Trending
By Todd Irwin
sports@altoonamirror.com
Northern Bedford junior Eion Snider and sophomore Aaron Bowers will look to step up further on the medals stand at the District 5 Tournament after finishing third at last year's tournament.
Snider (29-9), who is the top seed at 172, seems to have the best chance among the Panther wrestlers to claim a district title. Bowers (20-2) is seeded second behind Somerset's returning state qualifier Rowan Holmes (26-3).
"Eion had a really nice junior year," Northern Bedford coach Brian Dutchchot said. "He ran into some really stiff competition in our conference with (Zeke) Dubler, (Tommy) Cohenour and even (Kyle) Scott from Tyrone. Those matches he had at the beginning of the season really helped him down the stretch at the end.
"Now, we just have to finish it off and win a district title."
Northern's Wyatt Clouse (114), Tyler Paris (160) and Brock Beach (285) are also seeded second. Austin Bartholow (145) and returning district fourth-placer Brian Amick (215) are seeded third.
"I'd love to wrestle to our seeds," Dutchcot said, "and get the guys that seeded in the top three to advance. We've been wrestling well. We're getting healthy again. During district duals, we were a little banged up, and we didn't quite finish our dual meet season the way we wanted to."
The District 5 Tournament begins at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with the preliminaries. The consolation finals are set for 4 p.m., and the championship finals are at 5 p.m.
The top three wrestlers at every weight qualify for the Southwest Regional Tournament next weekend at the Altoona Fieldhouse.
"We're looking forward to it quite a bit," Dutchcot said. "I know we have a lot of individuals who are looking to win some district titles and get ready to advance to the regional tournament and see how far they can go in this postseason."
Chestnut Ridge has six No. 1 seeds in Dominic Deputy (107), Easton Mull (114), Brock Holderbaum (121), Kobi Burkett (127), Calan Bollman (145) and Samuel Albright (152). Bedford freshman Kross Cassidy (133) is also a top seed.
Bollman, who was the only District 5 wrestler to win both a district and regional title last season, is attempting to win his fourth district gold medal. Mull, Holderbaum and second-seeded Mason Weyant (133) are returning champions also.
The Lions are a heavy favorite to win their 12th straight team title. So, the rest of the teams, including the Panthers, are shooting for that No. 2 spot. Somerset finished second last season.
"I'd love to be right up there in the top three," Dutchcot said. "I always set high goals. I told our wrestlers I'd really like us to be number two, sitting right behind Chestnut Ridge."