Print

Share

• Email to a friend
• Add This

Feeds

• Local Sports

Article Rating

Current Rating: (

0

/5)

Low High

(Rated

0

times)

By Sam Butler, Sentinel Reporter, January 14, 2009

Last updated: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 7:25 AM EST

Bonus points are those extra points awarded to wrestlers after winning by major decision, technical fall or fall.

When matches are close, it’s usually the team with more bonus points that comes away with the victory. Tuesday night, 13 of the 14 matches in the Mid Penn Colonial Division tilt between the Mechanicsburg Wildcats and the Carlisle Thundering Herd at Gene Evans Gymnasium were decided by those precious bonus points.

The Thundering Herd, thanks to three forfeits, still needed 13 bonus points to hand the Wildcats a 46-27 loss, which improved Carlisle to 5-1 in the Colonial with an important District 3 Class AAA qualifying dual meet against Big Spring on Saturday at 7 p.m.

“Getting a win now was really important,” Carlisle head coach Joe Wilson said. “We’ve got to beat Big Spring to even qualify for districts. We needed this to keep pace.”

Keeping pace was something both teams needed to do Tuesday as the points were given out in bunches.

“We wrestled a lot of good matches,” Wildcat head coach Roger Barrick said. “But when you score all those points there are a lot of things to keep working on. It’s good there weren’t a lot of pins, that means kids are fighting off their backs. But when you’re getting tech falls and majors you’re still not doing things right and you’ve got to keep working.”

Opening the meet at 152, Mechanicsburg’s Evan Baer hung a 13-1 major decision on Bryant Foster and followed that up with Townsend Mundorf’s pin of Pat Towery in 1:03 for a quick 10-0 lead.

“That was big for Townsend,” Barrick said of the win. “He lost to (Towery) by decision, I think, the last time they wrestled. He’s getting better, we’re all working to get better. It’s going to take some time.”

The 10-0 lead was erased rather quickly as both Matt Blessing and Greg Wuestner each won by forfeit at 189 and 215, respectively, for a 12-10 Carlisle lead.

“We figured we’d give up two (forfeits),” Barrick said. “We knew about two problems before we even got here. After weigh ins we realized we’d have to give up another because one guy didn’t meet his weight loss plan. That’s 18 points, you don’t give up those points and who knows how the match could have turned out.”

Follow the forfeits up with pins from Greg Tate in 3:47 at 215 and Austin Morrow in 4:56 at 285 and the Herd was up 24-10.

“I think we’ve got the best 25 and 85 combination,” Wilson said of his upper weights. “I thought we’d pick points in those spots. I wasn’t too sure about the lower weights, you never really know what to expect from kids learning their way.”

Both 103 and 112 went to Mechanicsburg. 103 pounder Scott Boova scored 11 points in the second and third rounds on his way to a 13-5 major decision.

“Boova wrestled very well in only his second match,” Barrick said. “In his first match he got a tech fall and now a major (decision). He’s 2-0 and showing he’s got some potential. We’re still a young team and when you’re working with a young team you just want the guys to get out there and wrestle. You have to get them match time so they can learn the tricks of the trade and then tell them that you’ll take care of the mistakes in practice.”

At 112, Carson Mowery won the only decision of the meet when he scored a takedown in the final minute for a 9-7 win to close the gap to 24-17 in Carlisle’s favor.

119 saw the final forfeit to Alex Crown, backed up with a pin by Rank Zachar in 5:43 at 125.

“They forfeited to some good guys,” Wilson said. “I think it was how we responded after the forfeits that really was the difference. Plus Zachar wrestled a good match, I was very happy with what he did.”

At 130, the Wildcats gave themselves a chance at a win thanks to Zach Thomson’s pin in 3:01 with three bouts remaining. Carlisle responded with two technical falls to put the contest out of reach when T.J. Keys scored a 16-0 tech fall in 4:04 at 135 and Jayshon Wilson racked up a 17-2 tech fall in 4:56.

The final bout of the night went to Mechanicsburg’s Rustin Barrick, who scored a 13-2 major decision at 145.

The Wildcats take on division leader Cumberland Valley on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Big Spring 34, Middletown 30

After falling behind, 26-7, halfway through the non-division dual meet, Big Spring ran off wins in six of the final seven bouts to steal a 34-30 win from visiting Middletown on Tuesday night.

Brett Rhoades, at 285, came through with a clutch fall in 26 seconds over Marcel Gonzalez before Devon Fraker downed Brock Thompson, 8-6, and Dereck Enders knocked off Zach Witman, 5-4, for a clincher.

The Bulldogs entered the final bout with a slim 31-30 lead.

Ryan Irvin at 135 and Zach Warner at 140 with a major decision and a decision, respectively, posted the only wins for Big Spring through seven bouts.

Luke Etter pinned Ronnie Long in 1:59 at 160 to start the rally before Colby Whitten and Mike Stoudt followed with a decision and a fall, respectively, to make it 26-22 Blue Raiders heading to the final three matches

Colonial

Cumberland Valley 67, West Perry 3

On the strength of five falls and three technical falls, Cumberland Valley hammered visiting West Perry, 67-3, Tuesday night.

Cory Salmon started the dual off with a pin of Greg Dundore in 1:02.

At 140, it took James Bennett a mere 2:08 to pin a technical fall on Nick Aungst, 17-2.

Bobby Manning’s 3-0 decision over Travis Hench at 125 was West Perry’s lone win of the night.

Capital

Boiling Springs 51, Palmyra 24

Tyler Thumma pinned Dylan Galloway in 28 seconds at 130 to help Boiling Springs, which received four forfeits, to a powerful 51-24 win over Palmyra in a Mid-Penn Capital Division dual.

Mark Hammond added a major decision at 160 and Cory mattila followed with a 4:55 fall before Mark Lentz scored the last of the Bubblers’ points with a 3:01 pin of Matt Wolf at 103.

Susquenita 47, Greencastle-Antrim 23

Joe Harper scored a 17-2 technical fall in 5:43 at 160 and teammate Derec Sauve followed that with a 19-4 tech fall of his own in 5:28 to help Susquenita power past visiting Greencastle-Antrim, 47-23.

The Blackhawks received four forfeits from their guests from Adams County and Cody Albright closed the night in style for Susquenita with a 3:17 second fall of Rusty Pine at 103.