Lewistown and Tyrone battled through the first five weight classes wrestled at Lewistown on Thursday evening with the two MAC opponents deadlocked at 9-9. At that point, Tyrone coach Blair Packer attempted to move some of his wrestlers up a weight to get better matchups. Lewistown took advantage to record a forfeit win at 112, first-period falls at 119, and 125, and a technical fall at 130 to jump into a 32-9 advantage that the Panthers never relinquished. The Golden Eagles, who were wrestling for the first time since Dec. 16, were able to win just three more matches to suffer a 40-20 loss to Lewistown (3-2).
“They have a fairly decent lineup beginning with their 103-pounder and their 119, 125 and 130 pounders are studded, nationally-ranked kids and in that area we were hoping to try to keep from giving up pins, try to keep the match as close as possible, hoping to pick up some points at the top,” explained Coach Packer. “I thought A. J. Schopp wrestled a commendable match. He wrestled a real tough, smart match against his kid.”
With the match beginning at 171, Justin Schopp (5-2) used a second-period reversal and third period nearfall to score a 4-0 victory over Ethan Coburn to get Tyrone a 3-0 lead.
At 189, Tyrone senior Brady Williams and Lewistown junior Anthony Noland battled for six minutes with a first-period penalty point for interlocking hands spelling the difference in an 8-7 decision for Noland to knot the team score at 3-3. Williams gave up a takedown, but reversed Noland in the first stanza, then added an escape and takedown of his own for a 5-3 advantage. Noland reversed Williams to his back at the end of the second period to take a 7-5 lead going into the final two minutes, where he traded an escape for a Williams takedown.
“We lost a heartbreaker at 189 by a point, where that point was an interlocking that cost him (Williams) the match,” said Packer. “That is just some of those things which we need to work on. Donnie Conrad moving up to 215 worked out well for us. He wrestled a smart match there.”
Conrad (2-3) made a first-period takedown and back points hold up in a 4-2 triumph over Nick Knable. A Lewistown senior, Knable pinned his way to the most pins award at the Conestoga Valley Tournament over the holidays, but Conrad controlled him for the win.
After a much bigger Frank Terry pinned Dustin Weaver, who weighed in at 215, at heavyweight, 103-pounder Schopp (7-1) parleyed first and third period takedowns into a 4-0 win over fellow freshman Gage Smith to retie the team score at 9-9.
Lewistown then went on their bonus-point spree, winning by forfeit at 112, Colton Spade pinned Donnie Hunter (0-1) in 1:32 at 119 and Matt Bonson decked T. J. Albright (4-4) in 1:34 at 125.
At 130, Mike Robinson played around with Cody Weaver (0-1) with five takedowns, an escape and six nearfall points for a 17-1 technical fall to push the team score suddenly to 32-9, in the favor of Lewistown.
Josh Miller (1-3) picked up his first varsity win, 8-5 over fellow sophomore Cody Hassinger. Hassinger scored a reversal midway through the second period to tie the match at 4-4, but Miller added a reversal and two back points with just 20 seconds in the to go, for the victory at 135.
Tyrone won the final two weight classes. First, Jake Smerekar opened up the second period with a takedown at 152, slipping Matt Gregg’s attempt and coming up with one of his own, then adding an escape and takedown in the third period for the 5-1 win. Then, Shayne Tate had his way with Severn Thierwechter winning an 18-3 tech fall to close out the dual.
Tate garnered three takedowns, a reversal, escape and four sets of nearfall points for the victory.
Tyrone (0-2) will wrestle in the Blair/Huntingdon Counties Tournament on Saturday, at the Altoona Fieldhouse with wrestling starting at 9 a.m.
The Tyrone junior high came home from Lewistown with a 52-31 win over the Little Panthers.
Tyrone jumped out to a 18-4 lead after the 155-pound weight class. Lewistown came back to close the score to 18-16, but The Little Eagles, with pins from Jeremy Miller (130), Brock Noel (138), Cody Smith (155), Ridge Colyer (210), Ron Garbinsky (95) and Doug Rudy (122), a forfeit win for Dylan Weston (80), major decision by Christian Getz and regular decisions by Kirby Lawrence (250) and Robbie Sellers (100) never allowed Lewistown to get any closer.
Lewistown 40 Tyrone 20
171 – Justin Schopp (T) dec. Ethan Coburn 4-0
189 – Anthony Noland (L) dec. Brady Williams 8-7
215 – Donnie Conrad (T) dec. Nick Knable 4-2
285 – Frank Terry (L) pinned Dustin Weaver 2:40
103 – A. J. Schopp (T) dec. Gage Smith 4-0
112 – Matt Snyder (L) won by forfeit
119 – Colton Spade (L) pinned Donnie Hunter 1:32
125 – Matt Bonson (L) pinned T. J. Albright 1:34
130 – Mike Robinson (L) tech fall Cody Weaver 19-3, 4:43
135 – Josh Miller (T) dec. Cody Hassinger 8-5
140 – Cody Johns (L) tech fall J. P. VanAllman 17-1, 5:52
145 – Zac Scheider (L) dec. Jeremy Barlett 5-3 OT
152 – Jacob Smerekar (T) dec. Matt Gregg 5-1
160 – Shayne Tate (T) tech fall Severn Thierwechter 18-3, 5:57.
EXH
125 – Matt Moore (T) pinned Curtis Bailor 5:23
140 – Anthony Romano (T) tech fall Julio Valencia 17-1
152 – Cody Reese (T) maj. dec. Drew Wilburne 8-0
160 – John Markel (T) pinned Geoff Stewart 4:56.
