District 11 Wrestling

[RoverNation05]

Nick Salamone of Easton pins his way into quarters, where he’ll see UVA commit Ethan Timar from St. Edward’s in Cleveland, Ohio. Timar was the Ohio state champ as a freshman and runner-up as a sophomore. Salamone has three wins over state finalists already this year (Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey) and this is a huge match up for him.

Also a really fun historical match-up. Easton and St. Ed’s both attended the Top Hat tournament at Williamsport in the early 80s which kicked off a decades relationship where they would dual each other, with Ed’s coming out to make the trip to wrestle Easton, Nazareth, Northampton, and Blair throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 00s. I don’t think the two schools have met in a dual since 2002, where Easton knocked off #2 nationally ranked Eagles at 25th Street Gym. When I was working for FloWrestling, I spent a lot of time covering Ed’s - Greg Urbas was the ultimate gentleman and John Heffernan (now the head coach) is also a great guy, and they would give me endless crap for how terrible and homer they thought the officiating in that dual was. I don’t know if that makes up for 34-18, but we had a lot of laughs over it. Good guys, hope Salamone goes out and kicks Timar’s butt.

 

[RoverNation05]

As an Easton side note - I don’t know if they’ve won a match all year at 114 pounds. Just a weird hole they have in the lineup. Their junior high team is at probably the best tournament in the state this weekend out at Bellefonte (Canon Mac, Connellsville, Reynolds, Central Dauphin, Easton, Nazareth, and a bunch of other great programs) and their 115 pound 8th grader tech’d/pinned his way through the field, with a 15-0 win in the finals over a PJW state medalist. Can we call him up for the stretch run here?

 

[RoverNation05]

Nick Salamone of Easton pins his way into quarters, where he’ll see UVA commit Ethan Timar from St. Edward’s in Cleveland, Ohio. Timar was the Ohio state champ as a freshman and runner-up as a sophomore. Salamone has three wins over state finalists already this year (Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey) and this is a huge match up for him.

Also a really fun historical match-up. Easton and St. Ed’s both attended the Top Hat tournament at Williamsport in the early 80s which kicked off a decades relationship where they would dual each other, with Ed’s coming out to make the trip to wrestle Easton, Nazareth, Northampton, and Blair throughout the 80s, 90s, and early 00s. I don’t think the two schools have met in a dual since 2002, where Easton knocked off #2 nationally ranked Eagles at 25th Street Gym. When I was working for FloWrestling, I spent a lot of time covering Ed’s - Greg Urbas was the ultimate gentleman and John Heffernan (now the head coach) is also a great guy, and they would give me endless crap for how terrible and homer they thought the officiating in that dual was. I don’t know if that makes up for 34-18, but we had a lot of laughs over it. Good guys, hope Salamone goes out and kicks Timar’s butt.

Salamone beats Timar 7-1, best win of his career. Second win over a top 10 kid in the country this year for Salamone (John McGinty, who will be in the other semi).

 

[RoverNation05]

Salamone beats Timar 7-1, best win of his career. Second win over a top 10 kid in the country this year for Salamone (John McGinty, who will be in the other semi).

Salamone got smoked by U17 world champion Paul Kenny (Christian Brothers Academy, NJ) 20-3, but just went out and flipped his loss to Reef Dillard from a week ago with a 5-2 win on a last second takedown (I actually think it came too late, lots of arguing at the table).

Some really good finals -
107: Jojo Burke, SJR vs Justin Farnsworth, Malvern Prep: both top five in the country
114: Freddy Bachman, FCA vs Liam Davis, LHP: Bachmann #1 in America and a big favoritr
121: John McGinty, SJR vs Paul Kenny, CBA: probably NJ state final
127: Joey Bachmann, FCA vs Karson Brown, St. Ed’s: disappointed Keanu Dillard had to scratch, but a good PA vs OH state champ battle.
133: Kasen Roark, Father Ryan TN vs Tyler Conroy, Malvern Prep: Mutarelli scratched here, and Tyler DeKraker had to injury default out
139: Ryan Kennedy, Spire Academy vs Caden Baum, Biship McDevitt: Cayden Riccardi scratching and Kennedy with an upset over Jayce Paridon caused chaos here.
145: Eren Sement, CRN vs Charlie DeSenna, LHP: Sement has been on fire
152: Chase Van Hoven, Brooke Point VA vs Zeno Moore, LHP: Pair of top ten kids, neither local but a high level match up
160: Collin Gaj, Quakertown vs Ben Weader, Chantilly VA: Future college teammates at Virginia Texh
172: Ryan Burton, SJR vs Asher Cunningham, State College: Bith top 5 in America, Burton has won their earlier match up this year. Marquee bout of the tournament.
189: Adam Waters, FCA vs Vincenzo LaVelle, Hanover Park NJ: Waters is incredible. One of the best junior upper weights I’ve ever seen.
215: Lucas Lawler, Bishop McDevitt vs Jason Singer, FCA: Probable 2A state semifinal for the right to wrestle Austin Johnson (Muncy)
285: Mark Effendian, FCA vs Jacob Levy, LHP: top two seeds, have been in the finals of a bunch of big tournaments.

