Although the Tyrone wrestling team had only one match prior to the King of the Mountain Tournament at Central Mountain High School, the Eagle grapplers made a very credible performance finishing fourth out of 33 teams, including a number of extremely tough Double and Triple-A teams with returning state place winners.
Eagle senior Terry Tate led the Eagles with an individual title at 275, while David Miller (135), Brice Mertiff (160) and Heath Walk all earned third-place medals and T. J. Albright (112) placed eighth.
“We were just hoping to finish in the top 10 in the team race, because of the late start we got this year,” said Tyrone coach Blair Packer. “Last year we came in to this tournament with three dual meets and the Penn Cambria tournament under our belts. This year, we came in with so much less experience.”
Tate (5-0), the top seed at heavyweight, marched through the weight class, receiving a bye in the opening round and then claiming four straight wins. Tate pinned Bryan Tertreault of Hughesville, and decisioned Mike Lukenda of Downingtown East, 7-2 on Friday night. Terry followed that with a 5-2 win in the semifinals over Miles Caragan of Keystone Oaks, and then pinned Penn Trafford’s Ryan Tomei in 1:51.
“My concern for Terry was about his conditioning,” said Packer, “but evidently his football conditioning has carried over. He was able to go the distance in a couple of his matches and did well. We are thrilled, Terry has no place to go but up now.”
Miller (6-1) followed tech fall victories over Cody Reeves of Brandywine Heights, (18-3) and Zack Ewbank of Northern York, (19-3) with a fall over Chris Lincoln of Neshaminy in 2:51. In his first match on Saturday, however, Miller ran into eventual 135-pound champ Josh Knecht of Athens. Knecht led only 8-6 at one point in the second period, but outscored the Tyrone senior 9-4 after that to win going away 17-10. Miller came back in the consolation rounds to pin Bob Bryan of Penn Trafford, and Lincoln in a rematch to take third place.
Mertiff (6-1) handled three opponents, pinning all three in the first period on Friday, before getting decked by Austin Carter of team champion Council Rock South. Carter pinned five straight opponents to breeze through the tournament, after finishing fourth at states last spring. Mertiff came right back with two more first-period falls, getting Shawn Fausey of Line Mountain, in 1:55 and Josh Matthews of Penn Trafford, for the second time in the tournament for third place. After pinning Matthews in just 0:16 the first time, Brice took his time in the third-place consolation final pinning the Penn Trafford wrestler in 1:30. Mertiff also pinned Clarke Hoopes of Latrobe, in 1:23, and Shawn Fitzgerald of Downingtown East, in 0:37.
Walk (6-1) won twice by fall in nearly identical times on Friday getting Chris Minier of Athens, in 2:33, and Pat Lehr of Penn Trafford, in 2:23, and once by 13-4 major decision over Jon Radel of Line Mountain, before running into eventual 189-pound champ Keith McDonald, of Red Lion, the number two seed, who handed Walk his first loss of the year 5-3. Heath decisioned Mike Murkens of Franklin, 6-2 and edged Eric Shaw of Hollidaysburg, 1-0 in the consolation final for third place. McDonald pinned Forest Hills District VI champ Sean Kisel in the finals.
“All three of our kids (Miller, Mertiff, and Walk) who finished third, lost only to the eventual champions at their weight class. I was tickled by that, that says something. All three winners wrestled a very tough tournament.
T.J. Albright finished eighth at 112, receiving a bye and knocking off Brett Shoenfelt of Hollidaysburg, by a 9-0 major decision. Jon Andel dealt Albright an 8-5 loss to send the Eagle sophomore to the wrestlebacks. Albright majored Brandon Rauch of Indian Valley, 8-0, but lost to Nick Yocco of Brandywine Heights, 8-5. In the seventh place consolation final, T. J. was edged by Tony Comunale of Pius X, 9-8.
“As a team, we did real well. There were some very, very bright spots for our team, especially since we were not in the best of conditioning and timing yet,” said Packer. “Those who placed high for us stepped up to the occasion, stuck in there and did one heck of a job over the weekend.”
For the Eagles, Anthony Romano (103) was 1-2, Josh Hunter (119) was 2-2, Sam McCloskey (130) was 2-2, Justin Schopp (145) was 1-2, Matt Lauder (152) was 1-2, James Updike (171) was 1-2, John Miller (215) was 2-2, and Shayne Tate (125) and Jacob Smerekar (140) were both 0-2.
Team Standings
(top 12)
CRS-Council Rock South 208, PT-Penn Trafford 171, RL-Red Lion 145.5, T-Tyrone 140, CM-Central Mountain 134, CLF-Clearfield 133.5, IV-Indian Valley 132, GL-Greater Latrobe 128, BH-Brandywine Heights 123.5, FH-Forest Hills 101, NES-Neshaminy 101, JS-Jersey Shore 100.
