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ROUND ONE: Pair of local wrestlers to compete in the PIAA AAA State Quarterfinals

Seth Andrus (right) of Central Mountain High School wrestles Souderton High School’s Tyler Williams during an PIAA AAA State High School Wrestling Tournament match on Thursday, March 8, 2018. Andrus was defeated by Williams, 11-3. (The Express/Tami Knopsnyder)

HERSHEY — Seth Koleno wrestled maybe his sloppiest match of the season in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA Wrestling Championships on Thursday. The Bald Eagle Area senior still managed to win.

And that is exactly what Koleno is focusing on after the first day of the state tournament. The how and why he won is irrelevant after his 4-2 decision over Gettysburg’s Joseph Pecaitis. All that matters is Koleno is one of a pair of local wrestlers who will compete today in the AAA quarterfinals.

He’ll be joined in the quarterfinals by Bald Eagle Area’s Gage McClenahan, the top seed at 152 pounds, who cruised through his opening-round bout, 10-2.

The Eagles’ Garrett Rigg lost his first round bout, but bounced back with a win in the first round of consolations to stay alive at 145 pounds.

Central Mountain had a dreadful start to the tournament, losing all five bouts in the championship bracket. Only Seth Andrus (132 pounds) and Mahlik Houtz (220) were able to salvage a consolation-round win to stay alive. The Wildcats went 2-8 on the first day of the state tournament.

“When you get to the state tournament, there aren’t any easy matches, so you have to be ready to go out of the chute,” Central Mountain head coach Biff Walizer said. “It was a disappointing first round. Mahlik and Seth did well coming back after the first round. It’s a matter of taking it one match at a time and keep plugging away through the consolations.”

Koleno didn’t record a takedown in his first-round match. In fact, he spent much of the first four minutes of the match fighting off some tough shots from Pecaitis. He found himself in all kinds of precarious situations, but the 138-pound bracket’s top seed always found a way to fight off Pecaitis’ offense.

He kept the match tied at 2-2 after two periods and got himself into a position he knew he could succeed with when Pecaitis chose bottom for the third period. It took Koleno only 30 seconds to lock up an arm-bar and tilt it for a pair of near-fall points.

From there, he was able to ride out Pecaitis for the final 90 seconds without incident to take a 4-2 win. It was by no means the best performance of Koleno’s season, but it was good enough.

“I’ve been here every year of my career, but I still think I have those jitters,” Koleno said. “They have me seeded at No. 1 and I think that got to me with the nerves and having such high expectations. I don’t think I wrestled my best, but in tough tournaments you ignore the matches before because it means nothing. The only match that matters is the one that’s next.”

McClenahan had no such troubles in his bout. He controlled Bangor’s Eddie Hay from the start by continually pushing the pace. The one time Hay fired off a shot in the first period, McClenahan hurdled out of the way and scrambled his way into a double-leg takedown in which he also got a pair of near-fall points for a 4-0 lead.

The state’s top-ranked 152-pounder just continued to build on that lead from there, scoring four more points in the second period and tacking on a later takedown in the third for a 10-2 win.

A year ago, McClenahan was the upstart freshman trying to leave his mark on the tournament, which he did by finishing seventh in a weight class which was won by world champion Jarod Verkleeren. Now, he’s the top-ranked top seed at 152 pounds and he wants to leave a different kind of mark.

“Seeds are seeds. That’s just what someone else thinks you’re going to do,” McClenahan said. “Hopefully I’m able to live up to that potential, but I still have to just go out and wrestle and do my thing.”

Central Mountain struggled from the start Friday. Both Houtz and Tanner Weaver (170 pounds) lost their preliminary-round bouts. Johnny Shreffler (113), Andrus (132) and Logan Long (145) all followed with first-round losses.

The Wildcats were outscored, 47-14, in their first five bouts of the night and lost its first six before Andrus, a first-time state qualifier, scored the team’s first win in the 132 consolations.

“Coach said we needed to get a better warm-up in because he thought we came out flat,” Andrus said. “We didn’t get a first takedown that entire round.”

“I expressed to them that the weigh-in was only an hour before we started, which is unusual because they usually have at least an hour and a half,” Walizer said. “And so that shortened period throws guys off their routine as far as their warm-up. We preached to them to find a hallway to get their sprints in and do what got them here. I think a couple of them let it get away from them.”

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