Tamaqua wrestlers assured medals

HERSHEY – Bronson Strouse didn’t hang his head or wonder why.

The Tamaqua senior knew the only option was to regroup.

A loss to Brookville’s Colby Whitehill wasn’t how Strouse envisioned his 285-pound semifinal matchup at the PIAA Wrestling Championships on Friday night.

Neither was a setback against Southern Columbia’s Lear Quinton in the consolation match that followed.

But Strouse was well aware there is still plenty of opportunity on the table.

“I just have to wrestle my match tomorrow,” he said.

Strouse will face Burgettstown’s Riley Kemper for fifth place.

Tamaqua’s Nate Wickersham fell to Sheffield’s Ethan Finch 6-5 in his 182-pound fourth-round consolation match and will wrestle Quaker Valley’s Patrick Cutchember for seventh.

“I’m just glad for the opportunity to be here and get on the podium tomorrow,” said Wickersham. “Hopefully I can get seventh and win one more match.”

Whitehill got a quick takedown and pinned Strouse in 0:17 in the semis. The win pushed Whitehill, the defending Class 2A 285-pound champion, to 39-0 this season.

Quinton used an escape and a takedown in the second period to tie it 3-3. The senior and Northeast Regional champion made an escape within the first 10 seconds of the third period hold up for a 4-3 victory.

“You can’t lose sleep over that,” said Blue Raiders head coach Jim McCabe. “It’s a whole new match tomorrow. It would have been nice to be in the finals; it would have been nice going for third. But now he has to focus for fifth place.

“The kid took a nice sweep-single and took advantage of it, and Bronson didn’t get out. But he said last week that ‘I have a good defense and if someone takes me down they deserve to beat me then’. And that’s what happened. He got caught off guard when the kid took the sweep-single, and that’s what happened.”

Wickersham scored early against Finch, getting a reversal and a takedown to build a 4-1 lead after the second period.

But Finch fired back in the third, getting a reversal early before picking up three back points to take a 6-4 lead. Wickersham managed an escape with 0:47 to go but couldn’t erase the deficit.

“He caught me in the cradle and I thought I could fight it, and once I got to my back he had it pretty tight,” Wickersham said. “I guess he knew how I was going to stand up … that’s all right. After knowing that I was going to place, all of these matches are just extra to try to help me get higher on the podium.”

Wickersham is hoping the momentum he and Strouse have generated carries over into next season.

“Last year, we had me and Bronson here, and this year it’s the same, but we had some more kids at regionals,” said Wickersham. “And for the rest of the school seeing that we’re bringing kids out here and wrestling at an elite level and doing well, it’s really going to bring people into the sport, and really get people involved back home.”

Strouse’s 3-2 overtime decision victory over Northeast Bradford’s Dawson Brown earlier in the day sent him to the semis. It also guaranteed him his first state medal.

Wickersham won two consolation matches Friday to also secure a spot on the podium. The tournament came to an end for Northern Lehigh’s Joshua Schaffer on Friday, who battled Keagan Braund of Athens before getting pinned.

Strouse showed his mettle against Brown. The pair traded escapes through the first three periods and wrestled through a scoreless sudden victory portion of overtime.

An escape with 0:19 left in the first tiebreaker gave Strouse a 2-1 lead. Brown got out in the second tiebreaker period to make it 2-2.

But Strouse didn’t flinch, quickly choosing bottom to start the final period.

“Two years ago, when he was wrestling Kolby Flank (of Wilson) this same situation occurred at 220,” McCabe said of a match Strouse lost 3-2. “He had choice into the ultimate tiebreaker, he took down, and it came to the same situation where it was more like he was trying to score two points because he thought he could get the two, where it’s just about getting one and ending the match.

“At the start of the ultimate tiebreaker, I made sure he understood that he just needed to get one; you don’t have to try for anything else, because then you get yourself in a situation where a kid can just hold on like he (Brown) was. But Bronson peeled back, broke the lock, and then had the presence of mind just to stand up and get the one point. And that was crucial.”

Wickersham prevailed in a 10-9 thriller in his 182-pound second-round consolation match with Ian Eckenrode. The junior edged Bishop McDevitt’s Riley Robell 5-3 in sudden victory overtime in a third-round match.

“Pulling out tight matches, normally it’s either swinging one way or the other for me,” Wickersham said. “But wrestling all three periods every match and getting the wins, I think I’m wrestling pretty good.”

Wickersham gained a measure of revenge against Robell, the Southeast Regional runner-up who pinned him a week ago.

“Being able to beat him to place at states, it feels great,” said Wickersham.

Wickersham carried a 1-0 lead into the third period after getting an escape in the second. Robell went ahead 2-1 with a reversal, but Wickersham responded with one of his own to go ahead 3-2 with 0:20 remaining.

The senior got called for locked hands in the final seconds of the third period to tie it at 3-3.

“I knew that if I didn’t lock, I was going over the top and I was losing the match,” said Wickersham. “So I thought, I have a point to give, I might as well do it so I just held on.

“Going into overtime, I score sometimes on my feet, but when it really counts like that against a good kid, I was thinking I was in trouble, but I came out on top.”

Wickersham built a 5-0 lead in the first period against Eckenrode, who cut it to 5-3 with an escape and a takedown. Eckenrode tied it at 5-5 with a reversal early in the third, but Wickersham regained the advantage with an escape before adding a takedown to make it 8-5 going into the final period.

Eckenrode tied it again at 8-8, this time with three back points. But Wickersham countered with a reversal to go up 10-8. Eckenrode would only manage a point on an escape the rest of the way.

Despite getting pinned by Braund at the 4:37 mark in the third period, Schaffer still enjoyed a remarkable season, one that included a district runner-up finish and a fourth-place result at last week’s regional tournament to qualify for states.

“This postseason was good experience for him,” said Bulldogs head coach Scott Snyder. “Obviously, he wasn’t here last year so this was a really good experience for him.

“He learned what works for him. And things that he was doing last year, or even at the beginning of the season, weren’t working, and he adjusted his wrestling, and now he knows what works. Those are the things that are going to bring him success, and I hope that he can continue to focus on these things that are working for him, like patience and not making little mistakes trying to force things.”

Schaffer trailed 5-0 in the first after giving up a takedown and three back points near the end of the period.

But he rebounded, getting an escape in the second and a takedown in the third to cut the deficit to 5-3.

“We just wanted him to be patient,” said Snyder. “We didn’t want him to force things because he was down four or five points. We just wanted him to try to let things happen.

“He’s been much better with that lately, and I think that has made a big difference for him compared to where he was last year, just being patient and letting things happen. It’s been a huge factor for his success.”

ON DECK … The championship finals, third-, fifth- and seventh-place matches will take place today at 2 p.m. The PWCA Class 2A Coach of the Year presentation is scheduled for 1:40, followed by the Parade of Champions at 1:45.