LEHMAN TWP. — After a promising freshman season when he won a match at the Class 3A Northeast Regional Tournament, Coughlin’s Jake Cole missed all of his sophomore season in 2015-16 with an injury sustained during the football season.
“It was devastating. It was hard coming back too (because) I was out of shape,” Cole said.
Early on this season, the Crusaders’ junior doesn’t seem to have missed a beat after a whole year off.
The 170-pounder pulled off an upset on Friday at the Wyoming Valley Conference Wrestling Tournament at Lake-Lehman High School when he knocked off No. 2 seed Justin Joseph from Wyoming Area in the quarterfinals, 8-1. Joseph was the only wrestler seeded one or two to drop a bout on Friday.
“I was very patient,” Cole said. “I waited for him to make moves so I could counter.”
Cole only wrestled that match against Joseph on Friday to reach the semifinals of a tournament for the second straight week. Last week, he advanced to the semis at the Tunkhannock Holiday Tournament. Even though he was away from the sport for a year and has wrestled in just 12 matches this season, he’s ready to pick up where he left off.
“I already feel like I did my freshman year,” Cole said. “Even better. Faster. Stronger. It feels great.
“It was just another match. I don’t look at the upsets or anything like that.”
Cole is one of six Crusaders to advance to today’s semifinals, which begin at 9:30 a.m. But the Crusaders are trailing in the team race sitting in second place behind Hazleton Area.
The Cougars have a tournament-high eight semifinalists with Jake Maurer (113 pounds), Charles Everdale (120), Chris Lasecki (126), Anthony Martoccio (132), Jimmy Hoffman (138), Jayson Brielmeier (145), Shane Noonan (170) and Carson Kinney (195).
“When I looked at the brackets, I wasn’t sure we’d get eight guys through,” Hazleton Area coach Keith Maurer said. “Only bringing 11 had me a little disappointed because we had two hiccups with two kids. But eight, I like that number. If you asked me before I wouldn’t think eight.”
Everdale, a freshman pulled off another upset dropping No. 3 seed in his weight, Anthony Kasper from Meyers, 4-2 in the quarterfinals. Everdale picked up back points at the end of the second period then held on for the win.
“Charles has been wrestling very well lately. A lot of tough competition so I don’t think his record shows what he’s capable of,” Maurer said. “Excellent and outstanding job on his part.”
The Cougars hold a slim lead in the team race of just 2.5 points. They have scored 81.50, while Coughlin has managed 79. Dallas’ 72 points is good for third place, while Hanover Area (71), Tunkhannock (63) and Crestwood (56) round out the top six.
With the scores being so close, anything can happen as Dallas has four semifinalists, the Hawkeyes and Tigers seven each, and the Comets six.
“You can’t win these things on the first day. We’ve been in first place early in a couple tournaments and then we gave a couple matches away on Day 2,” Maurer said. “I told my boys that we gotta score bonus points. We gotta win when we have opportunities to win. (Friday) we did that. (Saturday) we’ll see what happens. We set ourselves up to win this thing. Whether we can close the deal or not, we’ll see.”
