Photo for the Mirror by Chris Wechtenhiser Altoona’s Luke Sipes picked up a win during the “blood round” at states in Hershey Friday.

By Todd Irwin

sports@altoonamirror.com

HERSHEY — Altoona’s Luke Sipes was in one of those odd positions on Friday he’s been finding himself in this year to get winning pins or takedowns.

Sipes was tied 1-1 in overtime with Boiling Springs’ two-time Class placewinner Michael Duggan in a “blood round” bout of the PIAA Class 3A Championships.

He was in a funk roll-type situation. They both had each other’s leg lying on the mat.

“At the M2 Training Center, we always go over far ankle scrambling,” Sipes said. “I could feel him fading. I didn’t want it to go to the tiebreaker. I wanted to end it in sudden victory.”

And then suddenly the 152-pound Mountain Lion sophomore worked his leg free and slipped behind Duggan for a takedown with 6 seconds remaining in overtime to win, 3-1.

Altoona coach Joel Gilbert jumped out of his seat in the corner and high-fived Luke Sipes Sr. in the first row near mat 5 of the Giant Center. Sipes, who placed fifth as a freshman, and Gilbert were all smiles walking off the floor of the arena.

“It feels awesome. That’s the only way I can describe it,” Sipes said. “I’ve worked so hard for this for so long.”

“That was real exciting,” Gilbert said. “That (Duggan) is a returning state placewinner, and we know what the guy is capable of coming in. Luke never broke, stayed calm in the position.”

Altoona freshman Braiden Weaver didn’t have as much drama in the blood round — the round in which winners are assured of at least third place and the losers are eliminated.

After losing to Butler’s Santino Sloboda, 4-2, in the 107-pound quarterfinals in the afternoon, Weaver roared back with a pin of Elco’s Ashton Kriss in 4:02. Weaver was winning 12-0 at the time of the fall.

“It feels good,” Weaver said. “Coming off of a big loss, and then retaliating like that, is a pretty big step for me.”

Weaver and Sipes can wrestle back to third place. They start their quest in today’s 9 a.m. consolation quarterfinals.

Sipes lost, 3-1, to Lebanon’s returning seventh-placer Griffin Gonzalez in the first round Friday.

“Last night I was crushed,” Sipes said. “But I had a lot of my support system texting me ‘Hey, you’re still a champ. You’ve got to bounce back. You can take tonight to dwell on it. Tomorrow you bounce back, and you’re a champion again.'”

Sipes reached the medal round with a 4-2 win over Abington Heights’ Brian Heard, and set the program’s single season win record at 39, breaking a tie with D.J. Hollingshead (2014-15). Sipes (40-5) will wrestle Owen J. Roberts’ Sam Gautreau (42-6) in the consolation quarterfinals.

“The first thing I thought when lost in the round of 16 was the next best thing – let’s get third,” Sipes said. I’m ready to bring it tomorrow morning.”

Weaver (37-5) will wrestle Ridley’s Curtis Nelson (35-4) in the consolation quarterfinals.

“I’m going to bounce back and get the next best thing,” Weaver said.

“For two medalists in Altoona, that’s great,” Gilbert said. “Tomorrow is just icing on the cake. We’ll enjoy it tonight, and get ready to go tomorrow morning.”

Last man standing

There wasn’t much celebrating by Class 2A wrestlers from the Mirror coverage area on Friday. Glendale’s Zeke Dubler’s bid to make the championship finals was stopped by Lackawanna Trail’s Deegan Ross, 11-6, in the 160-pound quarterfinals. Dubler bounced back to beat Northwestern Lehigh’s Luke Fugazzotto, 7-6, in the blood round to earn a medal. But he lost in the ultimate tiebreaker, 3-2, to Faith Christian’s Luke Sagalsky in the consolation quarterfinals.

Dubler (41-6), who was fourth last season, will wrestle for seventh today against West Perry’s Justice Hockenberrry-Folk. Dubler pinned him in 4:07 in the first round.

Tyrone freshman Kyle Scott (172) and junior Braden Ewing (285), Penn Cambria junior Trent Hoover (145), Glendale freshman Daniel Williams (285) and Williamsburg/Huntingdon junior Andrew McMonagle (160) came up short of earning Class 2A medals.

Hoover’s season came to a shocking end with two losses on Saturday. Hoover dropped a 3-1 decision to Meadowbrook Christian’s two-time state placewinner Cade Wirnsberger in the quarterfinals. The two-time Southwest Regional champ then was eliminated by Montoursville’s Gage Wentzel, 7-1.

Penn Cambria coach Todd Niebauer revealed that Hoover probably suffered a broken hand in Thursday’s first round 16-3 win over Biglerville’s Joey Ney.

“He definitely wasn’t himself,” Niebauer said. “I feel bad for Trent. He put all of this time in it, and he was wrestling pretty well. We were starting to find our shots. You try to work through some things, but he just couldn’t grip.”

Braden Ewing (33-10), who went 1-2, was pinned in 50 seconds by Bishop McDevitt state champion Riley Robell in the quarterfinals. Ewing’s season ended with a 5-2 loss to Brockway’s Gavin Thompson.

Williams (40-10) lost twice, 7-1 to Port Allegany’s Carson Neely in the 285-pound quarterfinals and 5-2 to Berks Catholic’s Owen Rebar in the consolations to finish 1-2.

Scott (34-11) went 1-2, dropping a 7-6 decision to Titusville’s Brock Covell in the second round of consolations. Scott trailed Covell 7-0 in the third when he took Covell to his back with a cement mixer. He got four points out of it, and two stalling points later, but he came up short.

“Kyle got a taste of it this year,” Tyrone coach Quentin Wright said. “A lot of people don’t expect freshmen to be that good. He did a heck of a job. We’re already excited about both these guys coming back next year.”

McMonagle medically forfeited his second-round consolation bout to Tussey Mountain’s Ezra Masood. Huntingdon coach Jon Mykut didn’t want to reveal the injury, but McMonagle injured his leg in a 7-3 loss to Faith Christian’s Luke Sugalski and was limping afterward.

McMonagle missed all of last season at Central with a shoulder injury.

Masood then lost, 5-2, to Trinity’s Jagger Gray in the blood round.

“The kid was awesome all year-long,” Huntingdon coach Jon Mykut said. “My heart breaks for him. We knew the wrestling ability was there. In terms of the type of kid he is, that showed daily in the practice room. He’s a Williamsburg Pirate, but in wrestling season, he was a Huntingdon Bearcat.”

Reaches finals

Regionally, Chestnut Ridge freshman Dominic Deputy has reached the finals at 107, beating Faith Christian Academy’s Kole Davidheiser, 5-0, in the quarterfinals.

Deputy’s teammate Calan Bollman has earned a medal at 145. After losing his quarterfinal to Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Vincent Bouzakis, 7-4, Bollman bounced back to beat Faith Christian’s Max Stein, 3-2, to reach the medal round.

Deputy (40-3) will wrestle for the state title against Northern Lebanon’s returning state champion Aaron Seidel. Seidel, a sophomore who is 47-0, beat Deputy, 6-2, at King Of The Mountain on Dec. 17.

“I’m just going to keep doing what I do,” Dominic said. “Whatever happens, and I’ll leave it up to God.”