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By Todd Irwin
sports@altoonamirror.com
Glendale senior Zeke Dubler enters his final high school postseason this weekend as the No. 1 seed and the defending District 6 Class 2A Tournament champion at 160 pounds.
The 2021-2022 Altoona Mirror Co-Wrestler of the Year and Lehigh University recruit is right where he wants to be.
"I'm super excited," Dubler said. "It's going to be fun. It's one last go at it. I've got nothing to lose. I'm just going to go out, have fun and wrestle my best."
Dubler is 32-3 with 24 pins this season and 77 falls for his career, breaking the school pins record of 73, which his brother, Suds, set last year. It wasn't until last season Zeke won a district title after finishing second as a sophomore.
"I'm more confident this year," Dubler said. "I feel like I'm going to go out there and wrestle my best and wrestle fearless. I got the monkey off of my back with a title under my belt. It's all about wrestling your best."
Dubler could be facing a familiar face in the final in Huntingdon's second-seeded Andrew McMonagle. The Williamsburg junior is 30-3 with 25 pins after sitting out last year with a shoulder injury. As a freshman for Central, he qualified for the Super Regional.
"I'm excited for that," Dubler said. "Me and Andrew have been really good buddies forever. It's always fun wrestling your friends. You get to a point where you're laughing and joking and having fun, and then whenever you have to compete, you compete."
The other area returning champion is Penn Cambria's Trent Hoover, who is the top seed at 145. Hoover is 30-2 after making the jump from 126 to 145 this season.
"Trent's had a good season," Penn Cambria coach Todd Niebauer said. "I think he's focused and ready to go. He's not without some road blocks. There are some really good kids in that weight class. I feel really confident he's going to be right there. I know he's excited. I'm sure he's looking forward to bigger things than just the districts."
Hoover, Dubler and the other Class 2A wrestlers begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday, but they will share the Altoona Fieldhouse with Class 3A wrestlers from six schools on Saturday in a unique format. Saturday's wrestling starts at 8:30 a.m. with Class 2A consolations and a few Class 3A quarterfinals.
They'll wrestle alongside each other throughout the day before an expected large crowd - even in the final round at 7 p.m., when there will be the championship finals and third-place bouts on four mats for both classes.
"It's going to be a learning experience for everybody," Niebauer said. "The greater wrestling you can get in the gym the better. Yes, we've got to share, but I know there are absolute hammers in that triple A tournament that I don't find time to get to watch. I'm probably going to catch myself watching a little bit of that.
"Room-wise it might be a struggle, but I think it will help our kids to see what the triple A has to offer. I'm sure Phil Riccio, Paul Myers and Homer DeLattre are going to try to do their best to make it as stress-free as they can for us."
"I think that's going to be fun because I have a bunch of buddies in triple A," Dubler said. "I'm going to enjoy watching those guys kick butt while I'm also wrestling. I'm excited that they did that this year. It might take a little longer, but there are going to be more fans, and that's always exciting."
Among the wrestlers are Mirror coverage area district runners-up in Tyrone's Korry Walls (seeded first at 107) and Braden Ewing (seeded third at 285) and Bellwood-Antis' Ethan Norris (seeded fifth at 285). Central Cambria's Karter Quick (22-2) is the top seed at 215.
Tyrone's Logan Rumberger (121), Lukas Walk (139) and Kyle Scott (172) are No. 2 seeds, as are Glendale's Britton Spangle (189) and Daniel Williams (285) and Penn Cambria's Mason Raymond (215).
"I'm excited for our guys," Dubler said. "Britton Spangle cut down to 189, and I'm super excited for him. I think he's going to have a good tournament. Daniel Williams, George Campbell (152) and a lot of these guys have been working really hard.
The top six wrestlers in Class 2A at each weight class qualify for the Southwest Regional Tournament, which is March 3-4 back at the Fieldhouse.
"After a long season, you're always ready," Niebauer said. "It's always worth to get to the postseason. I don't think there's a coach who has been around for awhile that doesn't get excited for the postseason. I know the kids are ready to compete as well.
"We really like that longer time to just kind of tweak the things that we need to work on and maybe work on some conditioning and strength stuff. If you're banged up, you use that time as well. We've been fortunate in that area. I think they're willing to sacrifice a little bit of monotony for detailed teaching."