Bald Eagle Area wrestling proves why it’s No. 1 in District 6 Class 2A quarterfinals win

When a team is the No. 1 seed it is expected to have the easiest path to the championship.

Bald Eagle Area is the No. 1 seed for the District 6 Class 2A dual tournament, and showed why it’s the top team.

The Eagles won 11 of the 12 contested bouts Tuesday night, earning bonus points in eight of those bouts to crush No. 8 Juniata, 58-6. The Indians reached the quarterfinals by topping No. 9 Central, 35-33.

“We wrestled well tonight. We’re just trying to build momentum into Saturday and look sharp,” BEA coach Ron Guenot said. “We’ll take it one match at a time and not look ahead to anything. If you do that, good things will happen.”

Good things happened early and often for the Eagles.

Caden Judice was bumped up to 121 pounds from his usual 114 to open the dual. He racked up a 17-0 technical fall on Joseph Bomberger in 6:00.

The sophomore used four sets of nearfall points in the rout.

Lucas Fye wasted no time pinning Cody Nipple in 11 seconds to give BEA an early 11-0 lead. Dawson Lomison kept his solid freshman season going with a 7-3 win over Colten Rowles.

Ryder Smith stopped the bleeding momentarily for the Indians by earning a 3-1 win over Conner Maney at 139 pounds. Smith used a takedown in sudden victory.

“Bald Eagle is a tough team. There’s a reason they’re seeded number one in districts. It’s probably one of the best Bald Eagle teams I’ve seen as a coach,” Juniata coach Adam Barrick said. “We told them, ‘Hey, there’s nothing to lose. We go out, have fun and try to pull some upsets.’ Harrison Mummah gave (Caleb) Close a lot tougher match than he’s had in most of his matches this year. Some of the other guys battled well with some really good guys.”

Following Smith’s win, the Eagles won the next five bouts with bonus points in all of them.

Mason Reese pinned Jerry Cordova in 1:52 to get things started.

Gavin Bennett followed by racking up a 17-2 technical fall on Charlie Telfer in 5:24. Bennett raced out to a 6-1 lead after the first period with a pair of takedowns and nearfall points.

The second period saw the senior open with an escape, collect a third takedown and another set of nearfall points for a 11-1 lead.

Bennett kept the pressure on Telfer to the tune of two more takedowns, an escape and a stall point for the win.

“He’s just a hard working kid. He’s continued to be consistent and work hard every day. For a kid, that’s only wrestled for three or four years or whatever it is, he’s just getting better and better,” Guenot said of his senior. “You can see that on the mat with some some of the competition he’s beaten lately. He’s the kind of kid that’s going to go six minutes whether you like it or not. He’s going to keep coming, no matter how good you are. We love about him. We kind of joke around that we’d love to have him for one more year somehow.”

BEA then collected a trio of pins from Cameron Dubbs, Shawn Knepp and Caleb Close.

Dubbs took care of Gunner Wolesagle in 3:08 at 160 pounds. Knepp stuck Javier Lopez in 1:10. Close flattened Mummah in 3:13 to give the Eagles a 43-3 lead.

Juniata’s Kelton Bonnell picked up the only other win for the team with a 2-1 win over Gage Gardner. Bonnell used a late reversal for the winning score.

BEA closed the dual out with three straight wins.

Eric Clark shut out Christian Lopez, 3-0. Michael Wesley received a forfeit. Tanner Guenot bumped up to 114 pounds from 107 pounds to pin Anthony Maradiga in 2:19.

The Eagles will now host No. 2 Bishop McCort, No. 3 Huntingdon and No. 5 Penns Valley in the semifinals and finals, starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.

BEA will get the Rams, who it rallied past, 34-29, on Jan. 12.

“I mean probably not looking forward to the stress. It’s just an old-fashioned backyard brawl with Penns Valley,” Guenot said with a laugh. “You’re going to have to wrestle six minutes to beat their kids. We’re looking forward to it, but it’s just what wrestling is all about, good dual meets. I’m sure that’s what’s going to happen on on Saturday.”

Penns Valley cruises to semis

The Rams had to put in some extra work on Tuesday at Mount Union.

They had to wrestle two matches in order to secure their semifinals berth.

No. 5 Penns Valley had no problems in either match. It opened the day with a 60-15 win over No. 12 Moshannon Valley.

Then, the Rams picked up a 48-15 victory over the host Trojans, who were seeded No. 4.

