With the Huntingdon Bearcats hanging on to a slim 21-20 lead in Tuesday night’s wrestling match at Huntingdon, Tyrone (10-1) called on some of their talented veterans and enlisted the help of a newcomer as well to blitz through the final four weight classes for their 10th straight dual meet victory of the year 41-21.
Undefeated 275-pounder Terry Tate (24-0) began the end for Huntingdon, with a 3:05 pin over Joe Gongloff to move Tyrone back into the lead 26-21. Freshman Anthony Romano (7-5) stretched the Eagles advantage using a four-point first period to triumph 6-3 over the Cats 103-pounder Peter Mykut. T. J. Albright (20-5) wasted no time in taking Phillip Brown down to the mat for the fall in 1:51 for his 20th win of the season, and Robert Waite (15-3) added six points with a win by forfeit to closed out the dual.
The match began at the 125-pound weight class with Huntingdon building a 6-0 lead with two straight wins to open the dual. Vance Myers utilized a three-point nearfall in the third period to down Shayne Tate (4-16), 5-2 and Josh Brown decisioned Josh Hunter (11-14) 10-6, after trailing 6-5 going into the third period at 130.
David Miller (25-3), who registered his 100th career win against West Branch last week, kept right on track, pinning Kyle Thompson in 3:19 to quickly knot the score 6-6. Chris Myers scored the only points of the middle period against Sam McCloskey (9-13) to squeeze past McCloskey 8-7 to push the Cats into the lead again after the 140 class. That lead didn’t hold for long. Jacob Smerekar (11-10) tied it again for Tyrone by taking a 13-6 win from Dusten Kanagy to go over the .500 mark for the Eagles. The Eagle sophomore started the season 0-4, but has gone 11-6 since in his first varsity season.
The lead continued to sway back and forth when Chris Banks shaded Justin Schopp (9-13) 5-2, at 152, to give Huntingdon a 12-9 lead.
At 160, dependable veteran Brice Mertiff (26-4) won by a 15-0 tech fall over Tim Cousins with a takedown in each period, an escape and two sets of back points. Heath Walk (21-5) upped the Tyrone lead to 20-12 with a fall over Dallas Runk in just :47.
Huntingdon won at both 171, and 189, to take their final lead of the dual and set up the Eagles for their run to victory.
At 171, Brandon Hollenbaugh recorded the Bearcats only pin of the match by decking James Updike (6-9) in 3:32. Then Brandon VanBuskirk scored the final five points of the match at 189 to best Donnie Conrad (6-11) by an 8-5 count. Updike was trailing only 2-1 when he ran into trouble against Hollenbaugh. Conrad scored the first points on a takedown, but was down 3-2 after one period. He escaped in the second period after beginning the stanza on the bottom, but allowed VanBuskirk to get two nearfall points before he was able to get loose and surrendered an escape and takedown to the Huntingdon grappler in the third period.
Tyrone will travel to nearby Hollidaysburg for a dual meet at the County Seat on Thursday. Junior high wrestling will begin at 5 p.m. with the varsity starting at 7 p.m.
Tyrone 41 Huntingdon 21
125 – Vance Myers (H) dec. Shayne Tate 5-2
130 – Tim Brown (H) dec. Josh Hunter 10-5
135 – David Miller (T) pinned Kyle Thompson 3:19
140 – Chris Myers (H) dec. Sam McCloskey 8-7
145 – Jacob Smerekar (T) dec. Dusten Kanagy 13-6
152 – Chris Banks (H) dec. Justin Schopp 5-2
160 – Brice Mertiff (T) tech fall Tim Cousins 15-0, 4:43
171 – Heath Walk (T) pinned Dallas Runk 0:47
189 – Brad Hollenbaugh (H) pinned James Updike 3:32
215 – Brandon VanBuskirk (H) dec. Donnie Conrad 8-3
275 – Terry Tate (T) pinned Joe Gongloff 3:05
103 – Anthony Romano (T) dec. Peter Mykut 6-3
112 – T. J. Albright (T) pinned Phillip Brown 1:51
119 – Robert Waite (T) won by forfeit.
