Day 1 of my 'wrestling' trip included a 10-minute drive to the casino. Ugh!

Express-Times Photo | MICHAEL BLOUSEThis is the horse, No. 5, I threw 20 bucks on at Penn National. He won, I lost. Sorry for the poor quality of this picture. I was pretending to be an Express-Times staff photographer.Blogger's note: I am rearranging the letters in everyone's name in this post to protect their identity and my safety.

I love wrestling. But even more than loving wrestling, I love the time the wrestlers aren't actually wrestling so I can spend some serious QT with my crew out here in Hershey, Pa. And we all enjoyed plenty of QT on Thursday -- Day 1 of the PIAA Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center.

Several highlights of Day 1 of the trip (after the Class AA action was completed and my story was filed):

• Enjoyed a late lunch at Perkins with pals Ssi and Lrdaa. It was already 3:30 p.m., but I ordered the breakfast -- two eggs, sausage, pancakes and potatoes. I was so hungry even this so-so meal tasted terrific.


• This crew I lower my standards to hang out with, they make the hotel lobby of the Scottish Inn on Jonestown Road their home. (I'll provide a little perspective here, the Pen Argyl peeps and Northampton clan are this weekend's running mates.) Crowding the lobby with food, booze, more food, more booze and lots of hardcore wrasslin groupies, it's a great way to spend an evening. Of course, the food is too fancy for me and we needed a trip to the CASINO!!!


• My buddy Rfkna, who is actually more of an acquaintance than a friend because friends share their good fortune, won $4,000 at the Hollywood Casino/Penn National Racetrack on Thursday night. Rfkna really won $4,100 on the slots but I talked him into betting one large on a horse named "Rfkna the Tank" and it finished a distant third. Rfkna may be my hero; but not a friend. Me? I lost $40 on two horse races. My No. 5 horse pictured above prevailed, but my exacta failed. (I'll write it off on my Express-Times entertainment voucher. Ha! Ha! Ha!)


• I tend to disappear from my wolfpack from time to time, and when I return it's usually: "Hey, (insert demeaning name here), where were you?" And I tell 'em it's tournament time in college hoops and I was checking out a real sport. Then comes some sort of bad wrestling joke about how stupid basketball is. Really, it's getting old. And basketball is the cooler sport.

Some of the better-looking peeps I hang with.You want some names? OK, the wolfpack includes ... Heleicm, Rm. Elhsw, Rcia, Xre, Rd. DaoeloP, Lpih, Lpih, Crhi, Upal, Oej, RRtei, Miat, Ddbuha, Rfkna, Ssi, Lrdaa. Those are just a few.

Well, that's a wrap on Day 1 at the PIAA Wrestling Championships in Hershey. Not looking forward to Day 2 today. Way too much wrestling to break up this party! Word.

Most freshman would wilt on the pressure of being on the Giant Center floor in front of a raucous Class AAA crowd at the PIAA Wrestling Championships.
   
Not Christopher Vassar.
   
The Cedar Cliff newbie is used to being in tight matches. It seems to be a constant for Vassar, who has 11 matches this season where the margin of victory has been two points or less.
   
So when he finished in a scoreless tie with Clearfield’s Christian Stone at the end of regulation, Vassar didn’t panic. It was simply status quo.
   
Vassar showed the prowess of a polished veteran, when he escaped in the second overtime period and rode Stone out in the third to take a 1-0 decision and earn a spot in today’s quarterfinal round, which is scheduled for 1 p.m.
   
“Some people get to that third period in a tight match and think that they are going to lose,” Vassar said. “All those close matches have helped me mentally. I seem to pick it up more.
   
“I trusted in all the work outs I do riding people out in the room. I knew eventually I would get out, and I was able to post his hand and swivel my hips up and out.”
   
It’s all mental.
   
Vassar (38-9) may be small, but he has the confidence of a 285-pound heavyweight. He believes in his ability and his work ethic. And never was that more evident than when he wiggled away from Stone with five seconds left in the second overtime period.

