There is a saying that \u201cThe only way you can stay the same is by changing.\u201d Changes come and go in high school wrestling.
\nAbout 15 or so years ago, someone came up with the idea of not starting every match at the lightest weight and ending it with the heaviest, but drawing weight classes out of a hat and wrestling the dual meet in that order. It never caught on because both coaches had to agree to doing it that way.
\n Now beginning this season, a weight class is drawn before the match begins. That weight class is the first weight wrestled. Then everything goes in order following that weight class.
\nIn Tyrone\u2019s season opener at home against the Black Knights of Moshannon Valley, which the Eagles put in the bag by a 59-15 count, J. D. Shaw and the Knights\u2019 Scott Godin, wrestling at 140 opened the dual meet. Shaw scored first, receiving a point when Godin committed a technical violation. Godin then registered a takedown and three back points for a 5-1 advantage after one period. Although both boys tried hard, there was no further change in the score over the final four minutes to give Mo Valley a 3-0 team lead.
\nThat was the only time all match that the Knights enjoyed the lead.
\nAt 145, Eagle sophomore Adam Swayne, with red-dyed hair that appeared almost pink, escaped and scored a final period takedown to edge Matt Godin 4-3.
\nWith the team score knotted at 3-3, Brice Mertiff got the first of four Tyrone pins decking Steve Rebo at 152. Mertiff, a sophomore, took Rebo down twice before just beating the buzzer at the end of the opening period, clamping Rebo at the 1:56 mark for the fall.
\nTom Crowl was the next Eagle to notch a fall at 160, quickly getting Jim Selvage to his back for the fall in 0:51 to open an 15-3 Tyrone lead.
\nTyrone senior Blake Cowfer wrestled a solid 7-2 match over Knight freshman Fred Disher at 171. Cowfer opened up a 2-1 lead after one period with a takedown, stretched the margin to 4-1 after two with a penalty point and escape, then added another escape and takedown for the win and an 18-3 advantage for the Eagles.
\nMoshannon Valley staged a mini-comeback to pull to within three team points over the next two weight classes.
\nFirst Tyrone forfeited to Larry Hayward at 189, moving Justin Clark up to 215.
\nAnother change this year is the addition of another weight class, 215 pounds. This makes a total of 14 weights, unpopular with many, but 40 states already use a 215-pound weight class.
\nAt 215, Josh Lewis proved to be a little too heavy for Clark, a junior in his first varsity match after not wrestling since junior high. Lewis garnered a first-period takedown and worked for the fall in 1:06 to shorten the Tyrone lead to 18-15.
\n\u201cLast year we went in there at Mo Valley and I don\u2019t think they were ready for us,\u201d Tyrone coach Blair Packer. \u201cThis year, on the other hand, I knew they would comer here with the memory of the embarrassment and be ready for us. They did come at us, but actually, I think our kids handled it very well. I was very pleased with the way we wrestled this first match.\u201d
\nThat would be the last Mo Valley win however, with the Golden Eagles three forfeits, a tech fall and a pair of falls to finish the match in style.
\n\u201cI was especially impressed with Adam Swayne in his first match,\u201d said coach Packer. \u201cHe did a nice job, got a takedown late to win his match. Robert Waite at 103 looked really tough. He was like a Tasmanian Devil out there. He was all over and in that kid\u2019s face. That\u2019s the kind of matches we want to see. Robert put on a show tonight. Justin Clark is young and in his first match, we thought he might have a better shot at the kid at 215. Looking at the other kid and his weight now, we have to second guess ourselves, but he\u2019ll be all right.\u201d
\nTerry Tate (275), Richard Klapper (112) and Dane McCloskey (119) received forfeits to ease the way.
\nNewcomer Robert Waite scored a takedown and wrapped up Jon Cartwright of Mo Valley at 103, for a fall in 1:36. Brett Harris (130) and David Miller (135) ended the match with back-to-back pins and Thad Westley was all over his opponent for a technical fall at 125.
\nWestley notched five takedowns and a three-point nearfall in the first period against Josh Jacoby, added a takedown and three more back points in the middle stanza before adding a reversal that ended the match at the 4:20 mark with a 20-5 win.
\nHarris, who was losing 7-1 to Baron Berg before getting a defensive fall last year, left no doubt this time. Harris took Berg down in the opening period and reversed him in the second period, before applying the pinning combination in 3:48.
\nMiller was all over the Knights\u2019 Brian McLaughlin, scoring three takedowns and a two-point nearfall in the first minute of the opening period, getting the fall at the 1:01 mark.
\n\u201cWe did really well tonight,\u201d exclaimed Packer. \u201cIt looked like a first match and we seemed to get the \u2018first-night jitters\u2019 out of the way. We were a little rusty and timing was a problem. Overall you can\u2019t be disappointed with a score like that. Having kids in the wrestling room to push the starters is really nice. The kids can feel someone looking over their shoulder and it helps them to practice harder and it does make all the difference in the world over last year.\u201d
\nIn the only junior varsity match wrestled, last night, Tyrone\u2019s Curtis Weaverjumped out to a 10-1 lead before pinning the Knight\u2019s Ryan Welder in 3:15. Weaver built up his lead with a takedown and three-point nearfall in each of the first two periods.
\nThe Tyrone junior high team took advantage of 10 forfeits and used six pins to demolish the Moshannon Valley junior high 96-6.
\nShane Emigh (85), Chris Miller (90), Shane Tate (95), Brady Williams (115), James Updike (130), Tyler Updike (155), John Miller (165), Heath Walk (185), Jeffrey Miller (210) and Brandon Oswalt (250) all received forfeits. Anthony Romano (80), T. J. Albright (100), Nate Smerekar (110), Sam McCloskey (122), Donald Conrad (138) and Chris Bradigan (145) won by fall.
\nIn exhibition matches Shane Tate won by fall and Brandon Oswalt controlled his opponent for a solid 8-1 win.
\nTyrone 59 Moshannon Valley 15
\n140 Scott Godin (MV) dec, J. D. Shaw 5-1
\n145 Adam Swayne (T) dec. Matt Godin 4-3
\n152 Brice Mertiff (T) pinned Steve Rebo 1:56
\n160 Tom Crowl (T) pinned Jim Selvage 0:51
\n171 Blake Cowfer (T) dec. Fred Disher 7-2
\n189 Larry Hayward (MV) won by forfeit
\n215 Josh Lewis (MV) pinned Justin Clark 1:06
\n275 Terry Tate (T) won by forfeit
\n103 Robert Waite (T) pinned Jon Cartwright 1:26
\n112 Richard Klapper (T) won by forfeit
\n119 Dane McCloskey (T) won by forfeit
\n125 Thad Westley (T) won by tech fall Josh Jacoby 20-5, 4:20
\n130 Brett Harris (T) pinned Baron Berg 3:48
\n135 David Miller (T) pinned Brian McLaughlin 1:01
\n103 Robert Waite (T) pinned Jon Cartwright 1:26
\n112 Richard Klapper (T) won by forfeit
\n119 Dane McCloskey (T) won by forfeit
\n125 Thad Westley (T) won by tech fall Josh Jacoby 20-5, 4:20
\n130 Brett Harris (T) pinned Baren Berg 3:48
\n135 David Miller (T) pinned Brian McLaughlin 1:01
\nJunior Varsity
\n160 Curtis Weaver (T) pinned Ryan Welder 3:15<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a saying that \u201cThe only way you can stay the same is by changing.\u201d Changes come and go in high school wrestling. About 15 or so years ago, someone came up with the idea of not starting every match at the lightest weight and ending it with the heaviest, but drawing weight classes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}