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Tom Elling’s Wrestling Mat-Ters: District Duals Wrap-UP

I am heading this weekend to Hershey for the PIAA Team Championships, then just four more weeks of high school wrestling remaining!

Bellefonte’s Ethan Richner was forced to default in the District Six Team Championships against Mifflin County. That pretty much sucked the wind out of the Red Raider team and they dropped a 47-21 decision to Mifflin County. Richner is a PIAA State placer (6th) and a returning District 6 and NW AAA Regional champion. Let’s hope that his injury is minor. In a marquee matchup, returning state champ Trey Kibe defeated Red Raider Ethan Rossman, 8-2. Kibe will most likely be at 170 for the Districts, while Rossman will be at 182.

State College won two narrow matches, defeating Central Mountain, 33-27 taking the last match to break a 27-all tie, then stunned Mifflin County 25-24. The Little Lions will participate in the PIAA Team Championships that take place starting today at the Hershey Giant Center. State will represent District 6 for the first time since 2003. In the early 2000s, State High ruled AAA taking the D6 team title four years in a row. After their reign, BEA claimed titles in 2004-2005-2006. The last Centre County team to represent D6 was Bellefonte in 2007. Since that time, it has been either Central Mountain or Mifflin County.

State High faces District 7 runner-up Seneca Valley and if they manage to pull that off would go against No. 1-ranked Nazareth. State High coach Ryan Cummins was once an assistant at Easton under coach Steve Powell. Cummins wrestled for Warwick High and Penn State.

In class AA the biggest news is that Burrell has claimed their 14th straight District 7 Class AA title. Forest Hills and Westmont-Hilltop are the two D6 AA qualifiers. Both are from the Johnstown area and are fierce rivals.

Interesting and perhaps a flaw by the PIAA bracket construction, two District 11 teams (Saucon Valley and Notre Dame GreenPond) are in the same lower half semi bracket. The teams have split in earlier meetings. To make the potential semi-final matchup even more intriguing, Saucon Valley won the district meeting by a mere three points. Six of those points came via a forfeit when SV sent out a female athlete to wrestle 106. Since Diocese rules prohibit a boy versus girl matchup, Notre Dame was forced to forfeit. Will any other teams use such tact? Notre Dame draws perennial finalist Reynolds in the very first round. This is a Reynolds team that shut out their last two opponents in the District 10 AA qualifier. Southern Columbia looks to be the favorite in the top half of the bracket. They are healthy now with Gavin Garcia back in the lineup.

To say that wrestling has had its share of controversy of late would be an understatement. From the aforementioned boy-vs-girl happening to the Glendale vs St. Josephs’ Catholic similar tact to the infamous ‘biting’ incident in the D6 AA to the never ending whining that Roman Bravo-Young used an illegal move against Iowa’s DeSanto.. it has not been a smoothly-unfolding latter part of the season. Add to those fires the arguments over the proposed reduction of weight classes by the PIAA and a myriad of the usual tic-tac of the seeding process, and you get the idea that chaos is the norm. However, once the PIAA series unfolds, the previous week is forgotten and the mindset focuses on advancing to the state tournament.

Congratulations to DJ Fehlman of LHU who won 133-pound Edinboro Open title. Competing unattached at 157, Jonathan Ross finished as a runner-up. Brock Port was fourth at 149; Austin Bell placed fourth at 165 and Parker McClellan was fourth at 197.

Fehlman is nationally ranked at No. 28.

This week the Bald Eagles wrestle at Thomas Field House tonight hosting Edinboro University in a Mid-American Conference (MAC) Eastern Division dual at 7 p.m. On Friday they will host Rider in MAC East action at 7 p.m.

Penn State will not have an easy one as they next head to Minnesota for a matchup with the Gophers on Sunday at 2 p.m.

Central Mountain’s next action is a trip to Hollidaysburg next Wednesday before prepping for the District 6 Tournament on Feb. 22.

Maryland head coach Alex Clemsen is a 2007 graduate of Edinboro, where he was an All-American wrestler and four-time NCAA qualifier. He finished his career with a 121-35 record, good for ninth in the school’s history. He was the 14th wrestler in program history to win four Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships, and he was also named an Eastern Wrestling League Champion.

Bellefonte slammed Clearfield, 46-16 and has two more dual meets: tonight at P-O then next Tuesday (Feb 11) at Shikellamy.

BEA bested Huntingdon, 35-34 on Tuesday and will finish the dual meet season at Shikellamy on Saturday. The Jersey Shore versus Williamsport meet is in limbo as the Millionaires are in Hershey competing in the PIAA Dual Meet Championships.

Sugar Valley wrestled Williamson last night and will be competing in the Juniata Valley Invitational this Saturday.

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