By Mercury Staff
KENNETT SQUARE — Pottstown is thriving on hefty workloads.
The Trojans competed in another “duals” wrestling tournament Saturday, traveling to the Kennett Duals along with Daniel Boone. It was the fourth time this season the Trojans competed in a duals-format tourney; and as was the case previously, they made a strong showing — a sweep of their five matches to come away in first place.
With three wrestlers sweeping the competition, and a fourth also perfect, Pottstown (19-7) went one better than its previous “duals” outings, where it was a combined 10-3. Its team victories came against Glen Mills (57-21), Ridley (38-28), Academy Park 52-24), Kennett (54-19) and Boone (48-14).
The Blazers, for their part, went 3-2 and placed second on the strength of a head-to-head tiebreaker with Ridley. Alongside the verdicts against Pottstown and Ridley (34-33), they prevailed over Kennett (44-30) and Academy Park (32-27) but lost to Glen Mills (41-27).
Logan Pennypacker, Jasheel Brown and Darien Hain all went 5-0 to head Pottstown’s showing, which included a 4-0 run by Bryant Wise. Bubba Gephart, Sebastian Shiffler and Josh Slody chipped in with 4-1 records on the day, with Pat Bohn adding a 3-1.
T.J. Richard headed Boone’s outing with a 5-0 mark. Christian Fernandez and Shayne Bookwalter followed at 4-1.
Escape the Rock: Owen J. Roberts’ Kyle Shronk (160), Tyler Rogers (170) and Brad Trego (285) all advanced into into this morning’s semifinals of the Escape the Rock Invitational at Council Rock South, while 10 teammates remained alive in the consolations. The impressive effort helped the Wildcats finish the opening day of wrestling in second place (108.5 points) behind Parkland (123.5).
The Hill School also advanced 285-pound Kostya Golobokov into the semifinals, while two others — Chad Saunders (132) and Nick Flanigan (145) — were dropped into the consolations following losses in the quarterfinals.
Shronk had two pins and a 3-2 decision; Rogers took a bye and back-to-back 5-4 and 5-1 decisions; and Trego also followed a bye with a 10-1 major and 3-0 shutout. The Wildcats had six others in the quarterfinals who came up short, including returning state medalist Derek Gulotta, who fell 3-0 to state-ranked Tanner Shoap of Chambersburg. Gulotta, along with Aston White (106), Colby Frank (126), Dominick Petrucelli (132), Demetri D’Orsaneo (138), Adam Moser (145), Peter Fratantoni (152), Gordon Bolig (182), Evan Boaman (195) and Nick D’Angelo (220) will return to the mats in this morning’s consolations.
Golobokov had a bye, first-period pin and 3-2 decision for the Blues, who were 29th in the 32-team field.
Ultimate Duals: Boyertown got perfect showings from Eddie Kriczky, Cody Richmond, Jordan Wertz and Jordan Wood to take four of five bouts in the Ultimate Duals at Brookville High School.
The Bears, who improved to 12-5 overall, defeated Hanover (56-18), Mifflinburg (46-18), Saegertown (31-20) and Reynolds (33-25), with a narrow 34-31 setback to host Brookville spoiling an otherwise perfect day. Kriczky (126), Richmond (160), Wertz (195) and Wood (220) were all 5-0. Teammates Lucas Miller (106) and Gregg Harvey (160) were both 4-1, while Garrett Mauger (113) added three wins.
Garden Spot Duals: Luke DiElsi’s sweep of his opponents headed Perkiomen Valley’s showing in the duals competition at Garden Spot. The Vikings (9-6) went 3-2 as a team, wins against Pennridge (39-33), Avon Grove (51-16) and North Penn (48-31) balanced against losses to Central Dauphin (68-6) and Garden Spot (46-22).
The DiElsi’s 5-0 run was the best for PV, which also got a 4-1 outing from Nick Giangiulio — who dropped his first bout of the season.
Spartan Clash: Kirk Cherneskie (183) was the lone winner for Pope John Paul II, going undefeated at 3-0 to captured first place at the Springfield-Montco Clash.
Cherneskie was trailing Ian Kennedy from Central Bucks West 5-4 in the first place bout but got a takedown with two seconds left in the bout to win 6-5
Pope John Paul’s Vinnie Togno (138) finished with three wins and two losses for third place. Josh Bildstein (220) also took third with three wins and one loss. Jared Sahakian (145) finished 2-3, while Aaron Cusatis (160) was 3-2.
Jersey Shore Duals: Phoenixville’s Garrett Serwatka, Trey Romance and Jordan Valenteen all won four of their five individual bouts, but the Phantoms went 1-4 on the day at the Jersey Shore Duals.
The Phantoms defeated Clarion (41-27), but fell to Warrior Run (60-9), Wallenpaupack (58-14), Cedar Cliff (57-17), and Canton (45-26).
Mark Cermanski picked up two wins for the Phantoms, and teammates Henry Hancock, Tim Labik and Dave Rosati added one apiece.
Upper Perkiomen 43, C.B. East 30: Kyle Fellman stalled a Patriots’ drive to erase the Indians’ early lead, and the locals won three of the five final bouts in the non-league victory.
Fellman’s third-period pin at 152 prevented East from continuing a roll that saw it close to 28-24 with help from two pins and a forfeit. Ray Young (160) and Dylan Steffenino (106) kicked in with a decision and pin, respectively, to offset the Pats’ two decisions down the stretch.
Casey Cook (182) and Wolfgang McStravick (145) scored early pins to help the Indians (12-4) build a 28-6 lead through the first six weights. Dante Steffenino (120) kicked in with a major decision, and the locals also cashed in on two forfeits by East.
Spring-Ford 33, Manheim Central 32: Jimmy Frank’s decision at 106 proved big for the Rams, giving them enough points to secure a close non-league victory over the Barons.
Frank’s 10-3 verdict over MC’s Caleb Enck staked Spring-Ford (14-2) to a 33-27 lead that survived a technical fall in the final bout. The Rams were paced by four pins on the night — successive match-opening falls from Ryan hayes (120 and Sean Hennessey (126), and back-to-back drops by Mason Romano (220) and Josh Boyer (285) preceding Frank’s match clincher.
Valley Forge Invitational: Zach Coffey and Austin Mortimer scored medals for West-Mont Christian during the Cadet Invitational at Valley Forge Military Academy.Coffey won the 126-pound title, going 2-0 on the day. Mortimer was second at 120, going 2-1.
MEN’S WRESTLING
Mount St. Vincent: The Ursinus wrestling team competed in its final regular-season tournament at the College of Mount Saint Vincent Invitational in Riverdale, N.Y., just outside of New York City.
Christopher Donaldson continued his strong start as he won the 125-pound bracket with a pin and two major decisions. Kevin Hoogheem finished second at 125. Donaldson defeated Chase Andrew of AIC by fall in 4:28, then ran up a 17-8 major on Janik Santana-Quintana of NYU. In the title bout, he defeated teammate Keven Hoogheem, 16-5.
The Bears had five third-place finishes in Christian Hoogheem (126), John Morrison (133), Curtis Watkins (149), Gnoleba Seri (165) and Gabriel Gordon (174).
