The Tyrone wrestling team and their fans braved the weather on Wednesday night to travel up the mountain to battle undefeated West Branch. Although the team was forced to travel two different directions to get there and back home, the Eagles knocked off West Branch 43-33 to leave both teams with 4-1 records.
The match began at the 215-pound weight class where sophomore Robert Emigh (0-7) was pinned by Vidic in 0:18.
Tyrone then rebounded with a win by heavyweight Terry Tate to knot the score at 6-6 and took advantage of three straight West Branch forfeits to jump into a 24-6 lead.
Tate (17-1) wrapped Smeal up and put his shoulders to the mat in 2:33. Tyrone coach Blair Packer made the comment that “I didn’t think the referee was ever going to slap the mat for the pin”. Finally he did and Tate had his 13th fall of the year.
T. J. Albright (16-5) picked up the first forfeit at 103, followed by Robert Waite (13-7) and Josh Hunter (6-7) at 112 and 119 respectively.
At 125, the Warriors’ Donnie Clark had all he could handle in Eagle sophomore Sam McCloskey. McCloskey (7-9) rode Clark the entire third period, but couldn’t quite turn the West Branch grappler, who pulled out a 4-1 win.
Dane McCloskey was tied 2-2 with his opponent, when McCloskey cranked Sudik for the fall at the 3:12 mark
Thad Westley dominated Dobo at 135, before decking him in 1:45. Westley (16-1) now has 13 victories either by pin (8) or technical fall (5) and has 104 career wins.
David Miller (16-4) wrestled a good match against one of the Warriors best wrestlers, trimming Owens 11-5 to give Tyrone a 39-9 lead overall.
West Branch came back to slice the team score to 39-21 with a pair of six-point wins at 145, and 152.
Matt Lauder (0-13) was pinned by Little at 145 , and Adam Swayne (1-2), back in the lineup for the first time since the Lewistown dual was pinned by Wilkerson.
At 160, Brice Mertiff trailed 6-4 at the end of the first period, but turned it up a notch by outscoring Tice 12-2 over the final two periods to notch a 16-8 major decision. Mertiff is now 2-0 since rejoining the team after recovering from a football injury in the final game of the season against Slippery Rock.
“Sam wrestled a good match against Donnie Clark,” said coach Packer, “and I thought Tate had his kid flattened forever, before the referee finally slapped the mat. This was a good exciting for the fans. We showed that we had a big edge in conditioning tonight. We are starting into the final phase of the wrestling season to push into the postseason tournaments. W e have seven more duals and the Eastern States Tournament. We are looking for the tournament to help us in the final preparations. Right now, we are where we want to be in preparing for the post season.”
Tyrone then with a 43-21 advantage forfeited the final two weight classes to West Branch to set the final score at 43-33.
The team bus wasn’t able to make it up Rt. 350 to get to Allport, so they were forced to drive to Port Matilda and travel up Rt. 322 to Philipsburg. Then on the way home, they couldn’t go Rt. 322 down the mountain and ended up going down Rt. 350. The match ended at 8:35 according to coach Packer, but the bus didn’t make it back to the school until 11 p.m..
The Tyrone Junior High Wrestling Team improved its record to 4-1 on the year in dual meets with a convincing 71-22 victory over The West Branch Warriors.
“After a somewhat sluggish performance on the weekend, we looked real aggressive tonight,\” said Coach Jason Bainey. \”We were pleased with the effort the kids gave tonight.”
The Golden Eagles had six pins on the evening: Anthony Romano (90), Justin Schopp (122), J.P. Gaines (130), Jacob Smerekar (138), James Updike (155), and Josh Wright (210). In addition to the forfeit wins, Tyrone received wins from Shane Emigh (95) and Shayne Tate (110).
Tyrone is back in action next Tuesday when it hosts Huntingdon, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
The Tyrone varsity wrestling team leaves today for New York and the Eastern States Tournament Friday and Saturday.
Tyrone 43 West Branch 33
215 – Vidic (WB) pinned Emigh 0:18
275 – Tate (T) pinned Smeal 2:33
103 – Albright (T) won by forfeit
112 – Waite (T) won by forfeit
119 – Hunter (T) won by forfeit
125 – Clark (WB) dec. S. McCloskey 4-1
130 – D. McCloskey (T) pinned Sudik 3:12
135 – Westley (T) pinned Dobo 1:45
140 – Miller (T) dec. Owens 11-5
145 – Little (WB) pinned Lauder 2:27
152 – Wilkerson (WB) pinned Swayne 2:51
160 – Mertiff (T) maj. dec. Tice 16-8
171 – Lawrence (WB) won by forfeit
189 – McDowell (WB) pinned Clark 1:58.
Junior High
Tyrone 71 West Branch 22
75 – William Shauf won by FF
80 – Shane Pewanick (WB) won by dec. over Cody Weaver, 9-2
85 – Aaron Albright (WB) won by fall over Matt Moore, 1:26
90 – Anthony Romano (T) won by fall over Ty English, :28
95 – Shane Emigh (T) won by dec. over Tim Smeal, 9-2
100 – Josh Miller (T) won by FF
105 – Amos Albright (WB) won by fall over Jeremy Barlett, :27
110 – Shayne Tate (T) won by dec. over Jeremy Kanouff, 9-4
115 – James Tice (WB) won by dec. over Josh Graham, 5-4
122 – Justin Schopp (T) won by fall over Andrew Simler, 1:10
130 – JP Gaines (T) won by fall over Josh Johnson, 1:18
138 – Jacob Smerekar (T) won by fall over Todd Sudik, 1:48
145 – Jon Demchak (WB) won by maj. dec. over Donnie Conrad, 11-0
155 – James Updike (T) won by fall over Bill Dobo, :27
165 – Aaron DeLay (T) won by FF
185 – John Markel (T) won by FF
210 – Josh Wright (T) won by fall over Andy Bowen, 2:20
250 – Brandon Oswalt (T) won by FF