TEAM SCORES
Hazleton Area (Haz) 81.50; 2. Coughlin (Cou) 79; 3. Dallas (Dal) 72; 4. Hanover Area (Han) 71; 5. Tunkhannock (Tun) 63; 6. Crestwood (Cre) 56; 7. Lake-Lehman (LL) 47; 8. Wyoming Valley West (WVW) 45; 9. Berwick (Ber) 43; 10. Meyers (Mey) 41.50; 11. Wyoming Area (WA) 29; 12. Pittston Area (PA) 20; 13. Nanticoke (Nan) 17
Quarterfinal results
106 – Brandon Lopez (PA) dec Nick Yule (Ber) 1-0; J.J. White (WVW) maj dec Joe Rowley (Han) 9-1; Hunter Greenberg (Cre) dec Megan Kocher (Nan) 7-6; David Evans (Tun) pinned Nino Cinti (Cou) 1:10
113 – Jake Maurer (Haz) pinned Avonni Tooley (PA) 1:15; Josselin Meyer (Han) pinned Zach Capie (Nan) :41; Matt Giza (WVW) dec Caden Strobel (Mey) 3-2; David Gavek (Tun) maj dec Jamie Pahler (Cou) 10-2
120 – David Krokowski (WVW) pinned Ben Yanchick (Dal) 2:28; Gavin D’Amato (Tun) dec Jordan Miale (Cre) 7-2; Charles Everdale (Haz) dec Anthony Kasper (Mey) 4-2; Bob Long (LL) pinned Joey Rey (Cou) 1:35
126 – Colin Pasone (Mey) dec Matt Galasso (LL) 10-4; Josh Beeman (Tun) dec Kade Kravits (Dal) 4-0; Jake Brown (Cou) pinned Robin Wrobleski (WA) :57; Chris Lasecki (Haz) pinned Garrett Swank (Cre) 3:48
132 – Jeff Bennett (Han) pinned Landon Stanislow (WVW) 1:25; Anthony Martoccio (Haz) tech fall Tony DeMark (PA) 17-1; Josh Brown (Cou) dec RJ Driscoll (LL) 6-2; Tommy Traver (Tun) pinned Tyler Shaud (Cre) :44
138 – Jimmy Hoffman (Haz) pinned Nick Solinsky (Dal) :16; Joe Pahler (Cou) dec Garrett Kolb (LL) 4-0; Travis Dent (Ber) dec Kurtis Christ (Tun) 2-0; DJ Erickson (Han) pinned Preston Oleski (PA) 1:07
145 – Bob Lipski (LL) pinned Collin Kashatus (Nan) 1:08; Alec Talanca (Ber) maj dec Frankie Castano (Cou) 9-0; Jayson Brielmeier (Haz) maj dec Jon Martinez (PA) 9-0; Ron Grevera (Cre) dec John Betzko (Dal) 10-5
152 – Alec Sampson (Dal) pinned Josh McGilvary (PA) 3:39; Zakee Nettles (Han) pinned Tashawn Qualls (Cou) 4:57; Jake Tomolonis (LL) maj dec Isahiah Johnson (Nan) 18-7; Saige George (Cre) dec Jake Marnell (Haz) 6-4
160 – Jeremy Bergold (Mey) pinned Corey Mruk (WA) 1:00; Justin Lukashewski (Cre) maj dec Jacob Heylek (Cou) 12-3; Noah Rakowski (Han) maj dec Adam Eckhart (Nan) 9-1; Steven Newell (Dal) maj dec Jeremy Aquino (Haz) 11-1
170 – Xavier Barber (Dal) pinned Seth Decker (WVW) 3:36; Shane Noonan (Haz) maj dec Liam Stone (Cre) 13-2; Matthew Maczuga (Ber) pinned Colin Browne (Mey) 1:44; Jake Cole (Cou) dec Justin Joseph (WA) 8-1
182 – Adam Buczynski (WA) pinned Connor Lee (Cou) 1:08; Jake Stephens (Tun) pinned Heriberto Pineda (Mey) 4:33; Ryan Black (Cre) dec Josh Snyder (Ber) 9-4; JJ Hooper (Han) dec Sean Mikovitch (WVW) 7-2
195 – Carson Kinney (Haz) pinned TJ Meehan (LL) :49; Chris Malys (Cou) maj dec Tom Mercadante (Han) 17-9; Lucas Borum (Mey) dec Moustafa Almeky (Dal) 8-4; Sam Rice (Tun) pinned Jaryn Polit-Moran (WA) 1:03
220 – Preston Perkins (Mey) pinned Chuck Harry (LL) 2:58; Shawn Henninger (Dal) pinned John Walsh (Tun) 5:24; Shane O’Rourke (Cre) pinned Nick Lynch (PA) :57; Stone Force (Ber) maj dec Damian Davies (WVW) 8-0
285 – Nick Hannon (Han) pinned Travis Kostyal (Haz) 2:30; Corey Harrison (Cou) dec Danny Burkhart (Dal) 1-0; Damon Barhight (WA) pinned Jarrett Jervis (Tun) :49; Kaleb Konigus (LL) pinned Chris Gross (Ber) 3:53.
