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VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — After Day 1 of the NHSCA High School National Wrestling Championships at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, six wrestlers from the area have reached the quarterfinals of their respective brackets.
Wyoming Area junior Charlie Johnson and Wyoming Seminary freshman Jack Davis are leading the way for the locals having picked up three wins apiece to get to Saturday’s round of 16 and are the only ones from the area to win three bouts on Friday.
Wyoming Valley West’s Cody Cordes, the PIAA Class 3A runner-up, won twice in his 170-pound bracket of the senior division to advance.
Davis’ sophomore teammate Zane Black picked up a pin in the grade’s 220-pound bracket to advance, and so did Hazleton Area senior Derek Spachman in the senior’s 182-pound weight.
Tunkhannock freshman Sam Rice didn’t have to wrestle on Friday in the 195-pound class since there weren’t enough wrestlers to dwindle the competition down to 16.
Johnson, a fifth-place finisher in the PIAA Class 2A Championships earlier this month, defeated three-time state medalists from North Carolina and Georgia to reach today’s quarterfinals, which will begin at approximately noon. Davis knock off a fourth-place medalist from West Virginia via pin in his first match of the day.
Tunkhannock’s Dalton Ray, wrestling in the junior division’s 160-pound class, picked up two wins knocking off a fifth-place state medalist from Virginia and a three-time Georgia state medalist before losing due to an injury in his third match of the day.
Coughlin freshman Jake Brown (126 pounds), Hazleton Area sophomores Jake Maurer (106) and Anthony Martoccio (120) won their first bout on Friday before falling into the wrestlebacks, which begin Saturday at 9 a.m. Wyoming Seminary junior Patrick Munn (138), Coughlin senior Bobby Hawkins (132) and Crestwood senior Dan Ritz (138) also won their first match on Friday before falling into the consolations. Hawkins pinned a third-place finisher from the state of Virginia before losing to a Washington state champion.
COLLEGE BASEBALL
Colonels split twinbill
Wilkes defeated Eastern 5-2 in the first game before falling 4-3 in the second game of the doubleheader.
Wilkes starter Patrick Condo pitched a complete-game, four-hitter in the first game allowing two runs early then getting help from the offense to net the win. Wilkes pounded out 14 hits over the game including two hits each from Jarret Clymer, Stephen Ruch, Dan Pisanchyn, Zak Berg, and Joshua Slocum.