il A 2 Dave Puchhalsky, named Outstanding Wrestler of the district tourney, gets up and away from Ken Butler of West Side Tech in Jim Bamrick’s Dallas matmen walked away with top honors at the District 2 Wrest- ling Tournament at King’s gym last weekend. The Mountaineers captured the district title for the first time in the wrestling history of the Back Mountain School by collecting a total of 95 points. Wyoming Valley West finished second“ with 81'> points, and ‘Abington Heights, a District 12 squad entering the local district tourney for the first time, -gathered 68 points for third place. The Mountaineers produced four district titlists who will advance to the regional tourney in Williamsport this weekend. They are George Siegel 112; Dave Longmore 119; Dave Puchalsky 132; and hwt. Bob Spears. Spears won the James J. falls in the two-day tourney, as he registered four pins in four bouts. Spears flattened Wallo (LL) in 2:43; he showed Ksiaz- kowski (H) the lights in 1:36; Finn © in 1:40, and in the finals, stacked up Lauer (M) in overtime, 2:51. Junior Dave Puchalsky, ‘who was named ‘Most Outstanding Wrestler’ in the Holiday Tournament held at Dallas gym in December, was named out- standing wrestler by both Wilkes-Barre daily newspapers. Puchalsky turned over Connors (P) in :49; flattened Fashover (SC) in 3:36; earned a super 12-0 win over Evans (A), and pinned the tough K. Butler (WST) in 3:46. The young junior showed finesse and outstanding ability and skill as he worked his way through to the 132-pound crown. Dave Longmore (119) dis- played his usual” cool manner and did some slick wrestling throughout the two-day event to come up with the title in his weight class. Longmore has gone through the season unde- feated and wrestled an addi- tional bout in the tourney coming through all with ease. He has the potential for a great college career ahead of him. George Siegel (112) pulled one of the upsets of the evening when he decisioned undefeated Jim Davis (LL) in a close 3-2 bout. Both boys had good moves and the deciding point was a one-point penalty call on the Lake-Lehman grappler. Wyoming Valley West will send three finalists to the Regionals; Abington Heights will send two. Hanover Area, who finished with 621% points, will also send two. West Side ‘Tech had 54 points; Meyers had 481% and has one district titlist; Lake-Lehman had 27 points; send one grappler to the Regionals; Central Catholic had 18 points; Coughlin 14%; Scranton Central 9; Nanticoke Area 8; Wyoming Area and West Scranton 7; Scranton Tech 5; Crestwood 2; Bishop Hoban 1; and Pittston Area scored no points. senting 18 schools took part in the preliminaries and quarter- finals Friday night before a full house. It took more than five and a half hours to complete the pre-preliminaires, the prelimi- naries and the quarter finals in order to narrow the field to the Dallas and Valley West had the most men going into Saturday afternoon’s semi- finals; Valley West Spartans had eight. The Abington Comets made a fine showing, putting into the semi’s. with seven from their squad. Hanover had five; Meyers and Lake-Lehman, three each; Coughlin and G.A.R., two each; Nanticoke, Central Catholic, Wyoming Area, West Scranton, Scranton Tech and Scranton Central, one each. When the bouts were over and the smoke cleared on Friday night Dallas Mountaineers had eight boys going into the finals. They were S. Pinter 98; B. Corbett, 105; G. Siegel, 112; D. Longmore, 119; T. Musto, 126; D. Puchalsky, 132; R. Johnson, 145; B. Spears, hwt. Losing in the preliminaries were T. Kirschner 138, dec. by Solomon (M), 8-1; E. Monk, 155, dec. by (ST), 12-4; and H: the quarter-finals, 5-0, to Jacoby (A) in overtime. Lake-Lehman had Klemunes (88), Jim Davis (112), and Brown (138). Following the semi-finals in the afternoon, the Mountaineers had five advancing to the finals; Valley West, three; Abington Heights, five; West Side Tech, three; Hanover, four; Meyers, three; G.A.R.,one; Central Catholic, one; and Lake- Lehman, one. In the 88-pound class for which no team points are awarded, D. Heller, junior from Abington Heights, decisioned West Side’s D. Kachensky, junior, 5-4, gaining one point riding time. 95-pound = Paul G.A.R’s contender, defeated senior M. Santayanna, CC, 6-3. Storm, only a freshman, over- came a 3-2 score by scoring a takedown and a near fall, and upset last year’s Catholic League state champ. B. Watlock, 105-pound junior from Valley West, surprised spectators by taking Rozelle of Abington in a 10-4 bout. Watlock -scored an upset Friday night by overpowering Meyers’ Tom Smithey. George Siegel, 112-pound senior from Dallas, took a 3-2 Davis of Lake-Lehman. The deciding factor was the penalty point because of Davis’ locked hands. Longmore, 119, Dallas, had little trouble in gaining a super 11-1 win over Castrigano of Meyers, and 126-pound sopho- more Len Kaminski, Hanover, decisioned Romanowski, WST, 4-2. ! Dave Puchalsky, 132-pound junior from Dallas, flattened K. Butler, WST, in 3:46. Butler is also ‘a junior and pulled a surprise fall over Bonnice, WVW, in the afternoon. the crown at 138 by outwrestling LaCorte, Hanover, 5-0. Russ Johnson, undefeated 145-pound senior, Dallas, lost an exciting bout to Manta, VW. in dual meet during the season, was hampered throughout the tourney by an injured knee the past several weeks. Slavinski, 155-pound Hanover senior, two-year runner up, picked up the title this year by defeating T. Brittain, Abington, in a 4-0 overtime bout. Jacoby, Abington, decisioned Rinkevich, 167, Hanover, 3-2, picking up a one-point stalling grappler. Suprick, Abington, gave Biga, 185-poundsyalley West, a tough time before the Spartan finally came out on top in a 7-6 decision. Spears brought the tourney to an end in an overtime bout with Lauer of Meyers when he turned him on his shoulders in 2:51 seconds of overtime. The district winners now, advance to: the Northeastern Regional Tournament which will be held Saturday at Williamsport Area High School. Tickets for the meet are on sale at the local high schools. Semi- finals start at 2 p.m. and finals at 7:30 p.m. The Mountaineers closed the season proving that winning the championship in the Wyoming Valley League was no accident, as they came out on the long end of last weekend’s tournament. Todd Davis of Valley West attempts to breakdown Jim Davis. of Lake-Lehman in the 112 bout of the District II semi-finals. The Lake:Lehman grappler won an 11-5 decision to advance to the finals: George Siegel of Dallas and Jim Davis of Lake-Lehman fought a tough one in the final 112 pound match of the districts. Siegel. | won the bout, 3-2. : Bob Spears, Dallas heavyweight, waits for the officials to call Wayne Lauer pinned, the final call in the 1973 District II Tournament. The fall was registered. in 2:51 seconds of over- | BR time. ¥ KB s 5 K Dave Kozemchak J B The final 145 pound boul was an exciting one between fuss Hah, Johnson, Dallas and Joe Manta, WVW. Manta won a 9-4 decision. | B Lo] fl Ly
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers