Dublers, Hoover garner titles this time
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By Todd Irwin
sports@altoonamirror.com
They all tasted defeat in the District 6 Class 2A championship finals last season, leaving Glendale's Zeke Dubler and Suds Dubler and Penn Cambria's Trent Hoover with a bitter taste in their mouths.
It was that bitter taste that drove them in the offseason and led to all three standing on the top step of the medals podium on Saturday night at the Altoona Fieldhouse.
Junior Zeke Dubler (160), senior Suds Dubler (172) and sophomore Hoover (126) captured district titles. Suds earned his second district title in his fourth finals appearance, while Zeke and Hoover earned their first titles.
It's the first time brothers won district titles since Hayden and Trent Hidlay won Class 3A titles for Mifflin County in 2016. It's the first time in Class 2A since Forest Hills' Triston and Cody Law captured titles in 2013.
"It was awesome Zeke and I going back-to-back as champs," Suds Dubler said. "I one-upped him (with the pin)."
Zeke earned a 4-1 decision over Forest Hills' Dustin Flinn. Suds followed with a pin of Bald Eagle Area's Caleb Close in 5:14. Hoover beat Forest Hills' Hunter Forcellini, 8-4, in the finals.
The finals weren't as pleasant for Tyrone's Korry Walls (106), Ashton Sipes (132) and Braden Ewing (285), Central Cambria's Ethan Kubat (189) and Bellwood-Antis' Ethan Norris (215). All of them lost in the finals.
Walls and Norris came oh so close to winning titles. Walls was ridden out in the ultimate tiebreaker by United's Jacob Sombronski to lose, 3-2.
Norris, the seventh-seeded Cinderella story of the tournament, beat Glendale's third-seeded Britton Spangle, 6-5, in the quarterfinals and Moshannon Valley's second-seeded David Honan, 3-0, in the semifinals.
The B-A junior then suffered a 2-1 loss to Forest Hills' Kirk Bearjar, who rallied with two points in the third on an interlock penalty point and an escape. Norris took a couple shots in the third, but Bearjar defended them.
"It was a grind to work my way up to the semis and then the championship," Norris said. "Just to get up to the championship was amazing. Unfortunately (Bearjar) capitalized. I didn't capitalize on a couple finishes I had on some single-leg attempts. He had some great defense, so props to him.
"I feel great. I feel like I could go out and wrestle whoever. No matter who I wrestle, it's going to be my match. I'm looking forward to regionals."
Sipes dropped a 5-3 decision to Philipsburg-Osceola's Marcus Gable. Kubat suffered a 4-0 loss to BEA's Noah Foltz in the finals. Huntingdon's Gunner Singleton avenged his District 6 Duals loss to Ewing, 7-3. Ewing appeared to injure his leg in the loss.
Tyrone finished in third place in the team standings with 162.5 points. Forest Hills captured its second straight team title by 19.5 points over Bald Eagle Area, 205.5-186.
Hoover (28-6), who had two pins, started out quickly against Forcellini, nailing two takedowns in the first two periods and adding three nearfall points for an 8-0 lead. Forcellini reversed in the second and added a takedown in the third.
"I had a good start," Hoover. "I should have pushed the pace a little bit more at the end, and scored some more points, but I think I wrestled pretty well this weekend."
"I'm very proud of him," Penn Cambria coach Todd Niebauer said. "He's a kid who works his tail off. The kids in our room know he's the one that goes the extra mile sometimes."
Niebauer, PC assistant coach and former head coach Doug Fogel were inducted into the District 6 Hall of Fame, as were Cambria Heights' former coach Mike Eckenrode, Claysburg-Kimmel wrestler Chris Musselman and former Glendale coach and Bellwood resident Bill Damiano. There were 16 inducted into the HOF. "I'm very honored," Niebauer said. "I credit all the great families and the great kids and administrators I've had over the years."
Zeke Dubler (32-2), who had three pins to reach the finals, was in a scoreless finals bout with Flinn the first two periods. Dubler reversed, gave up an escape and notched a takedown with 35 seconds left, exciting the Glendale section.
"Losing to (Westmont Hilltop's) Hudson Holbay last year really pushed me to work harder," Zeke said. "Getting my first title has always been on my list to accomplish."
Suds Dubler (33-2), who was a 106-pound champ as a freshman, rolled into the finals with two technical falls and a pin. He was only up 1-0 on Close in the third when he muscled in a bar and half, put Close on his back and pinned him. He flexed to the Glendale section in celebration.
"It feels great," Suds said. "I had bonus points throughout this tournament. It was at one of the toughest weights too. I was just excited. My goal was to be a four-time district champ. My eyes were really on being a district champ this year."
Walls (25-7) and Sombronski went to the ultimate tiebreaker tied, 4-4. Sombronski chose the top position for the 30-second period and rode Walls out.
"Some points just didn't go my way," Walls said. "That was my first ultimate rideout. By the end of the match, I was just exhausted trying to get out."
Sipes was up 2-1 on Gable in the third period when caution calls became a problem. After his Sipes' second caution from the top position, Gable escaped and got a takedown for a 4-2 lead. A third caution yielded a point to Gable. After Gable's second caution, Sipes escaped, but Gable avoided danger to win.
The Golden Eagles had seven wrestlers who placed in the top six of their weights qualify for the Southwest Regional Tournament, which is set for March 4-5 at Peters Township High School.
Logan Rumberger (113) and Andrew Weaver (160) finished third, while Lukas Walk (138) and Reese Wood (145) placed fourth.
There were 23 area wrestlers who qualified for the regional tournament.
Penn Cambria had five, including fourth-placers Nathan Little (152) and Austin McCloskey (160) and sixth-placers Anthony Coukart (132) and Austin Wagner (189).
Wagner, though, dislocated his knee and injury defaulted to Kubat in the semifinals. He then medically forfeited his consolation bouts. Niebauer didn't know yet whether Wagner would be able to wrestle at regionals.
Also advancing to regionals were Bellwood-Antis' Xander Shank (third, 152) and Aaron Laird (sixth, 285), Central's Jaxon Matthews (third, 132) and Ty Biesinger (fourth, 113), Glendale's fourth-placers George Campbell (132) and Britton Spangle (215), and Central Cambria third-placer Karter Quick (285).
Placing but not qualifying were Central Cambria eighth-placers Deklan Estep (152) and Jon Hajzus (172), Central seventh-placer Wyatt Holsinger (285) and Cambria Heights' eighth-placer Hunter Jones (106).
Notes: Forest Hills' Jackson Arrington (152) won his fourth title and was voted the Outstanding Wrestler. ... Forest Hills coach Jake Strayer was voted Coach of the Year. ... The Rangers went 6-for-6 in the semifinals and 3-for-6 in the finals.
KEY, TEAM STANDINGS
1. FH--Forest Hills 205.5; 2. BEA--Bald Eagle Area 186; 3. T--Tyrone 162.5; 4. PO--Philipsburg-Osceola 157.5; 5. PV--Penns Valley 145; 6. G--Glendale 110.5; 7. H--Huntingdon 108; 8. PC--Penn Cambria 96.5; 9. MC--Marion Center 94.5; 10. MU--Mount Union 88; 11. U--United 80; 12. CC--Central Cambria 75; 13. BA--Bellwood-Antis 74; 14. WB--West Branch 73; 15. RV--River Valley 63; 16. MV--Moshannon Valley 61; 17. C--Central 49; 18. SH--Southern Huntingdon 36.5; 19. WH--Westmont Hilltop 34; 20. JV--Juniata Valley 33; 21. R--Richland 22; 22. CH--Cambria Heights 18.5; 23. CK--Claysburg-Kimmel 14.
CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
106--Sombronski, U, dec. Walls, T, 5-4 UTB; 113--Bainey, WB, dec. Fye, BEA, 7-5; 120--Bainey, BEA, maj. dec. Coudriet, PO, 9-1; 126--Hoover, PC, dec. Forcellini, FH, 8-4; 132--Gable, PO, dec. Sipes, T, 5-3; 138--Toth, FH, dec. Cornetto, MC, 3-0; 145--Watson, PV, dec. Teeter, FH, 4-2 OT
152--Arrington, FH, pinned Stuchal, RV, 1:38; 160--Z. Dubler, G, dec. Flinn, FH, 4-1; 172--S. Dubler, G, pinned Close, BEA, 5:14; 189--Foltz, BEA, dec. Kubat, CC, 4-0; 215--Bearjar, FH, dec. Norris, BA, 2-1; 285--Singleton, H, dec. Ewing, T, 7-3.
Outstanding Wrestler: Jackson Arrington, Forest Hills. Coach of the Year: Jake Strayer, Forest Hills
THIRD PLACE
106--Beatty, MU, maj. dec. Darlington, PV, 14-1; 113--Rumberger, T, won by injury default over Biesinger, C, 3:06; 120--A.J. Chilcote, MU, dec. Shunk, PV, 4-3; 126--Frantz, PO, dec. Dunsmore, H, 7-5; 132--Matthews, C, pinned Campbell, G, 6:16 TB; 138--Pifer, BEA, dec. Walk, T, 2-0; 145--Heilbrun, MC, maj. dec. Wood, T, 13-5
152--Shank, BA, dec. Little, PC, 6-0; 160--Weaver, T, pinned McCloskey, PC, 2:27; 172--Cohenour, SH, dec. Stewart, MC, 8-7; 189--Lyons, PV, dec. Smeal, MV, 7-3; 215--Honan, MV, maj. dec. Spangle, G, 11-2; 285--Quick, CC, dec. Klinger, PO, 4-2.
FIFTH PLACE
106--Guenot, BEA, dec. Shilcosky, U, 5-2; 113--Bracken, U, maj. dec. Yocum, H, 18-8; 120--Stewart, MC, pinned Gladfelter, H, 2:55; 126--C. Chilcote, MU, maj. dec. Henning, U, 8-0; 132--Taylor, BEA, maj. dec. Coukart, PC, 10-1; 138--Syfert, R, dec. Mykut, H, 4-0; 145--Foster, PO, pinned Grubb, H, :50
152--Hughes, PO, dec. Reese, BEA, 2-1; 160--Dubbs, BEA, dec. Reck, MU, 3-2; 172--Felker, PV, maj. dec. Templeton, FH, 12-0; 189--Shaw, PO, won by forfeit over Wagner, PC; 215--Carolus, JV, pinned Bumbarger, WB, 2:57; 285--Miller, RV, pinned Laird, BA, 2:14.
SEVENTH PLACE AREA RESULTS
106--McDonald, PO, pinned Jones, CH, 1:37; 152--Martin, PV, pinned Estep, CC, 1:25; 172--Folmar, WB, won by forfeit over Hajzus, CC; 285--Holsinger, C, pinned Winters, MC, :20.