Tyrone controlled the Eastern Sectional this past weekend, claiming three Sectional champs and a total of nine qualifiers for the District VI-AA Tournament to be held Feb. 25-26 at Tyrone.
The Eagles put the Sectional team title away before the championship finals and came away with seven finalists and three champions. Tyrone put their own personal stamp on the first Eastern Sectional Tournament since the 1988-89 wrestling season, leading after every round on Friday and Saturday, by 25 points after the first two rounds on Friday, by as much as 61 points following semifinals and by a final margin of 219.5-196.5 over second place Claysburg-Kimmel.
The rest of the field followed with Penns Valley (179), West Branch (138.5), Huntingdon (133), Southern Huntingdon (127.5), Mount Union (93), Glendale (73), Moshannon Valley (70), Juniata valley (64), Central (59) and Bellwood-Antis (53).
Tyrone and Southern Huntingdon each claimed three sectional champs, while Claysburg, Penns Valley and Juniata Valley had two each, Tyrone and Huntingdon also had four runner-ups as well. Claysburg-Kimmel has 11 wrestlers going into the districts next weekend, Tyrone and Penns Valley each have nine and Southern Huntingdon has eight. Bellwood-Antis will have three representatives at districts.
Anthony Romano (103), T. J. Albright (112), Robert Waite (119), David Miller (135), Brice Mertiff (160), Heath Walk (171) and Terry Tate (275) all wrestled in the finals for the Golden Eagles, with Mertiff, Walk and Tate winning sectional championships.
Mertiff, in his return from an injury, which had kept him out since the Bald Eagle Area match on Feb. 3, breezed to the title at 160. Brice (30-6 with 27 pins) spent just a total of 2:26 on the mat adding pins over Scott Everhart of Southern Huntingdon, in the semifinals in 0:25 and over Ian Leslie (26-9) of Claysburg, in the finals in 1:40, to his quick fall in Friday’s quarterfinals.
“He’s just so powerful,” said Tyrone coach Blair Packer. “He’s so powerful in his attack. Brice has come a long way in the last two years.”
Walk (25-7) pinned Dallas Runk in the semifinals, and then scored an escape and takedown in the second period of the 171-pound finals to defeat Nathan Andrews (17-13) of Penns Valley, 3-1 for the title.
“He’s more conservative than some of the wrestlers,” said Packer of Walk, “but he gets the job done.”
Terry Tate was a man among boys at the Eastern Sectionals. With literally no real competition, Tate (37-0 with 28 pins) added a one-second injury default win over Allen Collins of Glendale, in the semifinals and a 3:11 fall over Tim Smeal (22-7) of West Branch, in the finals to a 42-second fall over Mount Union’s Mike Wilson on Friday.
“I think Terry’s biggest problem will be kids trying not to give up points,” said Packer. He just has to get through their coverups and things like that.”
At 103, freshman Anthony Romano followed up a win on Friday with a 6-4 win over number two seed Kelly Sell of Claysburg in the semifinals. Romano (15-9) fell behind top seed Doug Ritchey (14-3) in the finals, 8-3 after two periods and the Central senior added a third-period takedown for a 10-4 win. Cody Myers (28-1) atoned for his only loss of the season, a 3-2 loss to Tyrone junior T. J. Albright in the dual meet, by controlling Albright the entire match for a 7-0 win in the finals.
“Cody just went after it,” explained Packer. “Cody Myers went out there like he wanted a championship. T. J. never got a chance to set up his offense. He was never able to get set.”
Albright (31-7) earned the spot in the finals at 112, by using five sets of back points in a 16-2 major decision over Shane Burkett of Claysburg.
Robert Waite (24-7) became the third straight Tyrone wrestler in the finals to be defeated, when Adam Whetstone (31-1) of Claysburg-Kimmel took the Tyrone junior down seven times in a 20-7 win. Top seed Whetstone recorded two first-period pins to get into the finals.
At 135, two-time defending PIAA state champ Garrett Scott was just too much for David Miller (35-5). Scott (28-0), wrestling like a whirlwind, recorded four nearfalls to tech fall Miller 17-0 in 2:25 to remain undefeated.
