The District 11 Individual Boys’ Wrestling Championships concluded on Saturday afternoon in Bethlehem with the semifinals and finals at Freedom and Liberty High Schools. The Schuylkill League, entering the day with over two dozen wrestlers vying for district titles, saw six local talents walk away as District 11 champions. At the same time, 24 will advance to next weekend’s Southeast Regionals at Warwick High School in Lititz.
How they got there
Tri-Valley’s Owen Wolfgang started the weekend as the No. 1 seed at 107 pounds, earning a first-round bye. He defeated Elijah Guy of Lehighton Area in the quarterfinals with a pin in 34 seconds. In the semifinals, he defeated Dominic D’Ambola of Saucon Valley in 1:17 after taking a 7-0 lead in the match.
Tamaqua’s Rylan Reitz earned the top seed at 114 pounds as a freshman and picked up two dominating wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals. In the quarterfinals on Friday, he defeated Executive Education Academy’s Richard Camilo 16-2 before an equally dominant semifinals win of Tri-Valley’s Easton Moore.
At 121 pounds, Arturo Reyes of Mahanoy Area earned the No. 1 seed and opened his weekend with a 17-2 win over Luke Breidinger of Northwestern Lehigh in the round of 16. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Jacob Spinner of Salisbury Township 20-3. He continued his dominance with a 19-2 win over Pine Grove’s Chase Nagle in the semifinals..
Tri-Valley’s Jaxson Bruso was the No. 2 seed at 133 pounds coming into the weekend and picked up a win via pin in the round of 16 over Schuylkill Haven’s Tanner Wildermuth. In the quarterfinals, he earned a tech-fall 15-0 win over Blayke Lacey of Pen Argyl and then defeated Noah Leib of North Schuylkill in the semifinals 20-5.
Mahanoy Area’s Arturo Reyes wrestles at the District 11 Individual Wrestling Championships at Liberty High School in Bethlehem on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2022. (RYAN SHARP/STAFF PHOTO)
In the 152-pound weight class, Mahanoy Area’s Rory Dixon entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed. In his opening match in the quarterfinals, he beat Saucon Valley’s Ashton Beckowski in tech. fall fashion, 17-2. In the semi-finals, he once again raced to a tech. fall win over Lehighton’s Evan Wentz, 19-3.
Pine Grove’s Isaiah Miller was one of the bigger underdogs of the weekend to make it to the finals. After entering the weekend as the No. 4 seed at 172 pounds, Miller defeated Solomon Riddle of Palisades 3-0 in the round of 16 before beating Carter Hontz of Lehighton in the quarter-finals with a pin in just under three minutes. In the semi-finals, he took on Tri-Valley’s Hunter Updegrave, the No. 1 seed, picking up a pin in the second period to advance to the finals.
In the 189-pound weight class, Tri-Valley’s Maxwell Masser, the No. 2 seed, defeated Jacob Watson of Salisbury Township in the quarterfinals 16-0, and narrowly defeated Mahanoy Area’s Stanley Boris in the semi-finals 4-3.
At 215 pounds, Mahanoy Area’s Kyler Quick was the Golden Bears’ third No. 1 seed while North Schuylkill’s Cadyn McGraw was the No. 3 seed. Quick defeated Williams Valley’s Elisha Weiss in the quarter-finals 16-1, while McGraw was able to handle Dawson Newhard of Northern Lehigh 7-0 in his own quarter-final matchup. In the semi-finals, Quick defeated Asher Traylor of Lehighton Area 3-0, and McGraw defeated Pine Grove’s Zachary Kurts 5-4.
Finally, at 285 pounds. Williams Valley’s Camron Green began his weekend as the No. 1 seed, defeating Schuylkill Haven’s Triston Davis 3-0 in the quarterfinals and Saucon Valley’s Ezekiel Delly 7-3 in the semifinals.
The Finals
In the opening bout of the finals, Tri-Valley’s 133-pounder Jaxson Bruso took on Salisbury Township’s Jarrod Blunt. The first period between Bruso and Blunt was a stalemate, both wrestlers failing to find leverage on the other. In the second period, the stalemate continued before Blunt was quickly able to take advantage of a narrow opening from Bruso, executing a takedown before pinning Bruso at the 2:24 mark.
