Bellwood-Antis opened their wrestling dual meet season on Tuesday at the Bellwood-Antis Middle School gym by winning the opening weight class and the final four matches. The only problem was that in the middle, visiting Huntingdon scored five falls, four in a row from 171 to 275, two major decisions and picked up the only forfeit of the match to dance away with a 47-23 victory.
Josh Ervine, fresh from the 145-pound title and Outstanding Wrestler and Pin Award trophies at the Conemaugh Township Tournament last weekend, needed a reversal with 47 seconds left in the third period to edge past the Bearcats Vance Myers in the opening match at 140. Feeling a bit under the weather with flu-like symptoms, Ervine (5-0) garnered the first points with a takedown and then the two foes traded reversals for a 4-4 tie going into the final two minutes. Myers worked an escape early for a slim 5-4 advantage and Ervine came back with a reversal and was able to ride out Myers for the win.
After Huntingdon blitzed through a mostly young and inexperienced line-up to take a 47-3 lead after the 119-pound weight class, the Blue Devils salvaged the final four weight classes to bring the score back to at least some respectability.
Eli Colyer (1-0), who missed the Conemaugh Tournament to take his SATs, began the mini-run at 125, with a quick fall over Landon Yingling. Colyer gave up the first takedown to Yingling, but Colyer reversed him to tie the score 2-2 after one period. Starting down, the Bellwood-Antis senior reversed his foe and then worked for the right hold, suddenly turning and getting a lightning-quick pin at the 3:10 mark.
At 130, Brandon Beech (2-2) evened his record in the early going, using a big third period to major Jake Myers 12-3. After a scoreless opening period, Myers chose down and Beech turned him for three back points. In the third period, Beech reversed the Huntingdon freshman to his back for a four-point move. Down 7-0, Myers escaped and took Beech down. With his lead sliced to 7-3, Beech reversed Myers and wrapped up the major decision and four team points with a three-point nearfall.
Ricky Shawley continued his fine early season start at 135, with an 11-0 major decision over Dewey Runk. Shawley (4-1 with a third place finish at Conemaugh) took a 6-0 advantage into the final period on a first-period takedown and back points and a middle period reversal, then opened up with a takedown and three-point nearfall to cap the shutout over Runk.
Dustin Harris finished the match with a flourish at 140, taking Kery Knable down and quickly wrapping up the fall. Harris improves his record to 2-2 for the season.
After Ervine opened with his decision at 140, Huntingdon got falls from Bobby Mort over Chad Schilling ((0-1) in 0:38 at 171, Jason Kyler over Josh Keagy (0-1) in 0:54 at 189, Dallas Runk over Cody Smith (0-3) at 215, in 0:44 and by Ryan Everhart over Kris Morder (0-3) in 1:16 at 275.
Bellwood-Antis forfeited to Huntingdon at 103. Kyle Thompson decisioned Ronnie Wilson (3-3) 7-1, at 152, Tim Cousins majored Mike Ballard (1-3) 16-5 at 160, Donnie Partner (1-3) led 6-3 over Mark Smyers at 112, before Smyers escaped, grabbed a takedown and pinned Partner at the 4:31 mark. Peter Mykut won a 10-2 decision over Joe DelMastro (1-3) at 119.
“We have a ton of inexperience up at the top of our lineup,” acknowledged Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson. “That’s OK, we’ll get better, we knew that coming in. We gave up too many falls, couple five falls with a forfeit.
“The kids didn’t back away by any sense of the imagination, they were aggressive. We saw some good things that we can work on and we saw some bad things that we need to work on. Overall, we’re not displeased. We will get better. We will see these guys again.”
In the preliminary, Bellwood-Antis and Huntingdon battled toe-to-toe in the junior high match before the Little Blue Devils pulled out a 54-48 victory.
Down 18-6 after four weights, B-A got pins from Kyle Shawley (138), Levi Hollen (155), Jim Watters (210 and Ben Martinez (250), along with major decisions from Trey Mock (122) and Caleb Stevens (185) and a tech fall from Travis Taylor (130) to take a 43-30 lead.
After Huntingdon won three of the next four weight classes to cut the B-A lead to 49-48, the match was down to winner-take-all in the final weight class-95. With the winner of that match getting the team victory, Trey McCracken wrapped up the win with a big Christmas bow by registering a 15-0 technical fall and the Blue Devil junior high squad notched their first triumph of the season 54-48.
Bellwood-Antis has a week off before traveling to Northern Bedford on Monday, Dec. 13 to tip off their Tri-County League season with the junior high match starting at 6 p.m. and the varsity following at 7 p.m.
Huntingdon 47 Bellwood-Antis 23
145 – Josh Ervine (BA) Dec. Vance Myers 6-5
152 – Kyle Thompson (H) Dec. Ronnie Wilson 7-1
160 – Tim Cousins (H) maj. Dec. Mike Ballard 16-5
171 – Bobby Mort (H) pinned Chad Schilling 0:38
189 – Jason Kyler (H) pinned Josh Keagy 0:54
215 – Dallas Runk (H) pinned Cody Smith 0:44
275 – Ryan Everhart (H) pinned Kris Morder 1:16
103 – Jesse Runk (H) won by forfeit
112 – Mark Smyers (H) pinned Donnie Partner 4:31
119 – Peter Mykut (H) maj. Dec. Joe DelMastro 10-2
125 – Eli Colyer (BA) pinned Landon Yingling 3:10
130 – Brandon Beech (BA) maj. Dec. Jake Myers 12-3
135 – Ricky Shawley (BA) maj. Dec. Dewey Runk 11-0
140 – Dustin Harris (BA) pinned Kery Knable 0:39
EXH
125 – T. J. Byers (BA) pinned Dustin McGinnis 2:28
152 – Alex Laurer (H) pinned Dustin Pruznak 5:05
Junior High
Bellwood-Antis 54 Huntingdon 48
100 – Nathan Mykut (H) pinned Adam Davinsizer 3:25
105 – Buddy Shaw (BA) pinned Nick Marter 2:32
110 – Addison Yingling (H) pinned Christian Solecki 1>24
115 – Alex Miller (H) pinned Lucas Evans 2:11
122 – Trey Mock (BA) maj. Dec. Dustin Everhart 12-0
130 – Travis Taylor (BA) tech fall Keith Frysinger 17-0, 3:13
138 – Kyle Shawley (BA) pinned Greg Ciccarelli 0:14
145 – John Detter (H) pinned Kyle Canfield 2:09
155 – Levi Hollen (BA) pinned Jake Reid 1:27
165 – Darren Kanagy (H) pinned Matt Lehman 1:03
185 – Caleb Stevens (BA) maj. Dec. Jason Everhart 10-0
210 – Jim Watters (BA) pinned Jacob Hetrick 2:15
250 – Ben Martinez (BA) pinned Zack Eastman 0:53
75 – Kim Brown (H) won by forfeit
80 – Dan Noye (BA) pinned Jared Grace 1:05
85 – Chris Shope (H) pinned Troy Weyant 0:48
90 – Canton Gillan (H) won by forfeit
95 – Trey McCracken (BA) tech fall Kevin Norris 15-0, 4:01
