PLAINS TWP. — Defending champion Brody Spindler was one of eight Pittston Area wrestlers to make it through Friday’s wrestling and into Saturday’s semifinals of the District 2 Individual Wrestling Championships at Wilkes-Barre Area High School.
Spindler and three of his teammates kept winning Saturday.
The Patriots finished the first day of the two-day competition in third place in a tight Class 3A team race.
By noon Saturday, Abington Heights had taken over first place with Pittston Area, Hazleton Area, Wallenpaupack and Wilkes-Barre Area were in a tight pack in pursuit, trading second through fifth places.
Wrestling had not been completed as of presstime for this edition.
Abington Heights had five wrestlers win semifinal matches Saturday morning to make the finals.
Pittston Area joined Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area with four finalists each and also had five wrestlers left in the consolation brackets, hoping to finish as high as third.
Spindler had just one match on Friday, posting a pin in 1:18 over Ethan Osmanski of Wilkes-Barre Area in the 215-pound quarterfinals.
All four of Pittston Area’s champions from last month’s Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament reached the semifinals: David Krantz (107), Ethan Aftewicz (152) and Noah Gruber (215) all fought their way through to the semis, along with Tibor Toth (127), Mikel Roman (114), Jahiem Butler (133) and Chase Baron (145).
Krantz, Aftewicz, Spindler and Gruber were the four to make it through the semifinals into the championship round being contested later Saturday. All of them won by pins in 2:24 or less.
Toth, who finished as runner-up for the conference tournament champion Patriots last month, turned a dogfight into a major decision in his quarterfinal win. He led by just a point heading to the final period but came out firing to earn a 12-4 win over Delaware Valley’s Andrew Elliott.
“The difference was choosing neutral and not going bottom,” Toth explained. “I had the confidence in neutral and I realized he was better off top, and I realized I could win from that position.”
At the end of the first day, Wallenpaupack led Abington Heights 81-76 and Pittston Area had 72 points. Hazleton Area and Wilkes-Barre Area had 60 ½ for fourth in the 12-team field.
Class 2A
Wyoming Area’s Chase Wilhelm reached the semifinals with a 19-2 technical fall over Blue Ridge’s Dante Tanzini in Friday’s 107-pound quarterfinals.
Lincoln Smith won in the first round at 139, then Gabriel Rosengrant and Caden Reynolds had first-period consolation bracket pins at 133 and 215 for the only other wins by the Warriors on the first day.
Honesdale led after one day with 87 points. Hanover Area was in front of Lake-Lehman 64½-59 for second place. Wyoming Area was 15th of 16 teams with 18½ points.
Girls
Wyoming Area’s Martyna Bonning had a pair of first-period pins at 142 and Giovanna Chapman also had a quarterfinal pin at 170 to make Saturday’s semifinals.
Bonning won again Saturday morning to reach the final.
Hazleton Area took a 71-64 lead over Delaware Valley into the overnight from Friday to Saturday.
Wyoming Area was tied for 12th out of 20 teams at that point with 18 points. Pittston Area was 19th with four points.
