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One day after qualifying for the PIAA Championships, wrestlers learned who they would face in the first round of the state tournament, which begins Thursday at the Giant Center in Hershey.
A total of 15 Wyoming Valley Conference wrestlers will be participating in the state tournament, the most the conference has sent to states since the 14th weight class was added in 2003, and the most since at least 1999.
The eight Class 3A state qualifiers from the WVC are the most in that class since 2007 when nine wrestlers moved on, while the seven in Class 2A are the most the conference has advanced since 2003 when eight wrestlers qualified.
The conference’s four Northeast Regional champions, Wyoming Area’s Charlie Johnson (Class 2A, 126 pounds), GAR’s Zac Faust (2A, 195) and Saul Wilkins (2A, 285), and Wyoming Valley West’s Cody Cordes (3A, 160) do not know their first round opponents as of today since they will be taking on winners of preliminary round bouts in Thursday’s first round.
Lake-Lehman’s RJ Driscoll (2A, 120), Hazleton Area’s Chris Lasecki (3A, 113), Wyoming Valley West’s James Wright (3A, 120) and Pittston Area’s Jake Vaxmonsky (3A, 220) will all wrestle in the pigtail round, making their road to become all-state a little harder since they will have to win one more match than the others to try to earn a state medal.
There are no easy matches when wrestling at this level, and one of the toughest brackets for the WVC participants is the 126-pound Class 2A bracket where Johnson, a two-time state qualifier, will be active.
The junior is in a weight with a seven returning state medalists from last season and a total of 13 state qualifiers in the 20-man bracket.
An extra tough weight for the 3A participants is at 113 where Lasecki is at. Two-time defending state champion Devi Brown from Franklin Regional is in the top half of the bracket as is returning state runner-up Dan Moran from Northampton. There’s a total of 10 returning state qualifiers, including five medalists in the sophomore’s weight.
Lasecki’s teammates, Jimmy Hoffman (126) and Derek Spachman (182) know who they will see in the first round and may have a bit of an easier road than Lasecki. Hoffman, now a two-time state qualifier, has just two returning state participants in his half of the bracket, with one being Jacob Lizak from Parkland, who Hoffman defeated last weekend in the regional semifinals. Spachman, a senior could get a state second-place finisher from last year if he wins his first round match.
Hoffman, who lost the regional final to two-time state finalist Luke Karam from Bethlehem Catholic was not demoralized by the loss, and has learned from it.
“All the matches in Hershey are going to be tough so that’s just gonna help me for when the time comes for me to be on that podium,” Hoffman said. “The only thing that happened is that he got that five-point move and that was really the only setback.”
Crestwood’s Dan Ritz (3A, 138), who was regional runner-up like Hoffman, will see two-time state qualifier Giovanni Ciotti from General McLane in the first round.
Ryan Monk, Dallas’ regional runner-up and sixth-place state finisher from last year, starts his tournament with Neshaminy’s Bruce Graeber. Monk lost in the regional final to Bethlehem Catholic’s Andrew Dunn, who is nationally-ranked. But Dallas coach Mike Richards said he expects his heavyweight to be back in the state semifinals like last year, if not further, even after Saturday’s tough loss.
“He’s a very intense kid in everything that he does, football, wrestling, school, it’s just his nature to be intense and he doesn’t like to lose,” Richards said. “There’s no such thing as a good loss for him, any loss is a bad loss and he’s always looking to see how he can improve to make it better. We’re setting our gears for next week, that’s ultimately where we want to be anyway so. It’s a little hiccup in the road but I fully expect we’ll be right back where we were last year.”
In 2A, Meyers’ Colin Pasone (106), begins his first state tournament facing Boiling Springs’ Jalin Hankerson. Derek Dragon, a two-time state qualifier from Lake-Lehman at 170 pounds, has a match with Evan Daub from Northern Lebanon in the first round. Pasone’s teammate TJ Cistrunk, a qualifier for the first time as a senior, will see 2014 state qualifier from Fort LeBoeuf Garrett Reinwald in the first round.