State College wrestling moves on in PIAA Class 3A dual championships
It’s been 25 years since State College’s wrestling team made the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals of the dual championships.
The Little Lions made it to the state finals that season — losing to Easton.
More than two decades later, State College will make a return trip to the quarterfinals after topping Selinsgrove, 45-24, on Tuesday night inside Selinsgrove’s gym.
“We’ve got a really good group of kids that aren’t afraid to work hard. They’re not afraid to step it out on the mat and compete. The biggest factor is just to get them to believe in themselves — that’s tough with a young group,” said Little Lions coach Jason Nickal, who is in just his second year as head coach. “Everybody’s pulling for one another right now. We’ve got good energy and good momentum going.”
Nickal said his team had nine new starters in a 13-man lineup to start the year, but the dual began with a returning starter.
Noah Young flattened Colton Kratzer in 1:26 to start the dual at 114 pounds. Young’s little brother, Luke, followed with a 17-2 technical fall Anthony Snook in 2:09.
State College kept rolling in the bonus points as Kael Davis needed just 36 seconds to pin the Seals’ Tyrese Bey. Jon Whitbred amassed an 18-0 technical fall of Gavin Rebuck in 3:34 to give the Little Lions a 22-0 lead.
“It was a really good weight for us to start out at 114 with Noah Young. He’s been solid all year long. We got constant momentum going with Luke, Kael, and Jon Whitbred, it was just like, bam, bam, bam, bam,” Nickal said. “We jumped out to a big lead, and had a lot of momentum going our way.”
The momentum got stopped for a little bit as Selinsgrove strung together back-to-back wins to get within, 22-9.
However, Penn State commit James Whitbred ended that momentum for the Seals by rattling off a 21-5 technical fall of Gabe Paradis in 3:42 at 152 pounds. Selinsgrove got a pin in the next bout to make the score 27-15 — the closest it would be the rest of the night.
State College got back-to-back pins from Teag Sanderson and Noah Williams to seal the dual with two bouts left. Sanderson earned his victory the fastest with a pin in 53 seconds. Williams wasn’t too far behind with his fall coming in 1:11.
The Little Lions forfeited at 285 pounds, but saw Camden Fletcher stick Landen Messimer in 48 seconds to put the exclamation point on the victory.
State College faces Franklin Regional in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Friday night inside 1st Summit Arena in Johnstown.
“We’re not exactly where we want to be, but this is one step closer. Let’s get ourselves prepared for a big dual against Franklin Regional,” Nickal said of his message to his team after the win. “They’re a tough opponent. Every matchup from here on out is going to be extremely tough.”
Penns Valley ousted
Penns Valley had a tremendous regular season, going undefeated for the first time in 60 years.
On Tuesday night, the Rams suffered their second loss of the season, 44-26, to Derry in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A dual championships. Their two losses came to teams ranked top five in the state.
“(Bishop) McCort is McCort, everybody knows them now, not just the state but the country. Derry has a very solid team as well. We’re very familiar with them from several tournaments we’re in with them,” Penns Valley coach Joel Brinker said. “That’s a good thing, we’re losing to high quality, caliber teams. That’s what we want to face and see. Credit to them and wish them the best moving forward.”
After seeing their first wrestler get pinned at 114 pounds to open the match, the Rams won the next four bouts — all with bonus points.
Evan Lisowski needed just 34 seconds to dispatch Matthew Fernell. Conner Myers collected a 15-0 technical fall of Rocco DeCario in 5:44.
Erik Carlile, who was fresh off his 100th career win, received a forfeit at 133 pounds. Tripp Watson pinned Camden Olson in 4:50 to give Penns Valley a 23-6 lead.
The Trojans won the next three bouts to get within 23-22 with five bouts left. They then won three more to collect six consecutive bouts with bonus points to seal the dual with two bouts left.
The Rams’ Robert Martin, who was giving up a significant weight difference, used a nice counter takedown of Justin Papuga in a 4-1 victory at 285 pound for the final win of the dual for Penns Valley.
The Rams will now shift their focus toward the individual postseason, which gets started Feb. 13 in Altoona for the District 6 Class 2A Championships.
“We’re going into the individual portion of the season, so to speak, but it takes a team to make the individuals. They’re all excited that the postseason is here,” Brinker said. “They can chase their individual goals, and support each other in their quest to go as far as each can go. I think we can have a pretty solid (individual) postseason as well.”
