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The Abington Heights senior earned his 167th victory, topping Matt Dragon’s mark.
HERSHEY — When Matt Dragon was racking up win after win in the middle of last decade, some District 2 wrestling enthusiasts thought many of his records were untouchable.
That was before Evan Craig came around.
Two years after Dragon graduated from Lake-Lehman, the heavyweight from Abington Heights burst onto the scene and has been going full steam since then.
On Friday, the 285-pound senior broke Dragon’s District 2 wins mark of 166. His win came the way that more than 100 of his have ended – via fall. The milestone victory came in 5:33 in the PIAA Class 3A quarterfinals over Bethel Park’s Adam Lezenga, who entered with just one loss this season.
“It’s pretty neat to say that I have the most wins in the district, but it wasn’t really crossing my mind. All I wanted to do was get a win and get to the semifinals for the third straight year,” said Craig, who ran his record to 48-0 this season and his win streak to 89, dating back to last year.
With two more wins today, Craig will surpass Dragon in another category – state championships. Craig could win his second straight state title and become the first from D2 to do so since Meyers’ Tim Casey accomplished the feat in 1986 and 1987.
Craig has also secured himself a state medal for the fourth year, making him just the fifth in the district to ever achieve the feat and the first since Valley View’s Kyle Davis capped his career in 2005. Craig could be the first to make the finals from the district three times since Meyers’ Jay Patterson in 1978, 1979 and 1980.
“I think my biggest competition at this point is myself,” Craig said. “I’m really competing with what I did last season. If at the end of the season it was possible to travel back in time, I would want the person standing here right now to beat the tar out of the kid (that won the state title) from last season.”
Craig will look for career win 168 this morning against Caleb Baker (39-6) from General McLane in the semifinals.
UNBEATENS FALL
Juniata’s Arty Walsh, who entered the Class 2A event as an unbeaten reigning state champion, dropped his quarterfinal bout at 119 pounds for his first loss in 45 matches this season. Muncy’s Aaron Fry (145 pounds, Class 2A) was another undefeated grappler to lose in the morning session of the 2A meet.
In Class 3A, all eight past PIAA champions won their matches to move on to today’s semifinals. Also in 3A, two unbeatens lost – Pennsbury’s Josh DiSanto (112) and Warwick’s Antonio Giorgio (189).
The total number of undefeated wrestlers remaining is down to 22.
KAY VS POPPLE V?
During the last two years, the biggest rivalry in the Wyoming Valley Conference has been between Hazleton Area’s Jared Kay and Coughlin’s Josh Popple.
The two have met four times in the last 13 months, with Kay winning three times. Even though they both lost their quarterfinal bouts on Friday, they rebounded to win their first consolation match and are both guaranteed a medal.
They are at the opposite end of the loser’s bracket, but could meet one more time in a placing match, depending what happens.
“It would definitely be great to do it one more time, but we’ve become closer now that I think we’ve put everything aside and now we’re just trying to compete and do the best we can,” Kay said.
“When we get down here, we’re all representing District 2 so to see both of us place no matter where it’s at I think is awesome,” Popple said.