From there, it was brute strength and riding ability. Stone almost got away, but Vassar climbed up his legs and dropped the Clearfield freshman to his knees and hung on for the victory.
   
“I’m not surprised with how well I’m doing,” said Vassar, who will face Liberty junior Anthony Cabrera in the quarterfinals. “I work hard training, keep my grades up and trust my coaches.
   
“I’m just going to keep working hard and come back tomorrow and try win.”
   
Vassar wasn’t the only local newcomer to the state tournament to have a good showing.
   
East Pennsboro’s Zachary Nye was nervous early but surged late to pin Blue Mountain’s Brook Gosch in 5:43.
   
Nye was only up 1-0 when Gosch chose down to start the third period. Big mistake, as the Panthers junior rolled the Eagles standout and racked up the fall.
   
“I was driving in here and saw the Giant Center, and was like ‘Oh, my God’,” Nye said. “It was my first match at states and I didn’t want to do anything stupid, so I really didn’t do anything.
   
“I usually feel pretty comfortable on top and once I got on top in the third, I started to get comfortable and the nerves started to go away.”
   
Nye (37-0) will face Methacton’s Brandan Clark (35-5), who upset defending state champion Nate Gaffney, of Connellsville, in the quarterfinals.
   
“I’m much more relaxed now that Gaffney lost,” Nye said. “But the guy I’m facing beat the defending state champion, so he is a good wrestler and I can’t overlook him.”
   
Susquehanna Twp. Sophomore Averee Robinson made a splash in his first state appearance, downing Penn Trafford’s Zach Baker 11-4.
   
Despite being sluggish, Robinson dominated this tilt, scoring six takedowns over three periods to take the victory.
   
“I knew I would be nervous, but I didn’t think I would be this sluggish,” Robinson said. “I thought I was going to be ready, but it was one of my worst matches of the year.
   
“I saw some classmates in the stands, and it made me so proud to represent my school and help put Susquehanna Twp. on the map. I was just hoping to get out with a win.”
   
Robinson (35-2) will take on Clearfield’s Andre Buck (28-8) in the quarterfinals.

 

CLASS AAA
145 POUNDS: Ryan Krecker (33-4), Nazareth vs. Bo Candelaria (30-3), Middletown: Candelaria looks unbeatable after scoring tech falls in the finals of districts and in Thursday’s first round of states. But don’t discount Krecker, who defeated Candelaria at Beast of the East in mid-December 7-2 and will be a tough out for the Blue Raiders star.

285 POUNDS: Evan Craig (47-0), Abington Heights vs. Adam Lazenga (41-1), Bethel Park: Craig was the runner-up at 285 as a sophomore and moved to the top of the podium a year ago. He will face his first test of the tournament in Lazenga, who is a pinning machine and put up plenty of resistance to the mighty Craig.

CLASS AA
112 POUNDS: David White (42-3), Athens vs. Evan Link (34-4), Penn Cambria: Link is on the rebound from a surprising third-place finish in the Southwest Region last week in Johnstown. He will look to get back on track against White, a two-time state medalist and Northeast Region champion.

152 POUNDS: Tyler Hain (34-4), Warrior Run vs. Cody Wiercioch (35-1), Charleroi: Hain is a two-time PIAA runner-up and squares off against arguably the best freshman in Class AA. It’s senior against the youngster to see who will be the favorite to stand at the top of the podium on Saturday.

There is little doubt after the preliminary round which Class AA district is tops in the state.
       
It’s District 4 in a landslide.
      
The Sunbury-Williamsport area is home to 25 percent of the field left in the championship bracket, owning 28 of the 112 quarterfinal spots. The quarterfinals are slated to go off at 8 a.m. this morning.
       
Benton seems to be the strongest team in the District 4 field with six wrestlers in the quarterfinals, which is also good enough to take the team championship lead with 20 points. Burrell is second with 16 points.
       
Fellow District 4 running mate Athens put three wrestlers in the finals and is fifth in the team chase with 10 points. Shamokin is tied for sixth with three wrestlers in the quarterfinals and nine points.
       
