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HERSHEY — Entering Thursday’s first round of the Class 2A PIAA Championships, the seven Wyoming Valley Conference wrestlers combined for no victories in Hershey throughout their careers.
That didn’t seem to phase any of them, as four wrestlers won their first match on Thursday to reach Friday’s quarterfinals, and nerves didn’t appear to be present either.
“Just one match at a time,” said Meyers’ 182-pound winner TJ Cistrunk. “If I advance good, if I don’t, I have wrestlebacks and try to place.”
Joining Cistrunk as winners from the WVC were Wyoming Area’s Charlie Johnson (126 pounds), Derek Dragon (170) from Lake-Lehman and GAR 285-pounder Saul Wilkins.
The unbeaten Johnson, now at 35-0, was in the most dramatic match of the bunch needing to go to the third overtime session to advance.
The Warrior was in an action-packed bout with Pen Argyl’s Chase Anklam. Johnson was in trouble entering the third period down by three points after Anklam broke a 5-5 tie with an escape and a takedown.
“I wrestled really sloppy that match,” Johnson said. “He was really funky and weird with his style. There’s certain kids that are just weird to wrestle. They have a weird style where they like being in weird positions and it makes a person like me very uncomfortable in my traditional style.”
Then in the third period when Johnson chose the bottom position, he quickly got an escape then forced OT with a takedown coming with about 25 seconds remaining. After a scoreless first extra session, Johnson didn’t allow Ankam to escape in the second OT. Then being on bottom again to start the third OT and trying numerous times to get out as he was getting pushed out of bounds, the Wyoming Area junior finally got the escape with 5 seconds left to nab the 9-8 victory.
“He was actually really easy to get out on bottom,” Johnson said. “He didn’t have too much forward pressure so all I had to do was get hand control and it was more of just trying to stay in bounds.”
Like Johnson’s match, Cistrunk was also in a dramatic bout against Garrett Reinwald from Fort Leboeuf. The senior was down 1-0 to start the third. He quickly got an escape and then a takedown to go up 3-1. But after Reinwald got an escape to cut the lead to 3-2, Cistrunk had to use his second injury time. With 30 seconds left, Reinwald chose bottom position and Cistrunk held him down for the win.
“Just squeeze, squeeze as tight as I can and don’t let this kid up no matter what,” Cistrunk said about his thoughts int he match’s last 30 seconds. “He’s a strong kid, a strong, strong kid.”
Minutes before Cistrunk’s win, Dragon picked up the lone pin by the WVC wrestlers pinning Northern Lebanon’s Evan Daub in 4:35. Dragon was leading 6-4 entering the third period before getting a takedown and working the half nelson to grab the fall.
“I kept trying to sink the half. It was almost there a couple times and it was there the last time. He didn’t fight too hard and I was able to pull him over,” Dragon said. “In my mind, I pinned someone who’s supposed to be one of the best in the state, I can beat anyone.”
Wilkins, who like Johnson is coming off a Northeast Regional title, didn’t have much of a problem with his first-round opponent, Brandywine’s Collin Conrad. The senior got a late takedown in the first period and an escape in the third for the 3-0 victory.
“I wanted to get the takedown as early as I can and finish it off (by pinning), but I couldn’t,” Wilkins said. “Not really any problems, I just couldn’t really turn him at the end. I just had to work from there.”
The toughest loss of the session by WVC wrestlers was Wilkins’ teammate Zac Faust, who was holding a 3-0 lead entering the third period. After a flurry of action resulted in Faust and Elizabeth Forward’s Luke Fournier being tied late in the third, Faust got caught and was pinned with 2 seconds remaining before overtime would’ve been forced.
Meyers’ Colin Pasone lost his first match on Thursday morning and didn’t wrestle the rest of the day as he got a bye to the second round of consolations, which begin Friday morning at 9.
In addition to Faust, the only other wrestler of the seven who was eliminated on Thursday was Lake-Lehman sophomore RJ Driscoll, who dropped his first match 16-3. The 120-pounder then gave a late push in his first consolation match before coming up short by four points.