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HERSHEY — Cody Cordes entered the 160-pound championship bout of Saturday night’s PIAA Class 3A Championships on a roll with 27 straight wins.
And the Wyoming Valley West senior hadn’t lost a match since December.
Unfortunately for the Spartan standout, all good things must come to an end, and so did the streak.
Cordes was defeated 5-2 by Franklin Regional’s unbeaten Josh Shields, who had taken second, third and sixth in the state the last three years.
Trying to become the first state champion from District 2 since Abington Heights’ Evan Craig and Lackawanna Trail’s Eric Laytos won titles in 2010 and the first state champ from the Wyoming Valley Conference since Hazleton Area’s Nate Eachus and Lake-Lehman’s Scott Davis claimed golds in 2007, Cordes couldn’t overcome Shields, who will wrestle at Arizona State.
Despite a doing a solid job defending shot after shot by Shields and heading to the second period scoreless, Cordes gave up three back points on a tilt in the second period. The Spartan picked up an escape, to cut the lead to 3-1 entering the third, and Shields chose bottom to start the third.
“He’s a tough kid, but I shouldn’t have given up back,” Cordes said. “It’s pretty tough to come back when you give up three back. He’s tough on top, tough on his feet. I knew it was gonna be harder when I gave up that back.”
Almost instantly, Shields got a reversal to extend his lead by four to 5-1. Cordes escaped with about a minute remaining cutting lead to 5-2. He tried throws and underhooks for a good 30 seconds looking for a four or five-point move to get the win. Then Shields started backing away for the last 20 seconds to secure the win.
“I don’t think he wrestled a bad match,” Valley West coach Drew Feldman said. “I thought he wrestled well.”
Joining Cordes as state medalists in Class 3A were Dallas’ Ryan Monk, who took third place at 285 and Crestwood’s Dan Ritz, the eighth-place finisher in the 138-pound bracket.
Cordes, the school’s all-time wins leader with 145 and will wrestle at Lock Haven next year, ran his winning streak to 27 Saturday morning defeating Mifflin County’s Noah Stewart, 3-2 in the ultimate tiebreaker to become the first state finalist from the Wyoming Valley Conference since Meyers’ Vito Pasone in 2012.
“He’s special,” Feldman said about Cordes. “I’ve spent more time traveling with him than I have vacationing with my wife. I’ve spent so much time with him it’s great to see him finish it like this.”
After giving up two back points in the third period of his semifinal bout, Cordes somehow got a reversal with 3 seconds left in the third period to force overtime with a 2-2 tie.
“I thought I could get out early, but he ended up turning me, and I was like ‘I gotta go,’” Cordes said. “And in overtime my heart was going (really fast).”
After three scoreless overtimes, Cordes needed to escape in the ultimate tiebreaker and did so almost instantaneously to secure the victory.
“Getting to the state finals, it’s all I ever hoped for,” Cordes said after his semis match. “This whole year when I cut weight that’s what I was training for and thinking about that it would pay off in the end and it did.”
Monk, also a 3A state semifinalist looking to become the first state finalist in school history, lost his morning match, 3-0 to Solanco’s Bo Spiller — who finished as state runner-up to Bethlehem Catholic’s Andrew Dunn, 5-3 — to fall into the consolation bracket. That’s when he defeated Neshaminy’s Bruce Graeber in a rematch of Thursday’s first round match by pin in 25 seconds to assure himself a better finish than the sixth-place medal he grabbed in 2014.
Ending his career with 140 career wins, the most in Dallas history, Monk has had a decorated career with a pair of district titles, a regional title and two state medals among other accomplishments. He defeated Greater Latrobe’s Tyler Mears, 5-2 for the third-place gold.
Ritz ends his career with 115 career wins and his first state medal. It caps a season of firsts for Ritz, who also won his first WVC and District 2 title and regional medal.
In getting to Saturday night’s final, Cordes became the first state finalist for Wyoming Valley West current head coach Drew Feldman and the first from the school since Trevin Cowman won gold in 2006.
“I’m happy for him,” Cordes said about his coach. “I train hard with him a lot. I travel with him a lot. I do a lot with him and he’s always there on my side so I’m glad I helped him out to get to the finals.”