Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

The Tyrone wrestling team is participating in the annual King of the Mountain Tournament at Central Mountain High School this weekend. The Eagles are currently third in the standings of the 33 teams entered in the tournament with 92 points. Council Rock South commands the top spot after the first day of competition with 112 points, followed by Red Lion (94.5), Tyrone Penn Trafford (91.5) and host Central Mountains (89).
Six Tyrone wrestlers are still active in the tourney. David Miller (135), Brice Mertiff (160), Heath Walk (189) and Terry Tate (275) will wrestle in the semifinals when wrestling begins at 10 a.m. this morning and T. J. Albright (119) and Sam McCloskey (130) will start their long way back through the consolation rounds.
Miller defeated Cody Reaves of Brandywine Heights, by tech fall 19-3, Zack Ewbanks of Northern York, by tech fall 19-3 and pinned Chris Lincoln of Neshaminy, in 2:51.
Mertiff made quick work of three opponents pinning all three in just slightly more than two minutes time on the mat. Mertiff decked Clark Hoopes of Latrobe, in 1:23, Shawn Fitzgerald of Downingtown East, in 0:37 and John Matthews of Penn Trafford, in 0:16.
Walk pinned Chris Miner of Athens, in 2:33 and Pat Lehr of Penn Trafford, in almost the same identical time, 2:23 and then won by major decision, 13-4 over John Radel of Line Mountain.
Tate received a bye in the opening round, then pinned Brain Tegreault of Hughesville and decisioned Mike Lukenda of Downingtown East.
The 36th Annual Tri-County Wrestling Tournament kicked off on Friday at Claysburg-Kimmel High School.
The host Claysburg-Kimmel Bulldogs took the early lead with 82 points and 11 wrestlers in Saturday morning’s semifinals, followed by Glendale with 64 points and eight semifinalists, Tussey Mountain with 51 points and five semifinalists. Moshannon Valley with 46 points and five semifinalists and Southern Huntingdon with 44 points and six wrestlers in this morning’s semifinals.
The bottom half of the 10 schools involved in the two-day event are Everett (41 and 1/2 points and five semifinalists), Northern Bedford (41 and five), Portage (39 and five), Bellwood-Antis (32 and three) and Juniata Valley (28 and three).
Bellwood-Antis hasn’t crowned a Tri-County individual champion since 1998, when Vince Torsell won the second of two straight titles at heavyweight. The Blue Devils, who joined the Tri-County League in 1971, had at least one champ in 23 of the 28 years until Torsell’s title in 1998, and had never gone more than one year without claiming a champion.
Three Blue Devils wrestled into the semifinals. At 119, junior Eli Colyer decisioned Chris Shoff of Portage, 7-3. Josh Ervine decked Tom Ayers of Juniata Valley, in 5:50 at 140, and Dwayne Cherry pinned Anthony Panosetti of Southern Huntingdon, in 1:55.
Dustin Harris, who had a busy opening day is still alive in the consolation bracket, which will begin along with the semifinals at 11 a.m. today. Harris opened his tournament by pinning Jarod Pollock of Portage, in a pigtail round, then was pinned by top seed Justin Berrier of Southern Huntingdon, in the quarterfinals. Harris punched his ticket to the second consi-round this morning by decking Derrick Johnson of Juniata Valley, in the opening round of wrestle-backs.
Ron Colyer pinned Kyle Ziegler of Tussey Mountain, in a pigtail match at 152, but then fell to top seed David Sunderland by fall in the quarterfinals.

By Rick