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WRESTLING ‘MAT-TERS’: Record falls, duals and more – And is girls’ wrestling on its way in?

You can always count on Joe Walker.

Last week, I listed several Lock Haven High School records, but did not have the details for Bald Eagle Nittany, Sugar Valley, Bucktail or Central Mountain.

I suggested that Joe would have many of these, and he came through.

FASTEST FALL RECORDS:

r Bald Eagle Nittany:  Mike Moore :07 in 1989-90 season.

r Central Mountain: Andrew Alton :06 in 2009-10 season.

MOST CAREER FALLS:

Central Mountain: 122 – Andrew Alton (2007-10); 101 – Dylan Alton (2007-10); 95 – Zach Corl (2008-11).

Bald Eagle Nittany: 88 – Terry Williams (1977-80); 74 – Scott Bair (1992-96); 70 – Biff Walizer  (1991-94).

Trap McCormack has 64 falls for Sugar Valley/BEN and Shawn Weaver had 63 falls for Sugar Valley/BEN.

Both gradudated from BEN in 1997.

Moore is the current head coach at Hollidaysburg. McCormack is top assistant at Council Rock South.

Walizer, of course, is the coach at Central Mountain.

Sugar Valley Rural Charter School has gone under the radar, but I have kept an eye on their results. The Valley has been struggling (as any small school does) with numbers and subsequent wins. They have wrestled a couple of common opponents of Central Mountain, having been defeated by Jersey Shore and Shamokin.

The Phoenix are affiliated with District 4 and their team leaders are Colden Geisewite, Chandler Collins, Colton Rell, and Holden Marr.

Jersey Shore hosted its annual duals last weekend (SV was a participant).

Shore went 3-2 with wins over Mount Carmel, Wyoming Valley West and Sugar Valley, Their losses were to Cedar Cliff and Warrior Run – two pretty decent wrestling schools.

Cedar Cliff is currently 14-0, while Warrior Run is 8-4.

Warrior Run’s head coach is Jeremy Betz, longtime assistant to Wayne Smythe, who retired after last season, having enjoyed a long and highly-successful career. Betz was a three-time PIAA State Champion from the Defenders and placed 3rd in his other year of competition.

Smythe, who wrestled for Russ Houk at Bloomsburg, was Doug Buckwalter’s coach at Warrior Run.

The Bulldogs are led by Max Mason, Hunter O’Connor, Tyler Willits and Jeremy Zydallas and have a challenging schedule with Shikellamy, State College and Central Mountain on the horizon. They took on District 9’s top dual meet team DuBois on Tuesday night.

It is so great to see Shore alum and very talented wrestler Hunter Zondory recovering from a terrible accident.

It has been foud long months and I’ve never seen a photo of Hunter not smiling.

Keep him in your prayers, everyone.

We should all be so tough!

Loyalsock’s Crae McCracken’s shoulder surgery has ended his wrestling career. The grandson of Denny and Charlotte Johnson of Lock Haven was a 5th place finisher in the Class AA PIAAs last season and was top-ranked this year.

Crae’s dad, Chris McCracken, was a two-time PIAA placer for Jersey Shore in 1986 and 1987, finishing as runner-up at Heavyweight in 1987. Chris went on to box for Coach Ken Cox at Lock Haven University. Sorry to hear Crae will miss his senior year, but that gives Dad the bragging rights as to who finished higher at states!

How many of you remember all those bouts between Chris and Jody Bitner?

Jody’s son, Bryce, also had a very successful senion year in 2016.

In the Virginia Duals college division, LHU dropped Kent State, 32-10, then losing to eventual champion Virginia Tech, 35-6.

In the “Silver” round, the Bald Eagles nipped Chattanooga, 19-18, before a 31-11 loss to Virginia.

Scott Moore’s guys got a lot of tough competition and continue to challenge the “big boys” in the collegiate sport.

Virginia Tech is currently ranked No. 6 in the nation at 7-1; Virginia is No. 23.

Virginia Tech’s 184-pounder is Zach Zavatsky. Zach wrestled at Latrobe for Marc Billett.

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