Bruso will now wrestle in next week’s Southeast Regionals. The Tri-Valley senior will look to improve upon his appearance last year, when he did not place.
In the 152-pound finals, Mahanoy Area’s Rory Dixon won his first District 11 gold in a dominant 17-1 tech fall win over Northwestern Lehigh’s Chase Sukanick.
Dixon opened up the scoring in the championship, 35 seconds in, with a takedown. Sukanick earned an escape point following the takedown, but Dixon turned up the intensity from there with another takedown before earning four nearfall points at the buzzer to end the first period. In the second period, Dixon quickly struck again with a takedown to push his lead to 13-1 before once again earning four points on a nearfall to clinch the win.
Mahanoy Area’s Kyler Quick wrestles North Schuylkill’s Cadyn McGraw at the District 11 Individual Wrestling Championships at Liberty High School in Bethlehem on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2022. (RYAN SHARP/STAFF PHOTO)
The win marks Dixon’s first District 11 championship after finishing third last year. He’ll make his second trip to regionals after finishing fourth a year ago.
At 160 pounds, Tri-Valley’s Parker Hatter was unable to get past Northwestern Lehigh’s Nolan Koehler, who quickly earned 10 points on a takedown and two nearfalls before ultimately pinning Hatter with two seconds to spare in the opening period. The Tri-Valley sophomore will make his first appearance at the Southeast Regionals after not placing at districts last year.
At 189 pounds, Tri-Valley’s Maxwell Masser also fell quickly to Northwestern Lehigh’s Luke Fugazzotto in 43 seconds. Masser, despite the loss, qualified for regionals for the first time in his career.
At 215 pounds, it was an All-Schuylkill League matchup featuring Kyler Quick of Mahanoy Area and Cadyn McGraw of North Schuylkill. The first period between Quick and McGraw was a feeling-out period for both wrestlers, neither wrestler looking to be too aggressive. In the second period, Quick, the Schuylkill League’s top wrestler at 215 pounds all season, quickly earned an escape point two seconds in before taking down McGraw with 59 seconds left in the period and eventually pinning him with 32 seconds remaining in the period.
In the heavyweight matchup, Williams Valley’s Camron Green earned his first district championship, defeating Lehighton’s Marc Macias 1-0. Green’s only point in the matchup came on an escape in the second period. In the third period, the pair worked their way to the ground before Green was able to take command and ride out most of the final 30 seconds of the match.
Green, one of the few words and humble, was happy to finally make the finals and get his district gold. “Coming up short last year, one match away from making the finals.I feel pretty good to finally actually make it and win it,” he said about his feelings of winning the district medal.
He also discussed the mindset it takes to win a nail-biting matchup, as he did in the finals.
“Just to stay positive, knowing I can, I’ve won matches like that already,” he said. “Just knowing that whoever won simply won anyway. So just try to look for the good in it and not worry myself too much about it.”
After finishing third in last year’s District 11 tournament, this marks Green’s first District 11 championship. He advances to regionals for the second straight year.
Green’s championship at 285 pounds would be the first of four straight championship bouts won by Schuylkill League wrestlers.
In another all-Schuylkill League final, this time at 107 pounds, Owen Wolfgang of Tri-Valley defeated North Schuylkill’s Gaige Mentusky with a pin in 90 seconds. Mentusky initially opened the match with three points on a takedown, before Wolfgang nabbed two reversal points. The Tri-Valley senior was able to leverage his reversal into a favorable position, allowing him to earn the pin of Mentusky 18 seconds later.
Tri-Valley’s Owen Wolfgang wrestles North Schulkill’s Gaige Mentusky at the District 11 Individual Wrestling Championships at Freedom High School in Bethlehem on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2022. (RYAN SHARP/STAFF PHOTO)
The district championship is Wolfgang’s first district title after finishing runner-up in each of the last two seasons. He’ll make his third appearance at regionals, looking to earn his first trip to states in the process.
“It feels amazing,” he said following this win that has alluded him. “The past two years, I wanted it so bad, and then this year, I especially wanted it, and now I’m a senior, and I got it. It feels amazing.”
