Noah Gruber of Pittston Area throws Abington Heights’ Dane Wheeler en route to a pin in the 285 pound match at Saturday’s District 2 Class 3A Wrestling Duals championship.
Buck Norton-Jennings | For Sunday Dispatch
Brody Spindler of Pittston Area attempts to escape from Frank Scialpi of Abington Heights in the 215 pound match at Saturday’s District 2 Class 3A Wrestling Duals championship.
Buck Norton-Jennings | For Sunday Dispatch
CLARKS SUMMIT — Pittston Area avenged its two conference losses in one extended night of precision wrestling Wednesday to get to the District 2 Class 3A Dual Meet Championships final.
Once in the championship match, however, the Patriots were on the other end of a revenge match.
Abington Heights combined dominant performances with clutch efforts to easily end the Patriots’ bid to win the eight-team tournament from the fifth seed when the Comets posted a 44-21, home-mat victory Saturday afternoon.
Pittston Area reached the final with a 35-26 victory over Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 rival Wilkes-Barre Area in the quarterfinals and a tiebreaker win over division champion and tournament top-seed Hazleton Area in the semifinals.
“Early on in the year, they got us,” Patriots coach Dave Krantz said. “Once we got our guys at the right weights, it was really nice to get those two wins back.”
The two wins at Hazleton Area put the Pittston Area back on the road Saturday. The host Comets took control early so that the Patriots’ closing punch of Brody Spindler and Noah Gruber could not alter the outcome.
“I’m super proud of this team,” Krantz said. “I know things didn’t work out here the way we’d want, but winning those two matches and getting to the finals was super important for the team.
“As coaches, we couldn’t ask for anything more from them. They wrestled hard; they wrestled aggressive; we just came up short.”
Abington Heights 44, Pittston Area 21
Both coaches spent Saturday’s final bumping wrestlers around to alter the matchups.
Abington Heights coach Greg Theony took advantage of the times he was able to control those matchups.
“We knew if we got the toss of the coin, which we did, that that was going to make us a lot more comfortable than we were going to be otherwise,” Theony said.
The Comets became even more comfortable when, after forfeiting the opening 107-pound bout, Lucas Kareha used escapes late in the second period and again in the third to break out of a tie and beat David Krantz 5-3 at 114 pounds.
Abington Heights won the day’s two closest bouts, plus got a pair of first-period pins and a pair of technical falls.
Lucas Drake trailed in the second overtime before defeating Ethan Aftewicz in the ultimate tiebreaker at 152 to open a 27-12 lead. That was the second of five straight bout wins that the Comets used to open a 44-12 lead and clinch the victory.
Tibor Toth, at 133, and Noah Gruber, who needed just 28 seconds at 285, posted first-period pins for the Patriots.
Brody Spindler defeated Frank Scialpi 4-1 at 215.
Pittston Area 36, Hazleton Area 35
Pittston Area and Hazleton Area each finished Wednesday’s semifinal with 35 points, but the Patriots were awarded the tiebreaker, bonus point for winning more bouts by a 7-6 margin.
Damien Hernandez and Noah Gruber had pins at 145 and 285 for the Patriots.
Jahiem Butler won by technical fall at 139.
Mikel Roman pulled out a three-point decision at 114 and Ethan Aftewicz won in the tiebreaker at 160 to swing the final outcome.
Pittston Area 35, Wilkes-Barre Area 26
Pittston Area won four of the five lightest weight classes and four of the six heaviest to beat Wilkes-Barre in the quarterfinals to open the tournament.
The Patriots outscored the Wolfpack 17-5 from 107 to 133 and 18-9 from 152 to 285.
Brody Spindler (215) won by pin in 40 seconds while Jahiem Butler (133) and Noah Gruber (285) also had pins. Mikel Roman and David Krantz registered major decisions at 107 and 114. Tibor Toth (127), Chase Baron (152) and Ethan Aftewicz (160) won close, low-scoring bouts.
