Lackawanna Trail’s Mark Rebmann and Lake Lehman’s Jackson Scott try to take down each other during the 145 pound Class 2A championship bout.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
PLAINS TWP. — It was clear from the jump on Saturday that Honesdale wasn’t going to be caught on the way to a fourth straight District 2 Class 2A team wrestling championship.
But that didn’t stop Hanover Area from keeping their strong season going, with a trio of Hawkeyes reaching the top of the podium and getting a taste of that district championship gold.
Hanover Area finished in second place and was by far the Wyoming Valley Conference’s most outstanding representative in this weekend’s District 2 Class 2A Wrestling championships, held at Wilkes-Barre Area High School.
Two first-timers and a repeat champ helped Hanover Area climb the standings to finish with 148.5 points, Lake-Lehman in third with 126.5 and Berwick in fourth with 119.5 points.
Chase Smith won at 114 pounds, CJ Caines cruised to his second straight gold with a win at 127 and Gregory Vassallo rounded out the Hanover Area group with a title at 172 pounds.
“I feel like we’re doing really good this season, and it’s only going to get better,” Caines said. “We do a lot of training, we go to a lot of big tournaments that make this feel normal.”
Caines burst onto the scene as a freshman last season, capturing the District 2 title at 114 pounds. He’d add a second-place finish at Northeast Regionals and ended his season with a fourth-place finish at the state tournament, the farthest run by any WVC wrestler last season.
Bumping up to 127 this year, Caines met a new weight class with the same results in this weekend’s tournament. He faced a fellow returning district champ in Blue Ridge’s Brice Woodruff in the championship bout, and put together a quick tech fall to win the gold.
“I performed just like I wanted to,” Caines said. “I feel like I’ll be just fine, hoping to come out with a regional championship and I hope my teammates can, as well.”
Before Caines got his chance to repeat, Smith put together his own dominant performance in the 114 bracket, winning a tech fall in the semis and pinning Lackawanna Trail’s Matt Shafer in 1:36 to win the district title.
A sophomore, Smith finished in third place in the 107 pound tournament last season before breaking through for the gold this year.
Vassallo would follow with his first district title later on in the championship round, picking up his fourth pinfall victory of the weekend to win the 172 title.
Hanover Area accounted for three of the WVC’s four district titles in the Class 2A tournament; the other one came courtesy of Berwick’s Carmen Malt.
Malt’s never missed the podium in the District 2 tournament, with a third-place finish in 2023 as a freshman followed by back-to-back silver medals the past two years.
In his last chance, Malt broke through. The top seed in the 121 field, Malt pinned Honesdale’s Brody Walsh to win the district championship.
“I’ve been grinding for this since I was a freshman, this means everything to me … it’s taken me so long just to get this,” Malt said. “When I actually got out there on the mat, I was in a flow state.”
Lake-Lehman got four wrestlers into the championship round, matching Hanover Area for most finalists by a WVC school, but the Black Knights came up empty in the title bouts with some stiff competition turning them away.
All four of those wrestlers — Jackson Scott, River Morgan, Lukas Conte and Jaydon Skipalis — still did enough to punch their tickets to the Class 2A Northeast Regionals tournament next weekend at Williamsport Area High School.
Hanover Area will send five wrestlers, their three champions plus 107 runner-up Nate Clime and third-place finisher Michael Perez at 145.
Berwick will send three: Malt, Jacob Guerriero and Conner Roberts. The last of the 15 total WVC regional qualifiers was Gunnar Faux from Tunkhannock, who wrestled his way to a third-place finish in the 114 bracket.
District 2 Class 2A Championships
Team Standings — 1. Honesdale (HON) 252; 2. Hanover Area (HAN) 148.5; 3. Lake-Lehman (126.5); 4. Berwick (BER) 119.5; 5. Lackawanna Trail (LT) 104; 6. Dallas (DAL) 103; 7. Mid Valley (MV) 87.5; 8. Blue Ridge (BR) 85; 9. Montrose (MON) 78.5; 10. Western Wayne (WW) 69; 11. Scranton Prep (SP) 64; 12. Valley View (VV) 58; 13. Elk Lake (ELK) 40; 14. Wyoming Area (WA) 32.5; 15. Tunkhannock (TUN) 29; 16. Mountain View (MV) 0.