 

[Relayer]

Happy for Eren Sement, hope he wins gold this year. The CRN-CRS match in a couple weeks could be interesting, obviously the rivalry has been somewhat lopsided over the years.

 

[RoverNation05]

Happy for Eren Sement, hope he wins gold this year. The CRN-CRS match in a couple weeks could be interesting, obviously the rivalry has been somewhat lopsided over the years.

Sement is wrestling really well. He's in a brutal weight class right now - he, Tahir Parkins (Nazareth), and Dalton Perry (Central Mountain) are all in the top 8 in the country and Parkins and Perry have both won state championships (Parkins last year, Perry won as a freshman, took 3rd as a sophomore, and lost in finals last year). I wonder if you'll see movement for the postseason - there is not a clear favorite at 139 right now, with Mutarelli going down to 133, and Trey Wagner seemingly up at 139 at least for now is a favorite as a returning state champ, but probably a step down from Parkins/Perry/Sement on a talent scale. I don't know what Sement is pulling to get to 145 or if getting to 141 (139 plus the two pound allowance) is feasible for him. And it's not impossible for him to win 145 - he beat Parkins for 3rd place two years ago at states when they were at 126, and Parkins-Sement was an overtime match in the Beast of the East finals. He and Perry have never wrestled in high school - but I don't think Perry is as invicible as it seemed like he was going to be after a dominant freshman year. And those three are going to Penn State (Perry), Michigan (Sement), and Rutgers (Parkins), so it may be a round-robin that continues into college.

 

[RoverNation05]

Salamone got smoked by U17 world champion Paul Kenny (Christian Brothers Academy, NJ) 20-3, but just went out and flipped his loss to Reef Dillard from a week ago with a 5-2 win on a last second takedown (I actually think it came too late, lots of arguing at the table).

Some really good finals -
107: Jojo Burke, SJR vs Justin Farnsworth, Malvern Prep: both top five in the country
114: Freddy Bachman, FCA vs Liam Davis, LHP: Bachmann #1 in America and a big favoritr
121: John McGinty, SJR vs Paul Kenny, CBA: probably NJ state final
127: Joey Bachmann, FCA vs Karson Brown, St. Ed’s: disappointed Keanu Dillard had to scratch, but a good PA vs OH state champ battle.
133: Kasen Roark, Father Ryan TN vs Tyler Conroy, Malvern Prep: Mutarelli scratched here, and Tyler DeKraker had to injury default out
139: Ryan Kennedy, Spire Academy vs Caden Baum, Biship McDevitt: Cayden Riccardi scratching and Kennedy with an upset over Jayce Paridon caused chaos here.
145: Eren Sement, CRN vs Charlie DeSenna, LHP: Sement has been on fire
152: Chase Van Hoven, Brooke Point VA vs Zeno Moore, LHP: Pair of top ten kids, neither local but a high level match up
160: Collin Gaj, Quakertown vs Ben Weader, Chantilly VA: Future college teammates at Virginia Texh
172: Ryan Burton, SJR vs Asher Cunningham, State College: Bith top 5 in America, Burton has won their earlier match up this year. Marquee bout of the tournament.
189: Adam Waters, FCA vs Vincenzo LaVelle, Hanover Park NJ: Waters is incredible. One of the best junior upper weights I’ve ever seen.
215: Lucas Lawler, Bishop McDevitt vs Jason Singer, FCA: Probable 2A state semifinal for the right to wrestle Austin Johnson (Muncy)
285: Mark Effendian, FCA vs Jacob Levy, LHP: top two seeds, have been in the finals of a bunch of big tournaments.

On finals -
Jojo Burke looked like a monster and hammered Farnsworth.
Bachmann goes 2-3 in major tournament finals with a win here at at Ironman.
Kenny takes round 1 against McGinty in a really tight match. Book that for an Atlantic City state final
Karson Brown with the HUGE upset of Bachmann. He was the better, more aggressive wrestler. Got the stall call to force OT, then went out and got a score to win.
Conroy dominated
Great tournament from Ryan Kennedy. Took down a pair of nationally ranked foes to win the tournament
Sement looked the best i've seen him in high school
Van Hoven smoked Moore. Lehigh is getting a good one.
Gaj smoked his future teammate. Absolute mostenr.
Burton handled Cunningham. Not as close as I thought it would be.
Waters by tech fall. Not close, he's as good as anybody in AMerica.
Singer takes round 1, will almost definitely see it again at states
Levy takes the rubber match - Effendian beat him at Ironman, he beat Effendian at Beast, nice win here with two elite big guys