Philipsburg-Osceola, Bellefonte wrestling fall at District 6 Team Dual Championships

Philipsburg-Osceola and Bellefonte left the District 6 Class AAA Team Dual Wrestling Championships in differing spirits on Saturday.

Both teams lost their respective semifinal matches. The Mounties (8-7) fell 46-25 to Central Mountain (11-0), and the Red Raiders (11-6) stumbled against Mifflin County (15-4), going down 51-19. The Huskies wen ton to take the District 6 title 39-16 over the Wildcats to earn a berth at Hershey’s Giant Center in the PIAA Championship meet starting Thursday.

But P-O exited the Tyrone High School gym with a sense of self-belief, while Bellefonte’s performance left much to be desired.

“We can stay with these guys,” P-O coach Tim McCamley said. “That’s what we proved with this team. We don’t have a great record, but we have some really great kids, and we’re capable of staying with any of these teams.”

“We didn’t show up today,” Bellefonte coach Mike Maney lamented. “We left the intensity back in Bellefonte.”

On paper, the showings weren’t too different, as the Mounties won five of 14 bouts, and Bellefonte took four of 14. But it was how both teams started their respective matches that created the disparity.

P-O started its morning against the undefeated Wildcats with Nick Patrick earning a 10-2 major decision over Brandon Miller at 160 pounds.

McCamley was impressed with Patrick’s feat, considering his recent health.

“Nick is as steady as you get,” the coach said. “He’s banged up right now, but no one will know it.”

P-O lost the next seven bouts, but kept things close at 220 and 285 pounds. Micah Sidorick (220) fell to Hunter Weaver in a 3-2 decision, and Central Mountain’s Bryce Bitner (285) barely held off Jordan Smith in a 1-0 decision.

Meanwhile, Bellefonte struggled from the start, dropping its first six bouts. The Red Raiders were pinned three times, lost by decision twice, and forfeited at 195 pounds.

Maney wasn’t pleased.

“When you come to wrestle a team like Mifflin County, you need to be hitting on all cylinders,” the coach said. “They got some momentum going, wrestled with a lot of intensity, and early on we weren’t able to match it. When they get that momentum going, it’s hard to keep up.”

As Bellefonte tried to gain its footing, P-O finished strong. The Mounties won four of the last six bouts, including two pins and a decision in arguably the match of the day.

P-O’s Bryce Bennett pinned Logan Long in 37 seconds at 132 pounds, and Dakota Weitoish pinned the Wildcats’ Austyn Carson at 145 pounds, sandwiching Levi Hughes’ dramatic win at 138 pounds.

Hughes faced Central Mountain’s Colton Weaver, an opponent he knew well. The P-O junior was defeated 1-0 by Weaver in December’s Conestoga Valley Holiday Classic.

Hughes had revenge on his mind, scoring a takedown in the waning seconds of the first period to snag a 2-0 lead. He stayed ahead 2-1 after two, and scored an escape point to start the third, only to have Weaver knot the bout at three with a late takedown.

With 14 seconds remaining, Hughes looked over to his coach.

“All you got, right now,” Hughes said he heard.

He responded, scoring an escape point with one second to spare and earning a 4-3 decision.

“I knew what I had to do to make it happen,” Hughes said. “I practice hard every day leading up to moments like this. ... It always makes it so much sweeter to come back like that.”

It was the highlight of P-O’s day, and while the Mounties fell by 21 points to Central Mountain, McCamley has positives to build on.

The Red Raiders, on the other hand, have room to improve, according to their coach.

“I don’t know if it was showing too much respect or being too timid or what, but it definitely gives us stuff to work on,” Maney said. “You can’t start out slow like that. ... You can’t afford any type of letdown.”

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Philipsburg-Osceola, Bellefonte wrestling fall at District 6 Team Dual Championships."