Five Wyoming Valley Conference wrestlers are still alive in the hunt for a state title after the opening day of the PIAA Wrestling Championships on Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Four more wrestlers are out of the championship picture but are still in the hunt for medals in the consolation rounds, while five WVC wrestlers saw their state tournament come to an early end.
Nanticoke Area’s Emily Kivler and Hazleton Area’s Evelyn Sheer each went 1-0 on Thursday in the Girls tournament to reach Friday’s quarterfinal rounds.
In Class 3A, Hazleton Area’s Gabe and Jake Benyo both reached the quarterfinals, as well.
The lone Class 2A wrestler from the WVC to reach the quarterfinals was Hanover Area’s CJ Caines, who breezed through his first-round contest on Thursday.
The tournament will pick back up at 8 a.m. Friday. The championship brackets will wrestle through the semifinals, with several rounds of consolations also set to be contested on Friday.
GIRLS
The WVC’s numbers were best in the Girls tournament, with seven state qualifiers, but that number was whittled down to three after the opening day of action.
Kivler and Sheer will start Friday with quarterfinal bouts, and Crestwood’s Samara Bailey will attempt to work her way through the consolation rounds.
Kivler defeated Molly Stenger of Cumberland Valley by a 7-1 decision in the first round of the 112 bracket, scoring a takedown in the first 10 seconds of the match and rolling from there.
In the quarterfinals, she’ll face the top seed at 112, Easton’s Morgan Hyland. Hyland won by tech fall in her first-round bout.
At 235 pounds, Sheer continued her sensational freshman season with a first-period pinfall victory over Saegertown’s Kaylee Stampin-Williams.
Like Kivler, Sheer will face the top seed in her division to start the action Friday: Panther Valley senior Brenda Banks, who has won the last two state titles at 235.
The loser of that Banks-Sheer match will have Bailey waiting for them in the consolation second round.
Bailey dropped a major decision in her opening round match, but rebounded to pin Cumberland Valley’s Abby Hollenbach in the first round of consolations.
The Lackawanna League had two wrestlers reach the quarterfinal round: Abington Heights’ Hayden Manning at 155 pounds and Delaware Valley’s Kate Prior at 170.
Two more Lackawanna wrestlers are still alive in the consolation rounds: Lackawanna Trail’s Cidney Schaffer (100) and Honesdale’s Saige Olver (124).
CLASS 3A
Hazleton Area’s sibling tandem of Gabe and Jake Benyo continued to mirror one another’s paths through the postseason, both reaching the quarterfinals at 114 and 121 pounds, respectively.
Gabe Benyo gutted out a 3-2 decision win over Penn-Trafford’s Dylan Barrett in the first round. He’ll face Upper Dublin’s Dom Powell, a fifth-place medalist at states last season, in the quarterfinal round.
In the 121 first round, Jake Benyo had an easier time of things. He scored a tech fall to reach the quarterfinal round.
He’ll face the top seed in the division, DuBois sophomore Matteo Gallegos, on Friday. Gallegos was the state runner-up at 114 pounds last year.
Still alive in the consolation rounds are Crestwood freshman Micah Engelman and Pittston Area senior Brody Spindler.
Engelman came up on the wrong end of a 1-0 decision in his preliminary bout at 145, a second-period escape from Canon-McMillan’s Aidan Finnigan making the difference.
Engelman’s first round consolation match was similarly tight, tied 4-4 in the closing seconds of the final period, but Engelman managed to score an escape point to reach Friday’s action.
He’ll face Northeastern’s Eric Orpin in the second round of consolations.
Spindler lost a major decision at 215 to open up the tournament, but defeated Stroudsburg’s Zion Essington 7-2 in the first round of consolations. Next up for Spindler will be Boyertown’s Kaleb Dumin.
The lone quarterfinalist from the Lackawanna League in Class 3A was West Scranton’s Tommy Schechterly at 160 pounds.
Mason Whitney of Abington Heights is still alive in the 133 consolations.
CLASS 2A
Hanover Area’s Caines advanced to the quarterfinals for a second straight year, while his Hawkeye teammate Chase Smith went 1-1 and is still in medal contention through the consolation bracket after the tournament’s opening day.
Caines was leading big on points before scoring a third-period pinfall to win in the first round.
He’ll draw Saucon Valley’s Carter Chunko in the quarterfinals. Chunko was the state runner-up at 107 pounds last season and was the Southeast Regional runner-up this year.
Smith started his tournament in the prelims, where he dropped a 6-4 decision to fall into the consolation bracket.
He rebounded with a major decision victory in the first round of consolations, and will face West Branch’s Will Edwards on Friday morning.
Honesdale’s Nathan Schuman (107) and Duke Martin (189) both reached the quarterfinals, the only two Lackawanna Conference representatives to do so in the Class 2A tournament.
Mid Valley’s Matt Almedina lost his opening-round bout but won in the consolation first round to keep himself alive heading into Friday.
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