In addition to the seven finalists, the Eaglers also qualified Jacob Smerekar (3rd at 145) and Josh Hunter (fifth at 130).
Smerekar (20-16) went 4-1 during the sectionals, including a pin over Kevin Camerer of Central, in the consolation semifinals in 4:30 and surviving a 13-11 match over Dolan Mosser (24-13) in the consi-finals for third place. Hunter (15-24) opened on Friday by dropping a 6-2 decision to Brandon Beech of Bellwood-Antis, then won by forfeit in the consolation rounds, before losing an 8-0 major decision to Penns Valley’s Ben McNitt. In the finals for fifth place where only the winners advance to the districts, Hunter overturned the loss to Beech, by defeating the B-A junior by a 17-2 tech fall in 3:33.
“It seems like I always want more,” said Packer. “If we had 13 champions, I would want one more. This is an eliminater tournament. Getting nine people through, I’m pretty happy about that. I’m proud of all the kids who qualified for the district tournament. This one was a tough one, as it showed in the finals. It will be interesting to see how each section fares in the districts.”
Bellwood-Antis qualified Ron Colyer (152) and Dwayne Cherry (189), who each finished fourth and Josh Ervine (140), who finished fifth.
Colyer (11-19) won three straight matches in the consolation bracket after getting thrown into the consys by getting pinned by top seed Chris Banks (22-11) in the semifinals. Colyer pinned Tyson Wilson of Southern Huntingdon in 2:20, edged Matt orndorf of Penns Valley, 3-1 and pinned Craig Paup of Glendale in 2:00. Although Ronnie dropped an 8-6 decision in the consi-final for third place, the B-A senior advanced to the districts. Colyer fell behind Shane Weyant of Claysburg, 5-1 before rallying to tie the match at 5-5, but Weyant had just a little bit more to pull out the match.
Ervine fell to second seed Chris Meyers for the second time this season in the quarters. In the consolation bracket, Ervine (20-11) majored Tom Ayers of Juniata Valley 12-0 and pinned Brandon Gardner of Moshannon Valley in 2:25, before dropping an 8-2 verdict to Meyers again. In the elimination b out for fifth place, Ervine majored Tyrone junio Sam McCloskey for the third time this year, 10-1 to get to next weekend’s districts.
“We ran into some tough competition this weekend,” said Bellwood-Antis coach Ron Wilson. “We would have liked to take more kids to the district tournament next weeked, but we were pleased with the way our kids wrestled in this tournament.”
Finals
103- Doug Ritchey (14-3) (Central) dec. Anthony Romano (15-9) (T) 10-4
112- Cody Myers (28-1) (SH) dec. T. J. Albright (31-7) (T) 7-0.
119- Adam Whetstone (31-1) (CK) maj. dec. Robert Waite (24-7) (T) 20-7
125- Tyler Myers (26-10) (PV) dec. Jason Foor 23-7) (SH) 10-6
130- Ryan McIntyre (30-3) (CK) pinned Donny Clark (30-2) WB 3:55
135 – Garrett Scott (28-0) (JV) tech fall David Miller (36-5) (T) 16-0, 2:25
140- Justin Berrier (28-2) (SH) dec. Nate Owens (25-8) (WB) 5-3
145- David Sunderland (29-0) (SH) inj. def. Teddy Little (23-10) (WB)
152- Eric Hoffmaster (21-11) (MU) dec. Chris Banks (22-11) 4-3 TB
160- Brice Mertiff (30-5) (T) pinned Ian Leslie (26-9) (CK) 1:40
171- Heath Walk (25-7) (T) dec. Nathan Andrews (17-13) 3-1
189- Kane Bjalme (21-9) (PV) dec. Bobby Hewitt (19-8) (G) 11-6
215- Josh Heaster (23-5) (JV) pinned Brandon VanBuskirk (15-13) (H) 1:10
275- Terry Tate (37-0) (T) pinned Tim Smeal(22-7) (WB) 3:11.
