The elite, the best-of-the-best in the Pennsylvania high school wrestling world gathered at the Giant Center in Hershey last week from Thursday through Saturday. The top 16 wrestlers in each weight class in both AA and AAA earned a spot to wrestle for the gold standard that represents the number one ranking in what is and has always been one of the top wrestling states in the nation.
Tyrone took two wrestlers to the state tournament and claimed the top spot at 275, where Eagle senior Terry Tate won it all to realize every PA wrestler’s fondest dreams. Senior classmate Brice Mertiff also realized a dream-come-true, placing at states, with a fourth-place medal at 160. For their work over the extended weekend, the duo brought Tyrone a fifth-place finish in the team race. Reynolds won the team race with 83 points, followed by Curwensville with 56, Schuylkill Valley 53, Wyalusing 47 and Tyrone rounding out the top five with 41 points.
The Giant Center was a true Mecca for high school wrestling with some of the most fondly remembered of former athletes and coaches in attendance. Many of the champs from the early years were there to add to the brilliance of the occasion. Tyrone 1952 state champion Blair Walk was among the number honored there, as was his coach at Tyrone, Jim Mohney, who was a two-time champ himself for Clearfield, as a high school wrestler. Four-time champion Jerry Maurey from Clearfield was there, joined by his brother and three-time champion Don Maurey. Art Weiss, 90-plus years young, who coached an incredible 31 state champions at Clearfield, was in attendance. Tyrone two-time state champ Bruce Wallace was there to watch and congratulate Tate.
Terry Tate (47-0), with Tyrone records of 149 career wins and 36 pins, becomes the Golden Eagles first PIAA state champ since Ken Myers won a title in 1985, by downing Elliot Bates of Southside Beaver for the second straight week.
“This was impressive. I’ve had three kids beat a state champ in regionals and come here (Hershey) and not win a state championship. Terry was the fourth chance,” explained Tyrone coach Blair Packer. “This is a great feeling to see Terry win. We watched him (Bates) win three close matches here at states on his way to the finals and all of it was with a cross-knee pick from an underarm hook. We knew he had to stay out of that. He got us in it a couple times, but Terry was able to get out without going down, to his credit.”
The favorite last year, Tate was upset in the quarterfinals and finished fourth, but was not to be denied this time. Terry opened with falls in his preliminary and quarterfinal matches, then proved to be superior on his feet with three takedowns in an 8-6 semifinal win over the number two ranked wrestler in the state, Braden Bice (44-3) of Mercer.
“He’s been ranked second all year and I’ve been ranked first,” explained Tate. “It was a hard match to get by. It was the semifinals, I knew if I lost, I wouldn’t get to the finals. I just did what I had to to win and I guess it was just enough to get by. All year I tried to take one match at a time. Now that meant one more match to go, I could finally look at the finals. I knew I got burnt last year looking ahead. Once that was over, I could look at my last high school match and just go with it.”
In the finals, Tate, top ranked by most of the wrestling polls throughout the season, made a double-leg takedown with 22 seconds left in the second period, stand up for a 3-1 triumph over Elliot Bates (43-4) of Chartiers-Houston.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be anything like the last time we wrestled,” said Tate, who surprised Bates early pinning the District VII champ in 1:59 of the Southwest Regionals a week ago. “He came out aggressive and this was a whole different week. Something might have been going through his head and he didn’t wrestle a good match last week, but I knew this was going to be an awesome match. It is the state final and the last match of his career and the last match of my high school career. You just go all out.”
“It’s unbelievable, I really haven’t taken it all in yet,” Tate said after the finals match. “It was probably the greatest thing I have done in my athletic career. It feels so awesome to get something after you have worked so hard for it. I mean, I guess all the hours in the cage and stuff finally paid off.”
When asked about future plans for college, Terry said smiling, “I’m going to Disneyland.”
Brice Mertiff earned his fourth place medal the hard way, dropping his first match at states and then charging back through the consolation brackets to post four straight victories to get into position to wrestle in the consolation final for third place.
Mertiff lost by tech fall on Thursday morning, but rebounded to double up Jason Crawford of Wyalusing, 10-5, rout Dan Van Dyke of Lakeview, 11-4, pin Athen’s Jeremiah Serfas in 2:22 and Brian Thomason of Schuylkill Valley, in just 0:29. Mertiff (39-8) picked up his 100th career win with his consolation quarterfinals fall over Serfas, but dropped an 8-6 decision to Southwest Region champ Corey Checkan (43-4) of Southside Beaver in the consi-final 8-6. Checkan jumped out to an early 4-1 advantage and although Brice closed the deficit to 6-5 with a takedown and nearfall in the second period, Checkan held on for the win.
The two returning heroes were honored upon their return to Tyrone by a trip through town on Saturday evening, with an escort of the town’s firetrucks and many of their fans in cars and vans.
Mertiff (101-46) becomes the fourth member of the 2003-04 Tyrone team to win 100 matches joining teammates Tate (149-24), David Miller, who graduates with a 116-44 mark, and Thadd Westley (127-32) who graduated last year. Add to those accomplishments, T. J. Albright (70-26) returns for his junior season in 2005-06 and Robert Waite, who has a 71-41 mark will be a senior. Prior to that team, only Bruce Wallace (111) had 100 wins in the entire history of the Tyrone wrestling program, which began in 1939.
District VI brought home three gold medals in all in the AA competition. Juniata Valley junior Garrett Scott (38-0), gave up his third point of the season in the finals, but defeated Caleb Walsh of Oley Valley, 16-1 for his third straight PIAA title and Claysburg-Kimmel senior Adam Whetstone (41-1) rebounded from sixth and eighth places the last two years at Hershey, to edge Belle Vernon’s Jason Weslager 5-4 for the 119-pound championship.
Matt Fisk (44-0) of Wyalusing and Nick Sipes (33-1) each claimed their second straight PIAA titles. In the process, Fisk broke the PA state career win mark formally held by Meadville’s Doug Stanford (173). Fisk completes his high school career with a 175-9 mark.
The AA portion of the tournament featured four returning champions from 2004. Scott, Fisk and Sipes were successful. Freedom Area senior Damian Rose, who edged Tyrone’s Westley in the finals at 135 in 2004, lost twice and had to settle for a fifth place medal this time around.
Other District VI medalists included Nathan Link of Penn Cambria (fourth at 103), Tom McVicker of Forest Hills (5th at 103), Doug Ritchey (6th at 103), Shane Valko of Forest Hills (3rd at 125), Ryan McIntyre of Claysburg-Kimmel (5th at 130), Donny Clark of West Branch (6th at 130), Russ Sichak of Richland (8th at 130), Nathan Owens of West Branch (8th at 140), and Simon Fowler of Central Cambria (6th at 171).
Curwensville 103-pounder John Sutika, 119-pounder Russ Souders of Wilson Area, and 152-pounder Alex Brown of Delone Catholic, each lost his first match and then proceeded to win five straight to claim a very tough third place finish.
Scott was voted the Outstanding Wrestler of the AA Tournament. Todd Herzog of Northern Lehigh was named the 2005 AA Coach of the year.
In AAA wrestling, District VI did not fare well. There were no District VI wrestlers in the finals and only Landis Wright of Bald Eagle Area finished in the top three, with a third place finish at 160. State College had three wrestlers place with Chris Decker 4th at 160, Adam Homan 6th at 119, and Kyle Fluke 6th at 125. Seth Nyman joined Wright for BEA, with an 8th place medal at 189. Nic Bedelyon of Indian Valley, was 4th at 103, Josh Jones of Bellefonte, was 4th at 215, and Matt Bonson of Lewistown, was seventh at 103.
Among the AAA highlights in the finals, was the much anticipated 152-pound final between two two-time returning champions. Joey Ecklof of Northampton, won his third title by defeating Donnie Jones of Greensburg Salem, 10-3 in the first-ever meeting of two-time state champs. Joe Caramanica of Nazareth, won his second championship with a title at 145, but Nick Guida of Parkland, and Brad Pataky of Clearfield, both saw their bids for a second straight title come up short. Pataky fell 9-3 in the finals at 119 to Council Rock South’s Mike Rappo, and Guida dropped a 6-3 decision to Corbin Semple of Waynesburg, in the finals at 171.