Championship Round
107 — Nathan Schuman (HON) pinned Nate Clime (HAN) 1:01; 114 — Chase Smith (HAN) pinned Matt Shafer (LT) 1:36; 121 — Carmen Malt (BER) pinned Brody Walsh (HON) 3:27; 127 — CJ Caines (HAN) tech. fall over Brice Woodruff (BR) 15-0; 133 — Justin Scanlon (HON) pinned Riley Borruso (LT) 1:11; 139 — Matthew Almedina (MV) pinned Sam Eisele (HON) 0:29; 145 — Mark Rebmann (LT) tech. fall over Jackson Scott (LL) 19-3; 152 — Tywone Giles (VV) tech. fall over Jacob Guerriero (BER) 16-1; 160 — Gavin Morcom (WW) pinned Wyatt Youngblood (MV) 1:46; 172 — Gregory Vassallo (HAN) pinned River Morgan (LL) 2:54; 189 — Duke Martin (HON) pinned Lukas Conte (LL) 1:22; 215 — Levi Landry (HON) pinned Jaydon Skipalis (LL) 5:45; 285 — Bobby MacDowell (HON) dec. over Paul Borowski (WW) 7-0.
Third-Place Matches
107 — Dante Tanzini (BR) pinned Sawyer Brander (MON) 2:16; 114 — Gunnar Faux (TUN) dec. over Jason Bronson (HON) 12-10; 121 — Grady Louriero (MON) pinned Deacan Pfeiffer (LL) 0:53; 127 — Joseph Thomas (LT) pinned Jesse Balsam (HON) 4:50; 133 — Jake Barrett (SP) dec. over Jace Thomas (HAN) 7-1; 139 — Joshua Fowler (LT) pinned Aidan Hilburt (DAL) 4:10; 145 — Michael Perez (HAN) pinned Sawyer Keller (BER) 2:57; 152 — Bobby Booth (DAL) dec. over Hunter Rodger (WW) 7-4; 160 — Conner Roberts (BER) pinned Morgen Wilcox (HON) 2:04; 172 — Zachary Krupovich (BR) maj. dec. over Adam Pezanowski (MV) 15-4l 189 — Ryder Hobart (BR) pinned Lucas Cruz (HAN) 4:03; 215 — Jayden Benscoter (DAL) pinned Jamir Ramos (BER) 4:20; 285 — Ethan Smith (ELK) pinned Jordan Henning (SP) 5:24.
Semifinals
107 — Nathan Schuman (HON) pinned Chase Wilhelm (WA) 1:18; Nate Clime (HAN) tech. fall over Gavin Hayes (DAL) 18-3.
114 — Chase Smith (HAN) tech. fall over Jackson Healey (VV) 18-2; Matt Shafer (LT) pinned Gunnar Faux (TUN) 1:23.
121 — Carmen Malt (BER) pinned Deacan Pfeiffer (LL) 0:53; Brody Walsh (HON) pinned Grady Loureiro (MON) 2:21.
127 — CJ Caines (HAN) pinned Joseph Thomas (LT) 0:57; Brice Woodruff (BR) tech. fall over James Scagliotti (VV) 18-3.
133 — Justin Scanlon (HON) tech. fall over Jace Thomas (HAN) 21-5; Riley Borruso (LT) pinned Jake Barrett (SP) 2:16.
139 — Matt Almedina (MV) pinned Joshua Fowler (LT) 0:27; Sam Eisele (HON) pinned Carl Nolt (MON) 3:19.
145 — Mark Rebmann (LT) dec. over Michael Perez (HAN) 4-3; Jackson Scott (LL) dec. over Sawyer Keller (BER) 1-6.
152 — Tywone Giles (VV) tech. fall over Hunter Rodger (WW) 19-3; Jacob Guerriero (BER) dec. over Bobby Booth (DAL) 4-3.
160 — Gavin Morcom (WW) pinned Marc Saracinaj (DAL) 4:37; Wyatt Youngblood (MV) maj. dec. over Jeff Peck (HAN) 15-7.
172 — Gregory Vassallo (HAN) pinned Michael Hillier (ELK) 1:49; River Morgan (LL) dec. over Zachary Krupovich (BR) 7-1.
189 — Duke Martin (HON) pinned Kenny Martin (DAL) 3:33; Lukas Conte (LL) maj. dec. over Ryder Hobart (BR) 16-7.
215 — Levi Landry (HON) pinned Liam Frasier (MON) 1:06; Jaydon Skipalis (LL) pinned Jamir Ramos (BER) 3:24.
285 — Bobby Macdowell (HON) tech. fall over Ethan Smith (ELK) 19-3; Paul Borowski (WW) pinned Jordan Henning (SP) 3:04.
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