Where does District 3 rank compared to the rest of the state in Class AA: try second with 18. Schuylkill Valley helped the cause with four in contention for a state title. Juniata is second with three, followed by Boiling Springs with two.

BOO BIRDS
The first boos from the stands ripped through the Giant Center air during a 135-pound tilt between Central Mountain’s Jordan Rich and La Salle’s Joey Mazzi.
       
Mazzi trailed 5-1 in the match before locking in a headlock and taking Rich, a fourth-place finisher a year ago at 125, for an additional three near fall points to grab a 6-5 lead.
       
But before Mazzi could pin Rich, he lost Rich’s arm and the headlock turned illegal, costing Mazzi a point and tying the match at 6-6. Rich (35-2) was then awarded a caution point, first noticed by the assistant, and not the match, referee to make it 7-6. Annoyed, Mazzi decided to let up Rich and go for the takedown in the final 14 seconds.
       
Mazzi failed to get the takedown and stormed off the mat none too happy with the referee.

STATE CHAMP FALLS
Connellsville’s Nate Gaffney, the defending champion at 215, dropped a 6-2 decision to Methacton’s Brandan Clark (35-5) in the first round at the same weight.
       
Gaffney tore a ligament in his right knee earlier, but still managed to finish, much like Selinsgrove’s Spencer Myers did against Gaffney in the finals a year ago.
       
Unfortunately for the Connellsville standout, the injury was so severe that he did not return to tournament action.

MORE TOP WRESTLERS FALL
It wasn’t a good day to be a returning runner-up in Class AAA.
       
Blue Mountain’s Tyler Rauenzahn, Bradford’s Mark Havers and Cedar Cliff’s Clint Morrison, all silver medalists from last season were bounced out of the championship bracket in the first round of competition.
       
Havers, who lost to Central Dauphin’s Marshall Peppelman in the 152-pound final a year ago, was the biggest surprise of the group, dropping an 8-6 decision to Chichester’s Bobby Scheivert at 160.
       
Morrison, a runner-up at 171, was out-muscled by Cathedral Prep’s Jermaine Easter (37-5) 10-8 in an entertaining bout at 171. Easter had a big lead early, 8-2, before Morrison rallied and fell just short.
       
As for Rauenzahn, second at 119 last year, his loss wasn’t terribly surprising; he fell 11-7 to McDowell sophomore Steve Spearman, who boasts a spotless 39-0 mark at 130.
       
Morrison and Rauenzahn managed to win consolations, while Havers took an early two and out exit.

NO COMPLAINTS
This was the first year the PIAA held the state pairings until the Sunday before competition, and the process seemed to work out well.
       
"It's been a non-isuue," PIAA assistant executive director Mark Byers said. "We had one e-mail messaging complaining that one of the weights should have been re-drawn, but that was an anonymous message.  Otherwise, we had no complaints."
       
Byers said it's likely that the PIAA will retain the process.
       
"We'll review it at the wrestling steering committe [next month] and barring any changes, we'll likely proceed with this method in the future," byers said.

MEAT IN THE SEATS
Attendance for Thursday's sessions were 5,775 for Class AA and 6,909 for Class AAA for first-day total of 12,684, a bit off the PIAA's normal first-day numbers.

Cris Ramirez probably never saw the movie “Cool Hand Luke.”
               
But he pulled a significant piece of advice from that classic con-on-the-run film. After a disappointing PIAA Class AA Southeast Region Wrestling Tournanment last week, he decided, in the word of Strother Martin’s famous Captain, to get his mind right.

It’s right.

Ramirez (25-8) turned his fifth-place regional finish into a flurry of improvement over the last four days, all of it resulting in a stunning first-round pin of Shamokin’s Wes Tillett (34-5) in the PIAA Class AA Wrestling Championship Thursday at Giant Center.

Ramirez’s victory was one of two stunners by midstate wrestlers in a mixed bag for the locals.

