a familiar foe in O'Rourke, who Pisani beat 9-0 last week in the D-9 finals. Pisani dominated this matchup from the get-go, scoring a takedown and two back points in the opening period.
Pisani added another takedown in the second before the wrestlers traded reversals to give the Elker an 8-2 lead after two. Pisani reversed O'Rourke from the bottom in the third and rode him out en route to 10-2 victory.
Zelcs topped Commodore Perry's Matt Schiemer 7-0 in the quarters, then reached the finals with a 16-0 technical fall of Sharpsville's Phillip Bucher in 5:57 to set up a showdown with Sharon's Lewendo Teague. And the finals match didn't disappoint as Teague (41-1), ranked fourth in the state, and Zelcs (33-6), ranked sixth, needed overtime to decide things.
Teague appeared to be in control up 5-3 late in the third period, but Zelcs scored a takedown with two seconds remaining to force overtime. However, Teague got the takedown in the extra session to come away with the 7-5 victory.
Chittester, who had yet to win an opening match in Sharon during his career, did so with a 5-2 win over Cambridge Springs' Justin East Friday evening. The Elker then upended Greenville's Dillon Sarcinella 4-3 in the semis, forcing a second stalling call on Sarcinella for the win.
Once in the finals, Chittester (37-0) again wrestled a smart, controlled match against D-10 champ Greg Reinke (27-1) of Union City. Both wrestlers escaped from the bottom in the second and third periods, and Chittester held off a takedown attempt by Reinke near end of the third period to force overtime.
The match went to the two 30-second tiebreaker periods and Chittester held down Reinke, then escaped for the 2-1 victory.
Elkers Kyle Caggiano (125), D.J. Skraba (152) and Sam Skraba (160) each went 0-2 on the weekend. Sam Skraba needed one win to reach 100 for his career and fell short of the milestone.
"What a great weekend," said Ridgway coach Gary Gerber. "I'm so pleased with the effort we got from every kid we brought down here. We've wrestled a hard schedule this year, and they still all gave 100 percent.
"Corey Bush wrestled a tremendous match and never gave up. That's why you wrestle six minutes and once he got going, he really scored. And Garet did what Garet always does, give a great effort and do his job.
"I thought Chittester wrestled a very intelligent match there in the finals and did a great job, and Zack Zelcs also wrestled a great match, getting that late takedown to force overtime.
Redbank Valley brought five wrestlers to Sharon, but McCauley was the lone Bulldog to make it out. McCauley, making his first trip to Hershey, reached the 130 finals by beating Fort LeBoeuf's Kody Pace 7-4 and Northwestern's David Osterberg 6-0.
McCauley (39-3) ran into Reynolds freshman Austin Matthews (41-6) in the finals and the Raider proved to be too much to handle. Matthews scored a takedown in the first, three backpoints in the second and then reversed McCauley and put him on his back for three more backpoints in the third for the 10-0 victory.
Twin brother Tyler McCauley (34-8) beat Maplewood's Matt Graff 3-2 in his opening bout, but dropped his next two, including a tough 4-3 decision to Cochranton's Matt Bryer in the consy semifinals.
Bulldog freshman Brandon Bailey (140) opened the tourney with an impressive 6-4 over LeBoeuf's David Church (29-6), who was ranked ninth in the state. However, Bailey was injured in a semifinal loss and had to default out of the tournament.
Bulldogs Nick Schrecengost (112) and Braden Bowser (215) each went 0-2.
Shields (10-1) was Brookville's lone regional qualifier to win a match. He pinned Lakeview's Tyler Lewis in 3:53 in Friday's quarterfinals, then escaped in the second 30-second tiebreaker period in the semifinals to edge Northwestern's Jared Merritt, 2-1, to earn his first trip to states. Shields was fourth last year at regionals.
Once in the finals, the Raider ran into Commodore Perry's Steve Ceremuga (38-0), who is ranked second in the state. Ceremuga took down Shields five times between the first and second periods to build a 10-4 lead. Ceremuga escaped from the bottom in the third before Shields notched a late takedown.
However, it wasn't enough as Ceremuga held for the win, the 100th of his career.
Raiders Trey Constable (103), Brett Smith (119) and Jacob Cieleski (171) all went 0-2 on the weekend.
Brockway's Ian Grecco (34-5) just missed a trip to Hershey as he dropped a heartbreaking 4-2 triple overtime decision to North East's Levi Morton in the 130 consolation finals.
Grecco opened the tournament with a 5-0 win over Morton and used a reversal with 25 seconds left in his consolation semifinal bout to knock off Johnsonburg's Max Zimmerman 2-1. However, Morton outlasted Grecco in their rematch and reversed the Rover in the second 30-second double OT period to pull out the win.
Rover juniors Nathan Hartless (152) and Joel Yahner (215), D-9 champs at their weights, each won their opening bouts but then dropped two in a row. Hartless ended the year 36-10, while Yahner was 35-7.
Brockway's Trevor Hartless (140) and Zach Brinkley (171) each went 0-2.
O'Rourke (29-6) made a strong run in the top half at 135 to give Johnsonburg a finalist. The Ram upended Reynolds' Cam Cianci 7-1 in the quarters, then knocked off Fort LeBoeuf's Riley Smith (26-12) 8-2 in the semifinals. Smith entered regionals ranked 15th in the state.
Ram Jesse Wolfe went 2-2 on the weekend and came up a win short of states as he fell 3-1 in the 119 consolation finals to Saegertown's Sean Byham. Wolfe beat Byham 4-2 in Friday's quarterfinals on a reversal late in the third period. Zimmerman went 1-2 on the weekend.
Curwensville's Jake Keller and Derek Brothers, the D-9 champs at 119 and 125 respectively, each won close quarterfinal bouts Friday, but had rough days Saturday.
Jake Keller (15-4) beat Grove City's Ian Abplanalp 4-2 Friday, but then dropped two, two-point decisions to end up 1-2 on the weekend.
Brothers, a two-time regional champ, fell short in his attempt to become a four-time state qualifier. He opened with a hard-fought 8-6 win over Cochranton's Matt Bryer. However, a stalling point in the third period in Saturday's semis cost Brothers, who fell to Iroquois' Dylan Simmer, 2-1.
Brothers, Curwensville's all-time wins leader with 131, bounced back with a 7-0 win over Maplewood's Matt Graff, but Bryer got some revenge as he used a reversal just before the second-period buzzer in the consolation finals to upend Brothers, 2-1.
Clarion had three wrestlers in Sharon and Bobcats Dylan Reinsel (135) and Danny Walters (160) each went 2-2, just missing trips to Hershey after losing in their respective consolation finals. Bobcat Alex Gunter went 1-2 on the weekend.
Hunter Bardo was Cameron County's lone representative in Sharon, and the Red Raider went 1-2 to end his season with a 25-9 record.
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Reported by Chris Wechtenhiser, Tri-County Sunday Assistant Sports Editor. E-mail: chrisw@thecourierexpress.com
