Despite winning only six of the matches in the championship round, Baylor took home the Division II State Dual Meet Championships crown with a 27-25 victory over Christian Brothers High School. Earlier in the tournament, Baylor had a 68-6 opening round victory over Brentwood and a 39-20 semifinal victory over Father Ryan. Prior to the final, Christian Brothers upended Montgomery Bell Academy, 66-12, and followed it up with a 31-27 semifinal victory over McCallie in which they won eight weight classes. McCallie defeated Father Ryan 38-29 to take home third place.
Match Scores: http://tssaa.org/2010Champions/StateDualWrestling/dualresults.cfm?class=Div%20II
Bracket: http://tssaa.org/2010Champions/StateDualWrestling/DIIBracket.htm
Bradley Central beat Soddy Daisy, 44-15, to win the Class AAA title
http://tssaa.org/2010Champions/StateDualWrestling/AAABracket.htm
http://tssaa.org/2010Champions/StateDualWrestling/dualresults.cfm?class=AAA
Chattanooga Central defeated Pigeon Forge, 30-26, to earn the Class AA-A title
http://tssaa.org/2010Champions/StateDualWrestling/A2ABracket.htm
http://tssaa.org/2010Champions/StateDualWrestling/dualresults.cfm?class=A-AA
Another Blair Statement
For a third consecutive Saturday, No. 2 Blair Academy, New Jersey was competing in dual meets against nationally-ranked opposition. And yet again, the Buccaneers came through with a day of dominance in a quadrangular meet at St. Edward High School just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. They opened with a 53-13 victory over Kiski Prep, Pennsylvania, and followed it with a 52-9 victory over No. 8 Wyoming Seminary, Pennsylvania. At the same time, No. 4 St. Edward was earning a 43-16 victory over No. 8 Wyoming Seminary and upending Kiski Prep, 64-9.
The big match to end the day featured No. 2 against No. 4 in the country, and with the start at 140 pounds, things lined up for a strong Eagle start. However, it was not to be as after an expected 3-0 decision from Blair's Ross Parsons in the opening match, Dylan Milonas (145) earned a first period pin with a standing cradle at the 1:42 mark over Matt Van Curen. That opened up a 9-0 lead for Blair.
However, the Eagles came back strong in the next three matches to take a 12-9 lead on the strength of a 1-0 decision from Mark Martin (152), a late match pin from Domenic Abounader (160) at the 5:55 mark, and then a 4-0 decision victory by Jacob Davis (171). Momentum was riding strong, but the tide was stemmed by Blair Academy's Frank Mattiace (189), who upended James Suvak by a 6-1 decision to tie the dual meet at 12-12. A split of the 215 and 285 pound weight classes tied the match at 15-15 heading into the turn, which meant that Blair's dominant part of the lineup would seal the deal. At 285 pounds, it was No. 5 Brooks Black of Blair upending No. 10 Greg Kuhar.
Including wins in two matches placing ranked wrestlers against one another, Blair Academy swept the last six matches to earn the 39-15 victory. At 112 pounds, No. 1 Evan Silver defeated No. 20 Edgar Bright 5-3, and No. 11 Caleb Richardson upended No. 18 Dean Heil, 11-4. In the concurrent dual meet, Wyoming Seminary defeated Kiski Prep, 52-21.
Favorites prevail in PA District XI Duals
This past weekend was the district dual meet championships across the Keystone State in preparation for the Pennsylvania State Dual Meet Championships to be held this coming week. District XI -- in both AA and AAA -- had finals matches that were highly anticipated with some implications for the overall dynamic of the state tournament. Also, it would be only the finalists in each division that advanced to state.
