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Bearcats claw into semifinals

HUNTINGDON – There’s not many dents in the armor of the Huntingdon wrestling team, and that was pretty evident in its District 6 Duals preliminary against Moshannon Valley.

After the ninth-seeded Black Knights squeezed out a 38-36 win over eighth-seeded rival Glendale in the first match of the doubleheader, the the top-seeded Bearcats recorded eight pins en route to a 63-12 victory in the Thursday night doubleheader.

“We just wrestled really well tonight,” Huntingdon coach Jon Mykut said. “Our kids have been physical, and our conditioning is where it needs to be this time of the year. This is a goal-oriented group and certainly looking forward to Saturday.”

“Huntingdon is pretty good,” Mo Valley coach Justin Fye said. “I knew we’d be favored in a couple matches, and a couple other matches where we were pushing the pace toward the end, but we just got ourself in a hole, and it’s hard to fight out of that hole.”

While most of the bouts in the in the Huntingdon-Mo Valley meet were mismatches, the first one, at 182 between Huntingdon’s Matt Norris and Mo Valley’s Kent Stewart, was entertaining. Norris charged out to a 6-2 lead, but Stewart came back to tie the score, 8-8.

Stewart released Norris with a minute left in the bout, and the Black Knight senior scored a takedown with 33 seconds left to take the lead, 10-9. Norris escaped with 17 seconds left, and he took Stewart down with 3.7 seconds left to win, 12-10.

“We preach in the wrestling room to wrestle a full six minutes,” Mykut said, “and we were able to pick one up at the end because we were aggressive at the end of the match.”

“I don’t know if we were ready to wrestle right off the bat,” Fye said, “but we pushed the pace until the end. Those are probably two of the better 182-pounders in the district.”

Huntingdon’s Mitch Lauer (195) won by fall in 1:29, and Tyler Morningstar (220) won by injury default over Robert Cramer (leg) in 1:21.

The Knights’ only wins came in the next two weights, with Jack Bunnell 9285) winning by forfeit and Dylan Hamilton (106) picking up a pin in 41 seconds.

Huntingdon (15-1) then reeled off three straight pins by Collin Glorioso (23-0), ranked second by Off The Mat at 113, in 51 seconds, Tyler Scott (23-5), ranked first in the Mirror rankings at 120, in 2:37 and Matt Wilson in 55 seconds at 126.

After Devon Green (22-4) took Bryce Bloom down three times in the third to win, 11-4, at 132, pins by Nathan Russell (22-4) in 2:33 at 138, the Mirror’s top-ranked 145-pounder Jacob Oliver (23-0) in 3:43 and John Wagner in 57 seconds at 152 made the score 54-12.

Eric Lynn won another high-scoring bout, 17-10, over Cody Hamilton at 160, and Logan Fisher closed the match with a pin in 2:45.

The Bearcats will now get ready for their semifinal meet against fourth-seeded Westmont Hilltop at 5 p.m. Saturday at Tyrone. The winner faces either second-seeded West Branch or third-seeded Mount Union at 6:45.

“We know we have Westmont first, and that’s where our focus will be until we win that match,” Mykut said. “These guys haven’t looked ahead to anybody all year. It’s just the next opponent on our schedule.”

Mo Valley 38, Glendale 36

In the preliminary match, pins by Mo Valley’s Cody Hamilton (170), Kent Stewart (195) and Dylan Hamilton (106) and Glendale’s Hunter Hamilton (182) and Ray Carlheim, as well as Bunnell’s 6-3 win over Ness preceded the key bout of the meet.

At 113, Glendale’s Ozzy Cheripka held a 3-1 lead over Joey Vanish in the second period when Vanish headlocked Cheripka to his back for five points and a 6-3 lead. Cheripka reversed, but Vanish received a penalty point in the third for interlocking, and he escaped for an 8-5 lead. Cheripka took him down to get within one, but Vanish escaped with 3 seconds left to win, 9-7.

Glendale recorded pins by Jett Sacolic (120) and Bradon Hughes (126) in the next two weights, but major decisions by Bryce Bloom (132) and Sam Ohler (145) and a pin by Ryan Thomas (138) gave the Knights a 38-24 lead. A pin by Glendale’s Justin Hommer (152) and a forfeit win by Kyle Stewart (160) closed the meet.

“I thought Joey Vanish had a big win,” Fye said. “I thought we would win there. Joey has gotten better. This is his second year, and he continues to try to get better. He just wrestled tough. That was probably the biggest win he’s had.”

“We lost a couple swing bouts, I felt,” Glendale coach Matt Lobb said. “113 could have easily gone our way. Not that I want to put the whole match on one bout because there were a lot of other bouts where we didn’t need to give up bonus points. But, we get another crack at them Wednesday.”

MOSHANNON VALLEY 38, GLENDALE 36

170-C. Hamilton, MV, pinned Myers, :27; 182-Hamilton, G, pinned C. Stewart, 3:59; 195-K. Stewart, MV, pinned Simmers, 3:16; 220-Carlheim, G, pinned Cramer, 4:55; 285-Bunnell, MV, dec. Ness, 6-3; 106-D. Hamilton, MV, pinned Kovach, 1:26; 113-Vanish, MV, dec. Cheripka, 9-7.

120-Sacolic, G, pinned Bennett, 1:53; 126-Hughes, G, pinned Bryan, 3:12; 132-Bloom, MV, maj. dec. Johnson, 13-3; 138-Thomas, MV, pinned Hepfer, 1:47; 145-Ohler, MV, maj. dec. Rojas, 12-1; 152-Hommer, G, pinned Kruise, 1:04; 160-Stewart, G, won by forfeit.

Records: Moshannon Valley (9-4); Glendale (14-6).

HUNTINGDON 63, MOSHANNON VALLEY 12

182-Norris, H, dec. K. Stewart, 12-10; 195-Lauer, H, pinned Malinich, 1:29; 220-Morningstar, H, won by injury default over Cramer, 1:21; 285-Bunnell, MV, won by forfeit; 106-D. Hamilton, MV, pinned Kline, :41; 113-Glorioso, H, pinned Vanish, :51; 120-Scott, H, pinned Bryan, 2:37.

126-Wilson, H, pinned Krupa, :55; 132-Green, H, dec. Bloom, 11-4; 138-Russell, H, pinned Thomas, 2:33; 145-Oliver, H, pinned Ohler, 3:43; 152-Wagner, H, pinned Kruise, :57; 160-Lynn, H, dec. C. Hamilton, 17-10; 170-Fisher, H, pinned C. Stewart, 2:45.

Records: Moshannon Valley (9-5); Huntingdon (15-1)

Referees: Bruce Haselrig, John Lower

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