The Wyoming Valley Conference’s last two wrestlers still in the hunt for state titles were cut down on Friday, but the conference is guaranteed to bring home two medals from the PIAA Wrestling Championships.
Hanover Area freshman CJ Caines can finish no lower than sixth place in the Class 2A 114-pound tournament, and Nanticoke Area’s Sierra Ripka will be coming home from Hershey with her second straight state medal after wrestling back through the consolation field at 170 pounds in the Girls tournament.
That will be all for the WVC at this year’s tournaments, with a group of 10 wrestlers cut to seven on Thursday and trimmed down to two on Friday.
Caines was the only wrestler from the conference to reach the state semifinals, earning his way there with a quarterfinal win in sudden victory over Penns Valley’s Max Dinges.
In the semis, Caines ran into Pennsylvania’s top-ranked wrestler at 114 pounds, Faith Christian’s Freddy Bachmann.
Bachmann won via tech fall to bounce Caines from the championship bracket down into the consolation semifinals, where he’ll start his day Saturday. A win there over Conwell Egan’s Thomas Boyce, and Caines will compete for third place. A loss will send him to the fifth-place match.
Ripka has taken a much different path to the medal stand, dropping her first match Thursday before climbing through the consolation rounds.
The Nanticoke Area senior, a returning fourth-place finisher from a year ago, is 3-0 in the consolation bracket after winning a pair of matches on Friday.
Ripka won a 5-0 decision over Aambur Brletich in the second round of consolations before earning a first-period pinfall over York Suburban’s Angela Imorhoa in the consolation quarterfinals on Friday night.
She will start on Saturday against Central Mountain’s Kendall Wagner in the consolation semis. Like Caines, Ripka could work her way into the third-place match with a win and will land in the fifth-place match with a loss.
The Wyoming Valley Conference had five wrestlers eliminated from medal contention on Friday — all three remaining wrestlers in Class 3A, and two in the Girls tournament.
In Class 3A, Wyoming Valley West’s Caleb Hoffman and Crestwood’s Kyle Draina fell in the second round of consolations. Fellow Comet Lincoln Bibla won his consolation second-rounder but was knocked out in the following round, one win shy of the medal stand.
Nanticoke Area’s Emily Kivler and Wyoming Valley West’s Isabella Seip were both eliminated one win from medal contention as well. Kivler entered Friday as one of two WVC wrestlers still in the championship bracket, along with Caines, but lost her quarterfinal match and was eliminated in her next match.
District 2’s Lackawanna Conference competitors have fared better so far this weekend, with eight guaranteed medalists and three wrestlers still in the state title hunt.
West Scranton’s Michael Turi (145 pounds) and Abington Heights’ Brian Heard (172) are in the Class 3A semis. Delaware Valley’s Kate Prior (155) is in the Girls semis.
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