The other came from Juniata senior Seth Beitz (42-7), who knocked off Central Cambria’s Phillip Steinberg, last year’s runner-up at 135 pounds, by a 6-3 score.

Six other midstate wrestlers scored first-round wins: Line Mountain’s impressive freshman Zain Retherford at 103 and Adam Kritzer at 130, Juniata’s PIAA champion Arty Walsh at 119 and PIAA runner-up Zac Beitz at 125, and Boiling Springs’ Joe Spisak at 130 and hot-as-slag Tylor Unger at 285.

But the victories by Ramirez and Seth Beitz were show-stealers for the locals.

“After regionals, we went back in the room and worked,” Ramirez said. “And not just baby practices. There was a lot of running, a lot of work.”

It wasn’t just physical work, either.

“We watched a video [of Tillett] and learned some things about him,” Ramirez said. “I was looking for his weakness, and when I found it, I went after it.”

What Ramirez found, in part because of the video that Milton Hershey assistant coach Ed Neiswender pulled of the wrestling site flowrestling.com, was that Tillett could be thrown. And that’s what Ramirez did … twice.

The first was a counter when Tillett, leading 2-1, attempted to tackle Ramirez, who went over and under and flipped Tillet for a takedown near the edge.

The second throw was much better. Ramirez walked into a low bear hug, lifted and tossed Tillett and got the pin at 3:27.

“I think maybe he thought it’d be easy since I was a No. 5 guy [from the region],” Ramirez said. “I know I thought that about Unger last week.” Unger (33-15), who pushed through a grueling 3-2 win over Wyalusing’s Pete Champluvier.

Unger, who entered the District 3-AA tournament with a 26-12 record, but has since gone 9-3 against good competition, turned in a stunning 9-2 decision over Ramirez last week.

“I learned from that,” said Ramirez, a Bronx resident who once loved theater.

Unger, for his his part, is thrilled with the new him, even if he’s not quite sure how to articulate his new-man turn of events.

“Everything’s just going well,” Unger said. “I just look at my opponent as my enemy and treat him that way.”

Boiling Springs head coach Rodney Wright was more concise about Unger’s improvement.

“He’s found a new love for the sport,” said Wright, the three-time PIAA champion from Lakeview. “Just the other day, he said ‘I can’t wait for next year.’ I told him, ‘Hey, let’s take of this year first.’ ‘’

Unger’s more famous teammate, Spisak (44-1), got in just 43 seconds of work, the time it took him to pin Bentworth’s Francis Mizia.

“I just wanted to come out physical, get the feel for it,” Spisak said. “Having only one match today is kind of anticlimactic, but that’s the way it’s set up. It’d be nice to have another.”

Seth Beitz showed he’s capable of reaching Saturday’s state finals by wrestling a smart, tough match against Steinberg. He trailed 3-2 after two periods, but was the aggressor in the third and outscored Steinberg 4-0 with a takedown and nearfall.

Beitz’s brother Zac had no problems, dumping Iroquois’ Dylan Simmer 9-2 at 125 while Walsh got enough of a fight from Blairsville’s Adam Weinell in a 9-3 decision.

Retherford was especially impressive in his 10-0 execution of Mount Union’s Ryan Wilson, who had just three losses entering the tournament, while Kritzer pulled off a mild surprise by topping North East’s Levi Morton 10-5. He gets Spisak in this morning’s quarterfinals.

Among those falling short in the opening round were Milton Hershey’s Nick Lamoreaux, who couldn’t find any openings against PIAA runner-up Evan Link of Penn Cambria in a 6-2 loss.

Annville-Cleona’s Dylan Killian fell behind Loyalsock’s Alec Eggerton 8-2, turned him with a third-period cradle, but couldn’t get the pin and lost 8-5.

Juniata’s Dylan Treaster at 152 and Dan Fultz at 285 also dropped first-round matches, Treaster to Tyler Gargano of Hickory 12-4 and Fultz to PIAA runner-up Tyler DeMott of Benton 10-2.   Williams Valley’s Ben Ancheff was pinned in overtime by Forest Hills’ Robert Oshaben.

