Saturday night recap 1/14

It has taken a little while to get to this, but there wasn't a ton of stuff going on Saturday. The only dual meet on my schedule was Northern Bedford at Bedford. Westmont was at the Escape the Rock tournament in Holland, Pa., while Meyersdale was at the Winner's Choice tournament in Fairmont, W.Va.

Bedford 55, Northern Bedford 12

126-Toby Brett, B, pinned Alex Defibaugh, :29.
132-Caleb Grimes, B, pinned Brandon Over, 5:51.
138-Damian Corle, NB, dec. Zach Dudek, 8-6 (OT).
145-Drew Gartland, NB, pinned Jesse Martin, 4:54.
152-Tanner Williams, B, dec. Matt Sollenberger, 7-3.
160-Josiah Koontz, B, pinned Dylan Shipley, 2:41.
170-Dylan Evans, B, pinned Donald Airhart, 1:46.
182-Cody Yingling, B, maj. dec. Duelin Douglas, 13-2.
195-Mike Brett, B, forfeit.
220-Robert Minnich, B, forfeit.
285-Quinton Hixson, NB, dec. Jacob Krupa, 5-0.
106-Jake Warren, B, dec. Cody Guyer, 4-2.
113-Ryan Easter, B, pinned Matt Gouchnour, 1:18.
120-Garrett Thomas, B, dec. Mason Replogle, 7-2 (OT).
Records: Bedford 9-0; Northern Bedford 4-6.

Analysis: The outcome wasn't much of a surprise. Bedford just keeps proving that it's the best team in the area. It's hard to imagine anyone, including Somerset, beating them locally. Mount Union would be an interesting match, but we wouldn't see that until Hershey, if at all.
Todd Irwin covered this match for the Altoona Mirror, if you want his story on it.
There are certainly some interesting things to take from the dual. The biggest (literally and figuratively) is Jacob Krupa bumping up a weight class to take on Quinton Hixson. Krupa is ranked 10th at 220 pounds while Hixson is No. 1 at 285 according to the Pennsylvania Wrestling Rankings. Evidently, Hixson got a pair of takedowns and an escape in the win. Good win for Hixson, not a bad loss at all for Krupa, and good for Bedford coach Brian Creps, bumping him up rather than taking the forfeit at 220.
Tanner Williams got a convincing win over Matt Sollenberger at 152, which Creps references in Irwin's story.
The final match also must have been a good one, with Garrett Thomas needing overtime to beat Mason Replogle. The 120-pound weight class should be good in District 5 and absolutely loaded at the Southwest Regional tournament.

Escape the Rock

Westmont Hilltop had just two placewinners, but they were both finalists. Josh Duplin won the 285-pound weight class while Ryan Burnheimer was second at 182. I'm not going to go into it too much, as I wrote a story about it for The Tribune-Democrat, which will be in Monday's paper.

Winner's Choice

Meyersdale finished fifth in the team standings in what is supposed to be one of the best tournaments in West Virginia. I saw a coach say in a newspaper article that he believes it's tougher than the state tournament, which shows that while West Virginia is far below the caliber of Pennsylvania, Meyersdale has made great strides this season. Hope for Hyndman finished 16th out of 27 teams.
Here is a link to the complete results.
Meyersdale's placewinners are:
106-Brady McKenzie, eighth.
113-Billy Chartlon, fifth.
120-Collin Day, second.
126-Tanner Hetrick, fourth.
132-Stephen McKenzie, fourth.
160-Gavin Berkley, fifth.
170-Billy Dunbar, sixth.

Analysis: While I don't know much about the competition level in West Virginia, I saw the Southmoreland Holiday Classic, which was pretty strong, and most of these same wrestlers placed there. Stephen McKenzie won that tournament and finished fourth here. But, Collin Day was fifth there and second in Fairmont. Obviously, weight classes vary from tournament to tournament, but this still looks like a solid performance by the Red Raiders.
One interesting note: Billy Charlton wrestled 113 over the weekend. From what I was told at Southmoreland, he is certified at 115.1, which means he can't wrestle 113 in the PIAA postseason. I haven't gotten any confirmation, but I believe they must have gotten enough weight in Fairmont for him to wrestle 113.