Both area junior highs wrestled in the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devil Invitational on Saturday at Bellwood. Wrestled in the B-A Middle School gymnasium, the event featured 10 teams with Forest Hills taking the top spot in the team competition with 254 points, followed by Tyrone with 218 points and Penns Valley with 193.5. Six places were wrestled with the first three junior high teams receiving trophies and the top four place winners earning medals.
Closely following the top three were Curwensville, just one point away from a trophy with 192.5, Huntingdon was fifth with 169, followed by Central Cambria 128, Bellwood-Antis, the host with 118, Southern Huntingdon 111, Glendale 95.5 and Meyersdale with 77.
Anthony Romano (80), T. J. Albright (100) and Heath Walk (165) led the Little Golden Eagles with top honors at heir respective weights. Sam McCloskey (122) and Johnny Miller (185) wrestled their way into the finals as well, but had their paths blocked to settle for second place.
Shayner Tate (95), Justin Schopp (105), Jacob Smerekar (110) and James Updike (130) placed third in the tournament winning consolation final matches, while Shane Emigh (85), and Josh Hunter lost their consifinal bouts to place fourth.
For Bellwood-Antis, Ricky Shawley had the highest finish, placing third at 85. Eli Colyer (100), Dustin Harris (130), Josh Hanna (138), Trevor Latchford (145), Dan Pielmeier (165) and Tyler Narehood (250) all placed fourth for the Little Blue Devils.
“I thought we did pretty well,” said Tyrone coach Jason Bainey. “With 10 teams here, it was a pretty competitive tournament. We wind up in second place to a strong Forest Hills team.”
Anthony Romano drew a bye in the quarterfinal round then handled Josh Manning of Penns Valley, 15-2 and claimed the title at 80 pounds with a solid 11-5 decision over Pete Mykut of Huntingdon.
T. J. Albright edged Nate Yingling of Central Cambria 10-7 and pinned Eli Colyer of Bellwood-Antis in 4:04 to earn his way into the finals at 100. In the championship match, Albright fell behind, but came back to pin Jason Sutika of Curwensville in 1:56.
Heath Walk pinned his way through the tournament for the 185-pound title. Walk decked Dan Pielmeier of Bellwood-Antis, in 0:26, and Tyler Douglas of Curwensville, in 2:28 to reach the finals, where he pinned Devil Falchini of Central Cambria at the 2:15 mark. Heath was third at last year’s Blue Devil Invitational and fourth in 2001.
Sam McCloskey drew a bye, then decisioned Penns Valley’s Matt Orndorf 11-7 in the semis. In the finals at 122, McCloskey dropped a 7-3 match to Arnie Bernard of Forest Hills. McCloskey is a three-time placewinner at the B-A Invitational, placing fourth in 2002 and third in 2001.
Johnny Miller had an easy walk through the quarter- and semifinals winning by pinning Matt Marter of Huntingdon, in 0:43 and winning a 19-4 technical fall in 2:58 over Brandon Baker of Southern Huntingdon. In the finals, Kane Bjalme of Penns Valley, bested Miller 5-3. In the 2002 tournament, Miller was 0-2.
Ricky Shawley opened his tournament for the Blue Devils, by pinning Mike Shaffer of Curwensville, in the quarterfinal round in 0:12, the fastest fall of the tournament. In the semifinals, Shawley dropped a 7-1 decision to Corey Ross of Forest Hills, knocking him into the consolation bracket. Shawley pinned Anthony Ristau of Central Cambria, in 1:11 and claimed the third place medal at 85 with a solid 10-0 victory over Shane Emigh of Tyrone.
Shayner Tate pinned Chris Clark of Curwensville, in 0:25 before getting decked himself by Reed Houston of Meyersdale in 3:44. In the 95-pound consis, Tate pinned Josh Opdenhoff of Forest Hills in 0:42 and slipped past Brad Sweitzer of Glendale 1-0 for third place.
Justin Schopp pinned Steven Larue of Meyersdale in 3:35 to begin the tournament, before falling to eventual 105-pound champ Lucas Stover of pens Valley in the semifinals. Justin then pitched two shut outs in the consi rounds to earn third place. Schopp trimmed Zane Gray of Central Cambria 7-0 and then majored Bryant Yohn of Southern Huntingdon 10-0 in the consifinal.
Jacob Smerekar pinned Darin Ervin of Meyersdale, in 1:08, then dropped a 7-0 decision to Brett McCracken of Curwensville. In the consis, Smerekar pinned Ricky Tilley of Bellwood-Antis in 1:50 and shut out Ty Corl of Penns Valley, 3-0 for third place at 110. Smerekar also finished third in 2002.
