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Back on top; MC wins Husky duals

By BRIAN CARSON

 

LEWISTOWN – After a five-year hiatus, Mifflin County brought back the Husky Duals and made a huge splash in the process.

 

The Huskies rolled over the competition with three easy victories on Saturday, dominating Carlisle (55-18), Conestoga Valley (45-18) and a 47-21 victory over New Oxford in the finals. The win over the Thundering Herd lifted Mifflin County to 4-1 in the Mid-Penn Commonwealth.

 

“We remind our kids that we want them to wrestle a full six minutes and keep scoring points. We want to mimic what Penn State does,” Mifflin County coach Kirby Martin said. “They are scoring machines and if we can get our high school kids to do even a half of their degree, it does make a big difference in dual meets.”

 

Mount Union went 1-2, dropping a 53-21 decision to Carlisle in the battle for fifth place. The Trojans lost 49-27 to New Oxford in the opening round before rebounding with a 52-21 win over Wilkes-Barre Meyers. Mount Union had the difficult task of trying to overcome forfeits at three and sometimes four weight classes.

 

“We wrestled flat and in slow motion. I don’t know what happened. We are already fighting with numbers, forfeiting three or four weights per match. We can’t afford to be wrestling in slow motion like that or we’re in trouble,” Mount Union coach Corey Wertz said. “We have a lot of ground to make up as it is, so I’m a little bit disappointed. We wrestled flat and I don’t know what to attribute it to, but we are going to correct it. That’s for sure.”

 

“We know we have an uphill battle with the forfeits coming into a match. We know we have to make up ground,” Wertz continued. “New Oxford is a solid team but we wrestled flat against Carlisle. We didn’t get some of the matchups we wanted and when we did, we came out on the short end.”

 

How good were the Huskies at the Duals? They won 28 total bouts scoring bonus points in 23 of those, racking up 47 takedowns in three matches.

 

In the championship match, Mifflin County (9-1) opened with four straight falls to take a 24-0 lead. Freshman Trey Shoemaker got the crowd on their feet early as he reversed Brennan Romanoff in their 145-pound bout, locked up a spladle for the pin in 3:46. Anson Wagner, another Husky freshman, followed with a fall in 2:31 over Kinser Laughman at 152.

 

At 160, Trey Kibe (20-1) destroyed Skyler Maust in 29 seconds and Brycen Hassinger (15-5) decked Alan Bobadilla in 3:50. After back-to-back wins by the Colonials made it 24-9, the Huskies went on a three-bout run to make it 39-9

 

Isaac Matthews, who had a stellar day going 3-0 with two falls, decisioned Dylan Smith 9-6 at 220. Blaine Davis (14-5) followed with a fall in 1:07 over Logan Dickensheets and freshman Nic Allison (18-3) took out Dakota Brady in 3:05 of their 106-pound match.

 

In the feature bout of the dual meet, two-time state placewinner Christian Fisher met state qualifier Tim Uhler in a showdown at 120 pounds. After a scoreless first period which saw plenty of shots but no finishes, Uhler chose down and escaped to make it 1-0 heading to the third. Fisher took down and Uhler rode the Husky senior out the third period for the 1-0 win.

 

With the score 39-18, Derek Burk clinched the dual for Mifflin County with an 8-0 major over Travis Salisbury at 126. Ethan Kauffman (13-5) got the final win for the Huskies with a 9-0 major decision over Kurt Smith.

 

Besides Matthews, Allison, Kauffman, Kibe, Hassinger and Davis went 3-0. Fisher, Burk and Jacob Krepps went 2-1, while Shoemaker, Kyler Everly, Anson Wagner and Dylan Grassmyer finished the day 1-2.

 

State placer Jake Ryan (19-1) led Mount Union (7-8) with a 3-0 day. The Trojan sophomore won by fall in 17, 19 and 21 seconds at heavyweight. Caleb Morgan (160) and Kevin Morehouse (120/126) also were 3-0. Bryce Beatty, Caden Chilcote and Robert Brantner went 2-1, while Zayden Clark, Jayce Reck and Clayton Arnold finished 1-2. William Harkleroad was 0-2, Trevor Skopic 0-3 and Connor Seiber 0-1.

 

 

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