Whether it is the regular season, the District 3 Championships or the PIAA Wrestling Championships, Bo knows one thing.

Winning.

Bo Candelaria wasted little time in showing that he isn’t about to lay over for Central Mountain’s Andrew Alton or anyone else in the 145-pound weight class for that matter, when he carved out a picture-perfect 16-1 over Council Rock South’s Tim Riley in the first round of Class AAA competition.

“Everything is working for me right now,” Candelaria said. “There are always some pre-state butterflies coming in; your eyes get big but once you blink and get that first match in, you are into it.

“This is my time to feel strong. I’m not going to back down now.”/p

The Blue Raiders senior (30-3) rests in the top-heavy side of the 145-bracket, with weight favorite Alton and Nazareth’s Ryan Krecker (34-4), who Candelaria will face in the quarterfinals, which start at 1 p.m.

It should be noted that Krecker decisioned Candelaria 7-2 at Beast of the East in mid-December. But he can expect to see a different wrestler this time around.

“I’m in better shape, and I’m more aggressive than when we wrestled the first time,” Candelaria said. “The last time, I wrestled his way. This time, I’m going show him the way I wrestle.”

A win, and Candelaria will likely hit Alton, the state champion at 140 last year, in the semifinals.

“I don’t mind that those guys are on my side of the bracket,’ Candelaria said. “I’m here to win gold and wrestle the best whether it is in the first round or the finals.”

The local Mid-Penn contingent showed its worth on the state stage by advancing 13 of 23 wrestlers into the Class AAA quarterfinals. Five more wrestlers are still alive in the consolations.

Cumberland Valley’s Travis Friend is in his last high school season and is looking to make it count.

He got off to a good start by punishing Ringgold’s Neal Rands and then pinning him in 3:12 to advance to the quarterfinals against St. Marys Sean Sadosky (34-0).

“Districts is done and over with,” said Friend (23-1), who lost to East Pennsboro’s Zachary Nye in the District 3 final. “There is no pressure on me. I like where I am in the bracket and just want to take it one match at a time and make it on the medal stand.

“This is my last time season, and I want to go out on a good note.”

Central Dauphin’s Marshall Peppelman (160) and Kenny Courts (171) are also looking to put an exclamation point on the season.

The two ripped off quick pins, spending a combined 1:31 on the mat in advancing to today’s quarters.

Others local wrestlers remaining in the championship hunt are Cedar Cliff’s Christopher Vassar (103), Big Spring’s Dereck Enders (112), Central Dauphin’s Tyler Buckman (130), Cumberland Valley’s Shawn Greevy (135), Carlisle’s Jayshon Wilson (152), Big Spring’s Luke Etter (160), Cumberland Valley’s Tristan Warner (171), East Pennsboro’s Zachary Nye (215) and Susquehanna Twp.’s Averee Robinson (285).

　

See complete results for tonight's consolation round.

See complete results of this afternoon's preliminaries.

See complete results for the consolation round.

There are few sure things at the PIAA wrestling championships. But it would be surprising, very surprising, if Coudersport's Dirk Cowburn and Benton's Eric Hess don't meet in Saturday's Class AA 160-pound final at Hershey's Giant Center.

The two seniors, returning state champions, are clearly the class of the weight. Cowburn is a Penn State recruit and Hess will attend Lehigh.

Cowburn ran his season record to 46-1 with his 1:20 prelim pin of Fleetwood's Cody Breiner. Initially, Cowburn had a one-word response to the possibility of facing Hess.

"Awesome,'' said, Cowburn, who will be seeking his third state title after winning the 152 weight the last two years.

He added: "He's a good kid. I respect (Hess) and I think he respects me. ... It's going to be a good match. I can't wait, I'm excited. But ... you still have to take it one match at a time out here.'' 

Hess, now 38-2, scored a 15-0 technical fall over Bentworth's Dylan Demain in his preliminary-round victory.