No. 17 Easton was the lead dog in the Class AAA tournament, and they certainly asserted that position in their two matches prior to the final, 64-6 over East Stroudsburg South in the quarterfinal (winning 12 matches) and 47-12 over Northampton in the semifinal (winning 11 matches, including the first ten). This set up a match for them against archrival No. 25 Nazareth, who also won their two earlier matches though in less convincing fashion. The Blue Eagles beat Blue Mountain, 56-17 (winning 11 matches) before surviving against a formidable Parkland squad by a 28-27 score, the difference being a team point deduction against Parkland during the 152 pound match. However, Nazareth did win eight of the matches, so they would have won a tied dual meet anyway.
After four matches of the final, Easton jumped out to an 11-3 with wins from Jalil Paige (285), Kyle Baker (103), and Evan DiSora (119). However, wins in the next three matches from Franco Ferraina (125), No. 2 Zach Horan (130), and Greg Noll (135) gave Nazareth a 13-11 lead at the halfway point. The Red Rovers would get three consecutive bonus point wins to put the dual meet out of reach -- a 10-2 major decision from Joey Rizzolino (140) before Anthony (145) and Mitch (152) Minotti scored pins against their respective Blue Eagles opponents.
In the Class AA tournament, No. 20 Bethlehem Catholic entered as the favored team, and flexed their muscle in the first two rounds winning matches over Pius X, 61-7 (12 weight class victories) and Saucon Valley, 53-15 (11 victories) to advance to the Saturday evening final against Pen Argyl, who held their opposition to less than 10 points in each of their two preliminary wins as they won 24 of 28 weight class matches.
Keyed by wins from Richie Cruz (130), Ryan Todora (145), and Elliott Riddick (160) -- the Eagles jumped out to an early 16-9 lead after six matches. However, Pen Argyl responded with wins in the next four matches to jump ahead 25-16 with four matches remaining. Though in somewhat expected fashion, as it was the strength of the Bethlehem Catholic lineup that was closing out the dual meet, the Eagles swept those matches to take home a 34-25 victory. No. 3 Darian Cruz (103) came up with an 11-5 victory, No. 15 Zeke Moisey (112) followed suit with a 3-0 decision, and then it was pins from Randy Cruz (119) and Jaydon Rice (125) to close out the dual meet.
… And the same is the case in the WPIAL
In class AAA, No. 25 Canon-McMillan earned its second consecutive WPIAL championship, and seventh overall. The Big Macs advanced to the final with a 46-20 win over Kiski Area on Friday night, and then upended Greater Latrobe 36-19 on Saturday to win the championship. Even earlier in the week, they earned victories over Connellsville (44-22) and Ringgold (64-3) to reach the semifinals.
Though the box score may suggest otherwise, it was all but over after the third match. Canon-McMillan was able to insert backup Alex Hutchin (130) to secure a pin in the opening match; bump up nationally-ranked 130 pounder Solomon Chisko to 135, where he upended Powerade runner-up Ty Lydic, 5-2; and Dario Dobbin secured a 6-4 decision over Bryar Pletcher at 140 pounds. However, Greater Latrobe would win five of the next six matches -- with only a win from No. 16 Nick Catalano (wrestling up a weight class at 152 pounds -- to take a 16-15 lead heading into the meat of the Big Macs lineup.
Canon-McMillan sent out three consecutive Powerade champions to the mats, and each earned the key victories necessary to cinch the dual meet. Cody Klempay (285) and Colt Shorts (103) scored pins, while No. 6 Conner Schram (112) upended Chace Small by a 5-1 decision.
In Class AA, No. 41 Burrell dominated its three opponents in the WPIAL playoffs to win a fifth consecutive dual meet crown, also seventh in all. The Bucs scored a 51-12 quarterfinal over Keystone Oaks, the beat Bentworth 51-21 in the semifinal, before dominating Chartiers-Houston 54-20 in the championship match.
Seven champs, but not enough to advance to team state
Despite seven champions at the regional tournament this past weekend, No. 13 Marmion Academy, Illinois was unable to win the Yorkville Regional. The champion of that Class AA regional, and the other fifteen such champions, advance to the Class AA state tournament. In the state of Illinois, it is this dual meet state tournament that decides the state champion. Four of these individual regionals will feed into each of the four sectionals from which the individual state tournament qualifiers are determined; the individual state tournament is un-scored from a team perspective.
