Brody Spindler reached the championship match of the 215-pound bracket to lead Pittston Area to a 10th-place finish out of 57 wrestling teams in the Coal Cracker Invitational Jan. 23-24 at Lehighton.
Spindler was defeated 7-0 by Cael Weidemoyer from team champion Faith Christian Academy in the final.
Faith Christian ran away from Germantown Academy for a 99-point victory in the team race with 265½ points. Honesdale led District 2 entries with 156½ points for fifth, and Hanover Area led Wyoming Valley Conference teams, placing seventh with 128½. Pittston Area had 119½ points while Wyoming Area wound up 47th with 28½.
Spindler posted five victories to work his way into the final.
After needing just 14 seconds to pin Nanticoke’s Anthony Lopez in the first round, Spindler pinned two more District 2 opponents. He had to work from there, beating Kennett’s Randall Waybright 3-2 in the quarterfinals and Mahanoy Area’s Kyler Quick 4-2 in the semifinals.
Weidemoyer finished third in the state in Class 2A as a freshman and second in the state as a sophomore before missing the 2025 postseason.
Pittston Area had three other wrestlers place in the top eight.
Ethan Aftewicz, at 152, and Noah Gruber, at 285, were fifth. David Krantz was eighth at 107.
Aftewicz beat Lucas Drake from Abington Heights 4-1 in the fifth-place bout. Gruber pinned Oxford Area’s Jace McKinney in 49 seconds to secure fifth.
Krantz lost to James Dwyer from St. Joseph’s Prep 4-2 in the seventh-place bout.
Gruber joined Spindler in reaching the quarterfinals of the winners’ bracket.
Chase Wilhelm was Wyoming Area’s top performer, falling just short of placing in the top eight at 107. He went 4-2 with four pins, two of which came in the first period.
