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Tom Elling’s Wrestling Mat-ters: Holiday Cheer and Wins

Another holiday season of wrestling tournaments is in the books. Penn State won their 7th Scouther Scuffle with 197 points (just one shy of the record set by Oklahoma State last year). Some of you will remember Coach Cael elected to no go to the Scuffle last year since the team had huge dual meets scheduled thereafter. This year, the Lions have off until they head to Michigan on January 12th.

The Lions crowned champions at six weights, going 6-1 in the finals. They also claimed top two team awards, Most Pins in Least Time (Jason Nolf) and Outstanding Wrestler (Shakur Rasheed). Northern Iowa took second with 127.0 , Lehigh was third with 102.0 and our own Lock Haven Bald Eagles finished tenth with 64.5 points.

Zain Retherford (149), Jason Nolf (157), Vincenzo Joseph (165), Mark Hall (174), Bo Nickal (184) and Shakur Rasheed (197) all finished first, while redshirt Nick Lee (141) was second; Anthony Cassar (197)-3rd; Nick Nevills (285)-4th and another redshirt Jarod Verkleeren (149)-7th.

For Scott Moore’s Eagles, Chance Marsteller (165) took 3rd; Kyle Shoop (141) took 4th and Thomas Haines (285) finished 6th.

While Penn State had a lot of reasons to celebrate, they did suffer a couple injuries. Jered Cortez suffered a foot injury in a win in the round of 16 and had to medical forfeit out of the tournament. Hard luck Matt McCutcheon re-injured his back and had to withdraw from further competition.

Lock Haven, while showing balance and good reason for their national ranking, would have liked to have placed a few more. Ronnie Perry lost a one-point decision to Dane Robbins (Air Force) and grabbed a consolation win before bowing to Tristan Moran (Oklahoma State) by fall. Almost all of the Bald Eagle entries had at least one win in the tough Scuffle.

Some key questions will soon be answered- 1. Will Penn State pull Nick Lee’s redshirt in light of his performance and the injury to Cortez? Will we see Cassar or Rasheed in the lineup on the Michigan trip? And further west, will Iowa pull the redshirt of Franklin Regional’s Spencer Lee?

The high school tournaments involving our local teams were the Conestoga Valley Buckskin Classic hosted by former Lock Haven High wrestler Trent Turner and the Manheim Tournament. In the former, Central Mountain finished in second to Central Dauphin (197-169) and had the most placers of any team with ten. Jersey Shore was 15th and Bellefonte 19th. For the Wildcats, Asher Corl led the way with the lone title at 160. Seth Andrus had a strong tournament with a runner-up place at 132; Tanner Weaver was 3rd at 170, dropping a narrow 3-2 decision in the semis then dominating his 3rd place bout. Johnny Shreffler was 4th, and Mahlik Houtz was 5th. 138 Cody Coleman, 145 Logan Long, and 182 Austin Confer all placed 7th; 120 Dalton Bechdel and 195 Tanner Riggle were 8th.

Bellefonte’s top finisher was Cole Stewart (126), who placed 5th; Alex Coppolo (120) and Ryan Smith (132) took 6th; and Ethan Richner (152) and Max Mondy (195) finished 7th.

Jersey Shore had two finish on the awards stand. Hunter O’Connor was the champion at 182 and David Tomb 6th at 195.

Jersey Shore visits the Central Mountain gym tonight and will be a big underdog to the Wildcats. Shore has been able to send out just seven wrestlers to compete in previous duals. Matches of interest will be at 126, 145, 182 and 195. Tonight is a special night for the Bill Holland, Jr. family as the wrestling room will be dedicated in honor of the late Bill and Ann Holland.

Bald Eagle Area finished second at the Manheim, their best finish in years – just 7 points behind the host school. The Eagles’ champions were 106 – Cooper Gilham; 138 – Seth Koleno and 145 – Garrett Rigg. Gage McClenahan was a runner-up at 152. Garret Giedroc was 3rd at 113; Drake Holderman was 4th at 120. Lucas Holderman (126) and David Close (195) placed 5th. Bailey Irvin was 7th at 170. BEA will host rival Bellefonte tonight at Wingate. The Eagles wrestled Tyrone last night. The meet ended after my deadline.

Attention all members of the following undefeated teams:

Coach Biff Walizer is planning a reunion and special recognition of past undefeated teams.

Joe Walker has informed us that the BEN team of 1957-58 of George Custer was 11-0 and the 1976-77 team under ol’ Bill went 14-0. The 1991-92 finished 18-0 and the 1992-93 team finished

18-0-1, opening the season with a 27-27 tie with Williamsport. This was the year the Keystone Rankings had BEN finish as top ranked Class AA Dual Meet team.

Sugar Valley did not have an unbeaten season, they were 13-1 in the 1983-84 season under Bill Robb for their best-ever record.

Lock Haven’s 1972-73 team was the lone Bobcat team to finish undefeated, going 11-0.

The celebration will be prior to the State College dual Tuesday, January 16th. All members of these teams are invited free of charge, but must register in the lobby by 6:30 PM that evening. More to follow.

J.R. Wert, son of Jerry and Debbie Wert and grandson of Molly Bassett of Bellefonte, was named Eastern Wrestling League wrestler of the week. J.R. wrestles at 125 pounds for Rider University. He earned the EWL recognition as a result of his 4-0 performance at the South Beach Duals on Friday and Saturday. A senior, his season record improved to 9-1 overall and 6-0 in dual meet matches. J.R. was a 4-time Virginia State Champion in high school, winning three at Christianburg HS and one at Morgan County HS. His late grandfather Robert Wert is a member of the Bellefonte Wrestling Hall of Fame. J.R. and his teammates will host the Lock Haven University Bald Eagles on January 27th in EWL action.

Mark Dugan, who has assisted Norm Palovcsik with the King of the Mountain, has indicated that this will most likely be his last year producing the Class AA individual rankings. Al Fricke used to partner with Dugan in doing the Class AAA rankings. Coach V (aka Al Vollman) of the Erie Area will soon be doing his state rankings for both classifications. As stated earlier, Palovcsik is retiring from directing the KOM after 17 years. Norm did a great job.

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