James Updike rebounded from an 0-2 tournament in 2002 to take third place at the Blue Devil Invitational this year. Updike won an 11-5 decision over Glendale’s Matt Henry in the quarters before eventual 130-pound champ dumped James into the consolation bracket by pinning him in 4:24. There, Updike shut out Justin McIntosh of Central Cambria, 8-0 and earned the third place medal by shutting out Dustin Harris of Bellwood-Antis, 6-0 in the consifinal.
The Blue Devils’ Eli Colyer pinned Tyler Myers of Penns Valley, in 0:59 in the opening round before getting pinned by the Eagles’ Albright. In the consi round, Colyer pinned Dewey Runk of Huntingdon in 1:23, but lost a 7-4 decision to Jason Foor of Southern Huntingdon in the consifinal.
At 130, Dustin Harris decisioned Doug Hersch of Meyersdale 8-5 before getting pinned by Mark Mackel of Forest Hills in the semis. The Blue Devil 130-pounder edged Penns Valley’s Trevor Benner 7-5 before getting shutout by Tyrone’s Updike 6-0 in the consifinals.
Top seeded Blue Devil Josh Hanna ran into trouble right away at 138, getting pinned by Shannon Bowker of Meyersdale in 2:13. Fighting back in the consolations, Hanna pinned Brett Turner of Penns Valley in 1:05, bested Tyrone’s Donnie Conrad 7-5 to oust Conrad from the tournament with an 0-2 mark, and pinned Matt Holland of Curwensville in overtime. In the consifinals, Hanna was pinned by Eric Park of Southern Huntingdon in 1:19.
At 145, Blue Devil Trevor Latchford pinned Matthew Lauder of Tyrone, in 3:53, to open the tournament, then was pinned in almost identical time by Josh Kyler of Huntingdon in 3:55. In the consi bracket, Latchford edged A. J. Brinklow of Forest Hills 2-0 before dropping the consifinal match by fall to Barry Rowland in 1:29 after leading early the match.
Dan Pielmeier took fourth place at 165, for the Blue Devils. Pielmeier was pinned by eventual champ Heath Walk of Tyrone, in the semifinals after getting a quarterfinal bye. In the consolation bracket, Pielmeier received another bye, then decisioned Landon McElrath of Southern Huntingdon 2-0 to reach the consifinal. In the third place championship match, Pielmeier was pinned by James Martin of Forest Hills, in overtime.
Tyler Narehood, the biggest Blue Devil finished fourth at 250. Narehood pinned Matt Johnson of Penns Valley in 2:06, then lost by fall to Adam Bourdess of Forest Hills in 0:57. In the consi rounds, Narehood pinned Brandon Oswalt of Tyrone in 2:15 in the consi-semifinals. In the third place finals, Narehood was pinned by Huntingdon’s Carl Snare in 1:20.
Chris Miller came home with a fourth place finish for Tyrone at 90. Miller byed through the opening round, then was pinned by eventual champ Matt Gates in 0:53. In the consis, Miller decisioned Justin Johnson of Curwensville 8-5 before getting pinned by Brad Keller of Forest Hills in the consifinals.
Josh Hunter of Tyrone, opened the tournament losing by fall to eventual 115-pound champ Travis Moss of Forest Hills. Hunter then shut out Kyle Thompson of Huntingdon 7-0 and edged Ronnie Wilson of Bellwood-Antis in a controversial match 2-1. In the consifinal, Hunter dropped a 6-1 decision to Tyler Mansberger of Southern Huntingdon 6-1.
In addition, Ricky Tilley won two matches (2-3) to finish sixth at 110, and Ronnie Wilson two (2-2) to place fifth at 115, for Bellwood-Antis, while the Blue Devils’ Andy Martinez (1-2 at 185), and the Eagles Matthew Lauder (1-3 at 145) and Brandon Oswalt (1-3 at 250) each won once. Lauder, Oswalt finished sixth for Tyrone, Joe Delmastro (0-3 at 80), and Brian Dougherty (0-3 at 185) finished sixth for B-A.
Neither local school had a champion last year with Tyrone placing fifth of the nine teams involved with 128.5 point, and B-A dead last with only 37 points.
“We are still very young, very inexperienced,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach Tim Andrekovich. “We just need more mat time, more matches, but we are getting there. I hear a lot of good comments from people who see us every so often who are pleased with the progress that we are making. We made a few mistakes here and there. We will work out the kinks in the next few weeks and get back on the winning track.”
Showing what a difference a year makes, 2003 placewinners Shawley, Hanna, Latchford, Updike and Miller all went 0-2 a year ago.
