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NBC aims for more victories

By Todd Irwin 4 min read
Ebersole

Fresh off of winning the District 5-6-9 Tournament team title with four champions and five qualifiers, the Northern Bedford girls team is now focused on Saturday's Central Regional Tournament.

The Lady Black Panthers are hoping to continue riding that wave of momentum into Milton High School.

Northern Bedford is being represented by district champions Kaylee Ebersole (100), senior Ava Helsel (106), sophomore Emily Dennis (124) and senior Raegan Snider (155) and fifth-placer Yasmin Miller (112).

Ebersole and Snider are returning Central Regional Tournament champions.

"I think this is awesome, especially for the girls," Northern Bedford coach Zach Clark said. "For Kaylee, Raegan and Emily, obviously this isn't new to them. They've been here before. They should be ready to rock and roll.

"Ava, being a senior and first time there, I know she's excited. She's been talking about it all week. Yasmin has been practicing hard, and I think she's going to do well."

Penn Cambria sophomore and District 5-6-9 champion Bethany Watt (130) will also be looking to make the trip to Hershey. Her district finals opponent, Central Cambria sophomore Emily Shetler, who was leading Watt, 7-0, when she was reversed to her back and pinned, is looking for a better outcome.

A total of 11 girls from the Mirror coverage qualified for the Central Regional Tournament, including Altoona's Lindsey Boose (fourth, 235) and Brooklyn Veloz (sixth, 124, Hollidaysburg's Carina Parks (fifth, 130) and Glendale's Elizabeth Kaufman (fifth, 106).

The tournament begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday with the preliminaries and quarterfinals. Those rounds will be followed by the semifinals and consolation quarterfinals. The consolation semifinals and fifth-place bouts will end the first session.

The second session is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., beginning with the third-place bouts. The parade of champions is scheduled for 6:15 p.m., and the championship finals will follow at 6:30.

The top four wrestlers among 14 at every weight advance to the second PIAA state sanctioned tournament, which begins Thursday at Hershey's Giant Center.

Wrestlers from District 2 and District 4 will compete with the qualifiers from the District 5-6-9 Tournament.

Snider, who was the Mirror's female Athlete of the Week, turned in the biggest win among the local contingent. After getting to the finals with a technical fall and a fall, she rode out Chestnut Ridge's phenom Juliet Alt in the ultimate tiebreaker to capture a 3-2 victory. Alt had beaten Snider twice during the regular season.

There's a very good chance the top-seeded Snider (25-4) and Alt (23-2) will wrestle each other again in the regional finals. Alt and Snider were ranked first and second, respectively, by PA Power Wrestling before the district tournament.

"I'd say it's going to have to take something crazy for them not to meet up," Clark said.

The top-seeded and second-ranked Ebersole (19-6) could make another run to the finals. The other side of the weight class is wide open, but the second seed is Williamsport's Danica Bacorn (23-7).

"She's excited," Clark said. "With her being the top seed, she's pretty confident, especially making that drop from 106 down to 100. Just the strength difference she has against a lot of the girls really helps her out. I like to tell her she has a heavyweight's style and mentality for a lightweight.

"She finds it funny because her older brother (Jay) used to wrestle. He was a heavier weight, and he liked that upper body style."

The third-seeded Dennis (24-10) was a regional qualifier last season, but she could make that next step to qualify for Hershey.

"I think that experience being there already (will help)," Clark said. "Obviously your first time anywhere you typically have a little bit of nerves going into your first match. She's excited. She really wants to make it to the next level."

Watt, who had four first-period falls in the district tournament, is a third seed and making her first regional appearance. Shetler will also make her regional debut.

Northern Bedford should make another run at a team title, which would make for another memorable weekend.

"We're not really focused on that to be honest," Clark said. "We just want to see the girls go and wrestle to their best ability each match and work to try to get to that next level."

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