Wyoming Seminary dominates duals tournament

KINGSTON – Another day, another dominating performance by the Wyoming Seminary wrestlers.

The Blue Knights hosted their Friends of Sem Wrestling Duals on Saturday at the Carpenter Athletic Center and breezed to the championship winning all four of their duals, outscoring their opponents by 213 points and winning each dual with an average of 63 points.

Wyoming Area was the lone participant from District 2 and finished in seventh place ending the event with a dual record of 1-3. The Warriors defeated Storm King 48-36 in the seventh-place match for their only win. But all wasn't lost for the team coached by Steve Mytych as standout Andy Schutz earned his 100th career victory. The senior, who is a returning state qualifier, went 3-1 on the day.

I really think they showed their mettle, Sem coach Scott Green said about the Warriors program. They may not have had the results they wanted, but anything that's going to have any local teams see a different range of competition with some good guys that they might not normally see at the end of the year that's good mentality to want to compete against that level of competition.

Even though Wyoming Area was the only team local team at the tourney, Green would like to have more area programs competing at the event which was held for the first time, but the school has hosted one-day dual events each of the last four seasons.

The invitation is open (for other local teams), we send it around. I have a connection with the Mytychs and with (former Warriors assistant coach) Joe Rovelli being on our staff this year we're able to seal the deal with them. But we'd like it to grow and see more local teams here competing. I think it's good for the valley.

As for Seminary, its day started in the morning with a 78-6 victory over Storm King. That was followed with a 50-15 defeat of Malvern Prep and a 67-3 thrashing of The Hill School to go unbeaten in pool play and advance to the championship where they pasted St. Anthony's from New York, 57-15.

While the scores were blowouts, Green said his wrestlers got good competition in individual bouts.

An individual performance with significance for Seminary was 113-pounder Dan Boychuck, who lost twice to his opponent from St. Anthony's last season and finally got past his nemesis as part of his 3-0 performance on the afternoon. Another big winner was Nicky Hall (160 pounds), who took down a returning All-American from The Hill School. Hall, who is ranked 20th in the country at his weight, also was 3-0 during the event. Those were the things we needed, Green said. In between the big scores of us dominating and everything like that, we wanted to make sure that we won some of those matchups and we came out on the positive end on most of those.

A total of six Blue Knights finished the tournament undefeated on the afternoon with a pair of highly-ranked nationally grapplers grabbing attention. Eric Morris (182 pounds), who is ranked first in the country, and Michael Johnson (285), ranked eighth, went 3-0. Judson Preskitt (126), who is 15th in the national rankings, and Garrett Ryan (220) ended with 2-0 marks.

We knew going in that this was going to be an event that we would wrestle very well in, Green added. It's a good event to see a different mix of competition…We had some matches that were really, really tough and we dominated from the team perspective.

Coughlin wrestlers won eight of the 13 contested bouts to defeat Honesdale in the home dual Saturday afternoon.

Victories include falls from Bobby Hawkins (113), Billy Poray (126), Paul Cole (182) and Brad Emerick (285).

106 – Nick Yankoski (COU) dec. Joe Walsh, 9-2; 113 – Bobby Hawkins (COU) pinned Brett Jackson, 1:36; 120 – Mike Brown (COU) won by forfeit; 126 – Billy Poray (COU) pinned John Lemmon, 1:14; 132 – Eddie Ciprich (COU) dec. Tim Freda, 9-8; 138 – Evan Kennedy (HON) pinned Alex Schuerman, 1:24; 145 – Dave Sterba (COU) dec. Nick Johannes, 6-3; 152 – Eric Daniels (HON) pinned Josh Tarnalicki, 3:41; 160 – Josh Buckavage (HON) dec. Collin Gobbler, 8-4; 170 – Zac Smith (HON) pinned Tyler Schweit, :56; 182 – Paul Cole (COU) pinned Brett Dailey, 1:31; 195 – Joe Quinn (HON) tech dec. Jaleel Monro, 18-2; 220 – Scott Donovan (HON) dec. Jordan Philips, 3-2; 285 – Brad Emerick (COU) pinned Trevor Kwalczyk, 1:58

Note: Match started at 132 pounds.

Wyoming Valley West placed second at the tournament with Kyle Krasavage (126), Travis Roper (132) and Nathan Cheek (138) all placed first.

Cody Cordes (152) placed second in his class, but defeated a top-ranked opponent from New York along the way. He lost a tough 4-3 match in the finals to Blake Bowman, a two-time state qualifier, from Tri Valley. Matt Dubaskas, a 285-pounder for the Spartans also finished second.

En route to his championship, Krasavage, a senior, picked up his 100th career win.