Winning the Yorkville Regional by a single point (242-241) was No. 37 Montini Catholic, Illinois. All fourteen Broncos placed in the top four compared to only 13 Cadets. However, Marmion advanced 12 of its wrestlers in the top three (13 placed top four) to next weekend's individual sectional tournament, while Montini had only 11 qualify. Of the seven teams in this regional, five were ranked inside the Illinois Best Weekly top 25 this past week -- Montini was 2nd, Marmion 3rd, Yorkville 12th, Morris 19th, and Sandwich 25th. The top two teams mustered 23 qualfying spots, while the next three mustered the other 19 sectional berths.
Champions for Marmion were No. 16 Johnny Jimenez (103), No. 12 Jered Cortez (112), George Fisher (119), No. 3 Ben Whitford (130), Bryce Brill (135), Angelo Silvestro (140), and Eddie Gonzalez (145); second place wrestlers included Eddie Greco (125), Dan Rowland (160), and Alex Fritz (285); Eddie Breen (152) and Jon Wolfgram (171) also qualified for the sectional tournament.
For Montini champions were Chris Garcia (125), No. 7 Stephen Robertson (152), Dimitri Willis (160), Edgar Ruano (215), and Ross Ferraro (285); Tommy Pawleski (103), Kevon Powell (112), Michael Sepke (130), Frank Baer (145), and Conor Winel (171) finished as runners-up; with Drew Vrebenec (135) also qualifying for the sectional tournament. The Broncos will be able to defend their consecutive state title string, with only No. 21 Crystal Lake Central, Illinois realistically standing in their way.
Weather wins in the Sooner State
The most recent version of "Snowpocalypse" decimated a good chunk of the country during the middle part of this past week. This included Oklahoma, where most activity was knocked out in both the mid-week, and at the weekend. This included the anticipated dual meet between No. 27 Broken Arrow and No. 29 Tulsa Union.
Battle of Buckeye State Champions
When No. 28 Wadsworth, Ohio travelled to No. 5 St. Paris Graham, Ohio it meant that the defending champs in Ohio's Division I and Division II would be colliding on the mats, and it was also the third consecutive weekend that Graham would dual against a nationally-ranked opponent. In the match this Friday night, Graham won nine of them to secure a 39-25 victory. Key to this dual meet was all six of Falcons' nationally-ranked wrestlers coming through with victories.
No. 9 Ryan Taylor (112) with a 22-7 technical fall over a Wadsworth backup, state qualifier Brandon Jones was out of the lineup; No. 19 Case Garrison (135) coming through with a 15-14 victory, despite Chris Baughman throwing Garrison to his back at the end of the match; No. 7 Nick Brascetta (140) with a 9-4 victory over state placer Nate Ball; No. 5 Bo Jordan (145) with a pin over yet another Wadsworth backup, state and Ironman placer Clay Wenger was out of the lineup; No. 11 Matt Stephens (152) with a 21-6 technical fall; and No. 5 Huston Evans (189) with a pin.
Graham was still without the services of state champion Isaac Jordan (160), who has not competed since the Walsh Ironman. It is possibly an open-ended question as to when we will see him this season. However, on the Graham side, Taylor and Bo Jordan would probably have beaten the Wadsworth starters in relatively similar fashion.
Wadsworth was anchored with is pair of nationally-ranked wrestlers coming through in dominating fashion. No. 7 Kagan Squire (125) scored a 19-3 technical fall, while No. 7 Nick Tavanello (215) scored a 10-3 major decision over Ironman placer Mark Meyer.
Nationally-ranked team upset
Scotts West, Minnesota 37 No. 48 Hastings, Minnesota 24
The upcoming week of state championships
Traditional/individual championships: Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Louisiana, Montana, and Utah
Dual meet championships: Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina
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