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HERSHEY — Ryan Monk has been to the state semifinals before, Cody Cordes has not, before now.
Regardless, both Class 3A wrestlers have the same goal to accomplish more.
Dallas’ Monk and Wyoming Valley West’s Cordes are the two Wyoming Valley Conference wrestlers surviving in the championship rounds of the Class 3A PIAA Championships.
Monk, a 285-pounder defeated Montour’s Zach Jablonski 5-3 on Friday to reach the semis for the second straight year.
Cordes, a 160-pounder got to the semis in his bracket by knocking off Sun Valley’s Alex Elliott, 2-1.
The two seniors are joined as Class 3A state medalists by Crestwood 138-pounder Dan Ritz. The only thing remaining for the three are what place they will finish. That will all be decided on Saturday.
“It’s a different year, it’s a different state tournament,” Monk said. “Just gotta go out and get it now.”
Monk will face Solanco’s Bo Spiller in this morning’s semifinals which are set to start at 9. Cordes will take on Noah Stewart from Mifflin County in his semi.
Monk and Spiller are no strangers having squared off two times previously. Each time, it’s a close match, and the last time they wrestled, earlier this season, Spiller won by just one point.
“Obviously Spiller’s a very tough opponent. He’s a good wrestler,” Monk said. “We’ve wrestled twice now in high school and it’s gone back and forth. We’re pretty equal in wrestling ability and size. I just have to go out and wrestle my match.”
Monk didn’t have too much trouble with Jablonski as he picked up two takedowns in the first period, then escaped in the third accounting for his five points.
“It was tough but I pulled it out,” Monk said. “I got my two takedowns, that’s what I wanted.”
Cordes was in yet another close match in his quarterfinal bout. Entering the third period scoreless, Cordes chose down and got a reversal to go ahead 2-0. After an escape by Elliott cut the lead to 2-1 with about 55 seconds left, Cordes knew what he had to do to move on.
“Just go on my feet and motion movement, keep moving until I get another stalling call,” Cordes said. “I wanted to work another takedown, but it just didn’t happen.
“It definitely feels good I’m automatic top six, so a lot of nerves out of the way, but I definitely want to make it to the state finals.”
Ritz lost his quarterfinal match to Franklin Regional’s Dom Giannengeli, 7-2, and had about 90 minutes to regroup before his next match. Which he did, pulling out another tight win in his first consolation match, 5-2 with a pair of late takedowns to get the win. Ritz can finish no lower than eighth place.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Ritz said. “I know I said that last week when I qualified but I couldn’t imagine this feeling. I’m so happy right now.
“I don’t like to lose, but I had to clear my head and forget about the last match and wrestle my match.”
Hazleton Area sophomore Jimmy Hoffman saw another state tournament go by without a medal. Projected with such high praise since his freshman campaign, Hoffman won a match at the Giant Center for the second straight season, but then lost his next and was eliminated.
“I really need to start working on my feet, need to work off bottom and need to work on top,” Hoffman said. “I just got dominated pretty much.
“It’s great that I got another year under my belt here and it’s just more experience for next year and the year after. I still got two years to get it done, and maybe not only get a state medal, but maybe get a gold medal. I’m gonna take this as a learning experience and make sure I feel that burn when I’m getting my head down and just keep pushing through it.”
Hoffman’s teammate Derek Spachman, who was a quarterfinalist at 182, lost his quarterfinal match then dropped his first consolation match.
“It sucks so bad because he puts so much work and so much time into this sport,” Hoffman said about Spachman, who lost his consolation match in overtime by two points. “I just feel really bad for him.”
Pittston Area’s Jake Vaxmonsky, who ended up with three wins in two days at the state tournament, won one and lost one on Friday and was eliminated after going 3-2 at the event. Normally, if a wrestler wins two matches, he earns a medal. But Vaxmonsky was in the pigtail round and had a harder road.