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LEHMAN TWP. — Winning a tournament championship for the first time is a thrill for any wrestler.
Even if an athlete has a tournament gold, claiming a title at a specific tournament for the first time is special.
That feeling was felt over and over on Saturday at the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament as 10 wrestlers won their first tournament championship at Lake-Lehman High School.
The most thrilling of the finals came from a pair of grapplers who were performing in their home gym in Lake-Lehman’s R.J. Driscoll and Mike Silvinski.
Driscoll, who was a state qualifier last season, didn’t even think he had a shot at winning the whole thing despite the credentials he entered with. But the 126-pounder overcame those odds and defeated Coughlin’s Jake Brown, 5-0 to claim the gold.
“I didn’t think I’d have a chance to be in the finals and then to be in the finals and win it is pretty great,” Driscoll said. “There’s tough competition every year. I’m glad to be able to compete with my competition.”
Slivinski meanwhile, gave the crowd at his school their money’s worth by getting in an unusually high-scoring affair at 220-pounds with Hanover Area’s Nick Hannon winning 13-10.
The sophomore who was seeded second led the top seed Hannon in the third period before Hannon orchestrated a reversal and netted three back points to tie the score at 10-10. Soon after Slivinski got a point for technical violation and a reversal of his own to nab the win and his first tournament championship.
“It scares you every time you’re on your back. It doesn’t matter what position, when you’re on your back you’re scared,” Slivinski said. “Just gotta keep pushing through and get to your belly.”
Hazleton Area’s Jake Maurer (113), Keith Lowery (145) and Carson Kinney (195), Tunkhannock’s Dakota Quick (132) and Bill Manley (152), Wyoming Valley West freshman David Krokowski (106), Dallas’ Cole Dixon (182) and Hanover Area’s John Sheridan (285) all joined the Lake-Lehman duo by winning their first WVC tournament titles on Saturday.
Tunkhannock’s Mike Manley (160) and Dalton Ray (170), Meyers’ Colin Pasone (120) and Hazleton Area’s Jimmy Hoffman (138) all picked up their second WVC titles over the weekend.
The four champions from Tunkhannock, including tournament Outstanding Wrestler Quick helped the Tigers cruise to the team championship and pile up records along the way.
In what was supposed to be tight race between Tunkhannock and Hazleton Area, the Tigers turned that into a mockery with absurd numbers.
Their score of 261.5 obliterated the previous record of 211 set by Wyoming Valley West in 2014. The Tigers actually broke the record before the medal rounds even started. The margin of victory by 57 points was the largest by any champion in the seven-year history of the event also surpassing Valley West’s 51 in 2014. Tunkhannock’s seven finalists tied the tournament-record for most by one team. The only other two teams to have seven finalists in tournament history was Hazleton Area in 2010 and Valley West in 2014.
“We knew it was going to be close with Hazleton, but to come away with that 60-point win it feels good, like it did when we won Kiwanis,” Ray said. “Everybody is seeing now that we’re dominating in our area and we hope to keep it rolling.”
Mike Manley came out a winner in one of the toughest brackets of the event at 160 when he defeated Meyers’ Gino Setta, 4-3 in a thrilling three overtime periods. Setta held a 3-1 lead late in the third period when Manley tied it up with 30 seconds left on a reversal.
After the scoreless sudden victory period, Manley held Setta down in the second OT. Then in the third extra session, Manley took bottom and escaped with 10 seconds left then hung on for the victory and his second tournament title.
“When I got my reversal I’m just thinking ride him the rest of the time because I knew if he got out I wouldn’t have time to get a takedown,” Manley said. “(In overtime) it was tough. He was hanging onto my leg really hard. He wasn’t letting go easy.”
Pasone, who was a state qualifier last year like Driscoll, won his second title, but first since 2014 after missing last year’s event. He took care of Hanover Area’s Jeff Bennett picking up a pin in 5:32 for one of five pins in the finals. Krokowski, Quick, Hoffman and Sheridan also won by fall in the finals.
Pasone took an early lead in the match, and Bennett got aggressive in the first period, but it backfired and turned into back points for Pasone before he grabbed the pin in the third period.
“It sucked sitting out last year but made winning this one even better,” Pasone said after beating Bennett for the second time this season. “We’re good friends so he knew he had to be aggressive and couldn’t let me try to score the points. He had to be aggressive and try to score his points.”
Lake-Lehman finished third in the team race with 174, Meyers was fourth with 168, and Hanover Area rounded out the top five with 131.