“Mo Valley has had a nice year, so kudos for them for getting there. Mount Union historically are scrappers. They are willing to try anything and everything,” Penns Valley coach Joel Brinker said. “They’ll throw the kitchen sink at you, so you got to be cautious of that. The guys did well. They got bonus points, and went for the fall. We’re happy to be moving on.”

Penns Valley had a mixture of guys in the lineup for both duals, but Connor Myers (107 pounds), Erik Carlile (114), Colten Shunk (133/139), Ty Watson (152), Ethan Fetterolf (160) and Landon Hess (285) picked up wins in both matches.

All but Hess had bonus points in both wins, but Hess, who did have a pin against Moshannon Valley, had the highlight bout of the night against Mount Union’s Haiden Inch.

The pair traded escapes in regulation, which forced sudden victory. Neither wrestler was able to score in that period, so it went to ultimate tiebreaker rideout periods.

Hess scored in the first period with an escape. Then, he rode Inch for the second period for the 2-1 win.

“Last year, Landon lost two close matches to Inch. It was a great match. Both heavyweights had very good conditioning to go into ultimate rideouts,” Brinker said. “Landon just keeps plugging along. He’s like the little engine that could. He’s pretty small for heavyweight. We’re very proud and happy that his hard work paid off.”

P-O comes up short

The Mounties started the day off with quite the momentum, and rode that momentum for as long as they could.

Ultimately, P-O saw their run for a district title come to an end.

The No. 11 seed opened the day by upsetting No. 6 Forest Hills, 39-24. The Mounties came up just short in the quarterfinals against the host in No. 3 Huntingdon, 34-27.

“The kids were ready to wrestle tonight. We knew going into Forest Hills, that was going to be really close match,” P-O coach Justin Fye said. “The kids came up with some big wins, and it ended up not being as close as we thought it would be. We talked about getting pins when we can get pins, and not getting pinned in other matches. I felt like the kids did a great job of capitalizing in positions. They carried that into Huntingdon. We know we we’re going to forfeit somewhere along the line, but the kids wrestled well. We are a match here or there away from beating them. They beat us by 27 the last time, so it was big improvement as we keep preaching in the room.”

Caleb Hummel (107 pounds), Conner Guenot (121), Nate Fleck (145) and Marcus Gable (152) were double winners for the Mounties.

Hummel had a pair of forfeits. Guenot and Fleck each had a pin against the Bearcats and regular win against Forest Hills.

Gable had a forfeit against the Rangers and a pin against Huntingdon.

Fye believes this experience will propel his squad toward the District 6 Class 2A individual championships in two weeks.

“We barely got into the duals. To come out and beat Forest Hills, and wrestle Huntingdon that we turned 20 points around from the last time, I feel like the kids have a lot of confidence,” he said. “The biggest thing is them believing in their abilities and carrying out onto the mat what we are doing in the room. If they keep believing in themselves and taking the stuff from the practice room onto the mat, they’ll keep seeing good results.”

District 6 Class 2A Championships

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Bald Eagle Area 58, No. 8 Juniata 6

Tuesday at Wingate

121: Caden Judice, BEA, tech. fall Joseph Bomberger, 17-0 (6:00)

127: Lucas Fye, BEA, pinned Cody Nipple, :11

133: Dawson Lomison, BEA, dec. Colten Rowles, 7-3

139: Ryder Smith, J, dec. Conner Maney, 3-1 (SV)

145: Mason Reese, BEA, pinned Jerry Cordova, 1:52

152: Gavin Bennett, BEA, tech. fall Charlie Telfer, 17-2 (5:24)

160: Cameron Dubbs, BEA, pinned Gunner Wolesagle, 3:08

172: Shawn Knepp, BEA, pinned Javier Lopez, 1:10

189: Caleb Close, BEA, pinned Harrison Mummah, 3:13

215: Kelton Bonnell, J, dec. Gage Gardner, 2-1

285: Eric Clark, BEA, dec. Christian Lopez, 3-0

107: Michael Wesley, BEA, won by forfeit

114: Tanner Guenot, BEA, pinned Anthony Maradiga, 2:19

Takedowns: J 2, BEA 20

Records: Juniata (12-5), Bald Eagle Area (9-1)

Next match: Penns Valley at Bald Eagle Area, District 6 Class 2A semifinals, 10 a.m.

