It was a memorable first trip to the PIAA Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey for the West Scranton sophomore. Schechterly won a silver medal at 160 pounds in Class 3A after losing in the final to Altoona\u2019s Gavin Ciampoli, 9-3. It was the second time this season he lost to Ciampoli.<\/p>\n
To get to the final, Schechterly decisioned J.D. Heiser of Boyertown in the first round, 7-3; decisioned Mount Lebanon\u2019s Cole Gibbons in the quarterfinals, 2-1; and had a 10-1 major decision in the semifinals over Jon Smith from Oxford, ranked No. 1 in the state.<\/p>\n
Schechterly finished with a 39-7 record this season.<\/p>\n
Family: Father, Timothy; mother, Alison; brothers, Timothy, Silas; sisters, Lily, Trista, Lexi, Maggie<\/p>\n
Coach: Jim Morgan<\/p>\n
What was your strategy in your semifinal match against the No. 1-ranked kid: I just tried to keep under and stay low and score off his attacks. Eventually I ended up scoring off mine. I also tried to get out on bottom, just to get the extra points. That was really helpful. I felt really good after beating him, especially because I made it to the finals and didn\u2019t have to worry about wrestling back. Definitely raised my confidence a lot that I can wrestle against anybody.<\/p>\n
Since you had lost to Ciampoli previously, what did you try to do different in the final against him: The last time I was a little more cautious. This time, after he took me down, I ended up with a stall point and at the end I was just going for stuff and eventually he got another three (points).<\/p>\n
Despite losing, how did it feel to come away with a silver medal: It felt pretty good. Not everyone can say they took second at states. I definitely wanted to win that one. but I have next year and the year after that. It definitely makes me more motivated. It shows what I\u2019m capable of. The more work I do, the better I can get.<\/p>\n
This was your first time at states. What did you think about the whole atmosphere: It was definitely cool, especially the parade of champions. But I\u2019ve been to big tournaments like that, maybe not as big, but the same setup. That was definitely helpful wrestling in the offseason stuff like that.<\/p>\n
Did you exceed your expectations: I definitely did. But I also felt like if I could wrestle the way I know how to that I would definitely be in the finals.<\/p>\n
Favorite teams: I don\u2019t really watch other sports besides wrestling.<\/p>\n
Favorite food: Breakfast pizza<\/p>\n
Cake or pie: Pie<\/p>\n
Favorite school subject: English. I enjoy reading.<\/p>\n
Athletes I admire: P.J. Duke of Penn State. He\u2019s young and he\u2019s out there winning.<\/p>\n
Superstitions and rituals: Not really.<\/p>\n
If I could have any superpower, it would be: Flying<\/p>\n
One word to best describe me: Driven<\/p>\n
App I use most on my phone: TikTok<\/p>\n
Three people I\u2019d like to have dinner with: Don Toliver, Travis Scott, Drake<\/p>\n
Future plans: I definitely want to go to college and wrestle. That\u2019s my main goal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a memorable first trip to the PIAA Wrestling Championships at the Giant Center in Hershey for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[7804,305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-134217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-athlete-of-the-week","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}