In the title matchup at 114 pounds, Tamaqua’s Rylan Reitz quickly got to work with a takedown of Pen Argyl’s Mason Ramsay to jump ahead 3-0 before pinning Ramsay in 1:35. The talented freshman earns district gold in his first opportunity.
Tamaqua coach Jim McCabe discussed Reitz’s accomplishments as a freshman and when the Blue Raiders coaching staff knew they had something special in the 114-pounder.
“I think at the beginning of the season, any freshman has a lot to prove. By Christmas, I think we knew we had someone who is well adverse in all avenues of wrestling,” McCabe discussed. “The physical aspect, hard work ethic, tough on top, gets out of the bottom, and then goes out after it. So it was quite apparent a lot sooner than your average freshman. Most of the time, I’m trying to convince freshmen that they are better than they are; I didn’t have to do that with him.”
The final Schuylkill League wrestler to win a championship came at 121 pounds. Mahanoy Area’s Arturo Reyes, another mighty freshman, put together the most dominant performance in Class AA or Class AAA on Saturday evening, defeating Pen Argyl’s Isaiah Adams 17-2 in just 1:26. Reyes earned two takedowns in the first 40 seconds before tacking on a third with 58 seconds remaining in the first period. He capped off the win with back-to-back nearfalls just 10 seconds apart to earn the tech fall win.
“I think we knew from the start that he had that potential,” Mahanoy assistant coach Shane Quick said. “He’s a kid that wrestles year-round, and he’s in love with the sport. We knew that that was his goal. We kind of knew that that was an achievement he wanted. We were just trying to help him get there.”
Reyes’s best attribute is that, despite being dominant as a freshman, he’s always looking to learn and get better. “He’s very receptive when we’re tweaking little positions with him,” he continued. “He’s doing what we ask of him.”
When it comes to his ceiling?
“His ceiling, there is no ceiling,” Quick said.
It was also a banner day for Mahanoy with three champions.
“I think that our program’s taken a nice jump from this year to last year,” he noted. “Being able to put three guys in the finals and win all three matches by bonus, it shows our guys are improving in the right direction. It’s the first time in Mahanoy history that we’ve had three champions in one day at a district tournament, so that’s another huge milestone.”
Tamaqua coach Jim McCabe also discussed the Schuylkill League’s success throughout the weekend and what it means for the league as a whole.
“The Schuylkill League really represented us very well,” he said. “Year in, year out. It’s nice to see that dominance again, and it was pins and techs (technical falls). It was dominant wrestling, which is nice to see. That attributes to off-season wrestling and those kids putting the time into it.”
Advancing to the Southeast Regionals
The following Schuylkill League wrestlers have advanced to the Southeast Regional finals next weekend at Warwick.
Class AA:
107: Owen Wolfgang (Tri-Valley), 1st; Gaige Mentusky (North Schuylkill), 2nd
114: Rylan Reitz (Tamaqua), 1st
121: Arturo Reyes (Mahanoy Area), 1st; Magnus Monger (Williams Valley), 3rd; Chase Nagle (Pine Grove), 4th
133: Jaxson Bruso (Tri-Valley), 2nd ; Andrew Hikes (Pine Grove), 4th
139: Brock Holmes (North Schuylkill), 3rd
145: Aaron Osatchuk (Pine Grove Area), 3rd; Bode Gates (North Schuylkill), 4th
152: Rory Dixon (Mahanoy Area), 1st
160: Parker Hatter (Tri-Valley), 2nd: Bryce Kile (North Schuylkill), 4th
172: Isaiah Miller (Pine Grove) 2nd, Hunter Updegrave (Tri-Valley), 3rd
189: Maxwell Masser (Tri-Valley), 2nd; Stanley Boris (Mahanoy Area), 3rd
215: Kyler Quick (Mahanoy), 1st; Cadyn McGraw (North Schuylkill), 2nd; Zachary Kurtz (Pine Grove Area, 3rd)
285: Camron Green (Williams Valley), 1st; Scout Frantz (Pine Grove Area), 3rd
Class AAA:
189: Terrell McFarland (Pottsville), 3rd