No. 5 Penns Valley 48, No. 4 Mount Union 15

Tuesday at Mount Union

127: AJ Chilcote, MU, pinned Joel Conklin, 4:38

133: Tripp Watson, PV, pinned Ethan Fisher, 1:25

139: Colten Shunk, PV, won by forfeit

145: Brayden Lisowski, PV, pinned Micah Atherton, :48

152: Ty Watson, PV, pinned Rowan McClain-Hartman, 3:46

160: Ethan Fetterolf, PV, pinned Abe Weirich, 2:41

172: Jase Ripple, MU, dec. Shane Rimmey, 3-2

189: Robert Martin, PV, dec. Andrew Ryan, 11-4

215: Josh Ryan, MU, pinned Brandon Corl, :52

285: Landon Hess, PV, dec. Haiden Inch, 2-1 (UTB)

107: Connor Myers, PV, won by forfeit

114: Erik Carlile, PV, won by forfeit

121: No match

Records: Penns Valley (10-2)

Next match: Penns Valley at Bald Eagle Area, District 6 Class 2A semifinals, 10 a.m.

No. 3 Huntingdon 34, No. 11 Philipsburg-Osceola 27

Tuesday at Huntingdon

133: Liam Simpson, H, dec. Hunter Kephart, 5-0

139: Eric Mykut, H, pinned Mason Packer, :41

145: Nate Fleck, P-O, pinned Reese Hughes, 4:43

152: Marcus Gable, P-O, pinned Dominick Peruso, 3:55

160: Grady Clark, H, dec. Colton Chapman, 3-2

172: Luke Uplinger, H, major dec. Matthew Rowles, 10-2

189: Landon Erdman, H, won by forfeit

215: Andrew McMonagle, H, pinned Connor Eichenlaub, :48

285: Lincoln Miller, H, dec. Evan Eichenlaub, 5-0

107: Caleb Hummel, P-O, won by forfeit

114: Averi Gable, P-O, dec. Gaige Sholly, 9-2

121: Conner Guenot, P-O, pinned Degan Brown, 3:36

127: Chris Gibson, H, dec. Ace Foster, 7-4

Records: Philipsburg-Osceola (8-9), Huntingdon (19-2)

Next match: West Branch at Philipsburg-Osceola, Friday, 6 p.m.

First Round

No. 5 Penns Valley 60, No. 12 Moshannon Valley 15

Tuesday at Mount Union

121: Jermey Lamoreau, MV, won by forfeit

127: Conklin, PV, pinned Landon Buck, 1:14

133: Shunk, PV, won by forfeit

139: Zach Rummel, PV, pinned Tucker Socie, 1:34

145: Seth Fetterolf, PV, won by forfeit

152: Ty Watson, PV, won by forfeit

160: E. Fetterolf, PV, pinned Gavin Lovell, :38

172: Rocco Reifer, MV, dec. Martin, 5-2

189: Ty Steiger, PV, pinned Wyatt Lamison, 1:38

215: Tyler Lobb, MV, pinned Corl, 3:26

285: Hess, PV, pinned Dominic Moore, 3:30

107: Myers, PV, pinned Autumn Shoff, 1:23

114: Carlile, PV, pinned Keegan Plusquellec, 1:10

Records: Penns Valley (9-2), Moshannon Valley (10-8)

No. 11 Philipsburg-Osceola 39, No. 6 Forest Hills 24

Tuesday at Huntingdon

127: Foster, P-O, dec. T.J. Carroll, 7-3

133: Isaiah Shilcosky, FH, pinned Packer, :39

139: Hunter Forcellini, FH, pinned Kephart, :18

145: Fleck, P-O, dec. Chance Gorzelsky, 3-2

152: M. Gable, P-O, won by forfeit

160: Chapman, P-O, dec. Nick Noon, 5-3

172: Kori Marsalko, FH, pinned Haydn Kephart, 1:44

189: Rowles, P-O, pinned Darin Rodgers, 3:58

215: C. Eichenlaub, P-O, pinned Levi Hockensmith, 4:33

289: Lucas DeLoatch, FH, pinned E. Eichenlaub, 3:37

107: Hummel, P-O, won by forfeit

114: Guenot, P-O, dec. Logan Moss, 7-1

121: A. Gable, P-O, dec. Landon Arrington, 7-2

Records: Philipsburg-Osceola (8-8), Forest Hills (10-5)