HERSHEY — After the first day of competition at the PIAA Class AA Wrestling Championships, Oswayo Valley’s Dylan Pesock and Port Allegany’s Jake Kallenborn still have a shot at mining Pennsylvania gold in Hershey, with the Coudersport duo of Julian Smith and Eli Ayers alive in the wrestlebacks.
Kallenborn (37-1), the Northwest Regional 160-pound champion, started his tournament run by opening up a 7-1 third-period lead over Burrell senior Shaun Gates (39-12) before securing the fall at the 5:58 mark.
“That’s the goal on Thursday: Win your first match and you’re done,” Port coach B.J. Greenman said. “And then we’ve just gotta win one more tomorrow morning, and we’re done until Friday night (semifinals). That’s the goal; that’s what we’re looking to do. Get to the semis and then go from there.”
While the Gators haven’t faced the Buccaneers, a District 7 (WPIAL) team from the Pittsburgh suburbs, on the varsity level in recent years, Kallenborn and Gates had seen each other before. Several Burrell wrestlers make the trip north to Port each June for the Bruno Iorfido Wrestling Camp co-founded by Gator alumnus Isaac Greeley, who’s now a Bucs assistant coach.
“That’s one of the things we talked about as coaches,” Greenman admitted. “We said, ‘That’s kind of scary, because we know how well they’re coached, and we know how well they know our kids from the camp. I know Josh (Shields, the Burrell head coach) knows Jake really well; hopefully he can perform well and still win.’ He did, so it was good to see.”
Kallenborn’s quarterfinal opponent will be the third seed from the Northeast, Nate Bradley (Athens, sr., 33-7), with a semifinal matchup against either unbeaten Southwest No. 1 seed Jared McGill (Chestnut Ridge, jr., 43-0) or defending state champ Creighton Edsell (Wyalusing, sr., 41-1) awaiting the winner.
The other local quarterfinalist, Pesock (30-7) was the first Allegheny Mountain League grappler to earn a berth in Friday morning’s quarterfinal round, scoring an 8-7 tiebreaker win over Southeast No. 2 seed John Consorti (Wilson, sr., 23-7), in the 113-pound bracket. Tied at 5-5 going into overtime, the Green Wave senior gave up a reversal in the first tiebreaker round, but countered with an escape and a takedown, then rode out his opponent to secure the win.
Southwest Region champion Josh Boozel (Mount Union, sr., 35-3), Pesock’s next opponent, was the state runner-up at 106 pounds last year before moving up to 113. The winner of their quarterfinal will draw either the Northeast Region champ, Montoursville senior Wyatt Lutz (37-2), or Curwensville junior Blake Passarelli (29-5), who finished second at regionals last weekend after claiming the District 9 title.
The McClain twins from Ridgway, 138-pound Lukas (33-5) and 145-pound Logen (34-8), each eked out a one-point decision to advance to the quarterfinals.
Ayers (32-9) finished off his opponent in the 182-pound preliminary round before the first period was over, tilting Panther Valley junior Derrick Beckham twice before pinning him in 1:38. An 8-1 loss in the next round to Southwest No. 1 seed Jonathan Vargo (Bentworth, jr., 31-6) sent the Coudy junior into Friday morning’s second-round consis, where he was scheduled to face Hunter O’Connor (Jersey Shore, jr., 32-8), the second seed out of the Northeast.
“I was actually getting tired watching Eli pace back and forth before his first match. That was a great icebreaker for him to be able to go out and kid of dominate that kid, not just on his feet, but every time that kid tried to fight off his back, Eli had an answer for it. He broke a kid for the second weekend in a row,” Falcons coach John Bishel said. “He’s pretty strong. Maybe he doesn’t look it, but he’s a lot stronger than he looks.”
Smith (31-7) fell to Southwest No. 2 seed Derek Yingling (36-1) by a 4-2 score in the first round, with the West Branch junior notching the takedown in sudden-victory overtime to advance, but rebounded with a 3-1 decision over Boiling Springs senior Zach Martin (34-19) in another down-to-the-wire finish, earning the only takedown of the match with 0:13 left in the final period. He’ll face Southeast No. 4 seed Austin Watkins (Susquehanna Twp., sr., 29-9) in the next round of the 160-pound consolation bracket.
“Julian, we have what we have with him. They’re always going to be tight matches. That was a heartbreaker to lose that first one in overtime,” Bishel said, then added with a smile, “He’s been a fun kid to coach and watch, but I think he’s contributed to some gray hairs, too. In a good way.”
One other AML wrestler, 152-pound Kane junior Alec English (35-3), still has a chance to medal out of the consis. Smethport 106-pound sophomore Bryent Johnson (22-5) and 132-pound Bradford senior Tyler Thompson (31-9) each dropped his first two matches to conclude the 2017-18 season.
The Class AA tournament resumes with this morning’s quarterfinals at 9 a.m. at the Giant Center, followed by second- and third-round consis. The semifinals are slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, the “Parade of Champions” will begin at 1:45 p.m., followed by medal-round matches at 2.