0 [om 3 L LJ po py Pe - iY 9 ww Sports Writer f “The kids rose to the occasion,” ‘said Lake-Lehman co-head coach Phil Lipski of his wrestlers Satur- day night. Did they ever! The Lake- :Lehman- Black Knights were hid LJ ® .crowned District II, Class AA wrestling champions with a rec- .ord 272 1/2 points for the two- day event. Meyers finished sec- ond with 233 1/2 points while Dallas placed third with 116 1/2. Dana Balum's Coughlin Cru- saders rated the top class AAA school with 200 1/2 points and three champions. Six Black Knight wrestlers took championship honors and 11 of 13 advanced to this weekend's The Dallas Post The Dallas Post SportsWeek Knights set points record on way to title 3 : By LEN KRYESKI pre-regional tournament to be held at Valley View High School in Dickson City. “This is a stepping stone,” said Lipski. “It's one thing to be fa- vored and it’s another to actually go out and do the job.” The top four finishers in each weight class advance. In addition tosixtitles, Lehman grabbed three second place finishes as well as one third and one fourth. “Hopefully things will continue to roll down the road,” said Lehman co-head coach Tom Wil- liams. “We try to focus on what's atthe end of the tunnel. Lastyear we won the district title and didn’t take a kid to states. It will mean a lot more if we can take a couple See KNIGHTS, pg 10 Ryan Gold came back to win two bouts and third place Saturday after falling to eventual district 152-pound titleist POST PHOTO/LYNN SHEEHAN The Black Knights' Joe Halowich won the district title at 125 pounds. He recorded two pins Friday before taking a 19-3 technical fall Saturday. Dallas, PA Wednesday, February 22, 1995 9 POST PHOTO/LYNN SHEEHAN Aaron Gingo on Friday. Gold will joing 10 teammates at the pre-regional match this weekend. POST PHOTO/LYNN SHEEHAN Allen Scott recorded two pins Friday night, including one over Mike Heffron of Dallas, before taking the district crown at 119 pounds. Heffron eventually finished in third place. Five Mount grapplers still alive after 3rd place finish By LEN KRYESKI Sports Writer Led by Aaron Gingo's district championship, the Dallas Moun- taineers scored 116 1/2 points this past weekend and finished third to Lake-Lehman and Mey- ers in the Class AA District wres- tling finals. Eleven schools com- peted for the AA title which started at Wyoming Valley West gymna- sium Friday and concluded at Hazleton Saturday. Four other Mountaineers will accompany Gingo to the pre- regionals at Valley View High School this weekend. Wrestlers with at least a fourth place finish earn the right to continue. Gingo improved his individual record this season to 24-0 over the weekend and became the 152 pound champion by beating Ben Hilbert of Meyers 4-2. “It's a great feeling,” said Gingo, “considering the last two years I've come up short and took sec- ond place. It's nice to get the monkey off my back.” The last district wrestling cham- pion from Dallas was 130-pound Mike Vavrek in 1993. “It’s a great feeling, considering the last two years I've come up short and took second place. It’s nice to get the monkey off my back.” Aaron Gingo District wrestling champ “It's been a little dry spell for us,” said Dallas coach Steve Kaschenbach. “It feels a little better, that's for sure.” 112-pound Mike Metz was also going for the gold Saturday night. against Don Morgan, the number one seed from Wyoming Area. Metz held his own for most of the match against the man who would eventually be tabbed “Most Outstanding Wrestler” for class AA, but had to settle for runner- up for the second straight year. With the score 0-0 late in the second period, Metz needed a time out because of anose injury. Just POST PHOTO/LYNN SHEEHAN Dan Natitus of Dalls lost a close 6-4 decision to John Tosi of Wyoming Area in the 189-pound division. POST PHOTO/LYNN SHEEHAN Mountaineer John Crispell finished in fourth place at 130 pounds in the district wrestling meet last weekend. He and four teammates will wrestle in pre-regionals this weekend. seconds after the bout resumed, Morgan scored a two point rever- sal and retained control through- out the third period for a 3-0 victory. Morgan heads to pre-regionals 26-0 while Metz is 20-4. Two of those loses came at the hands of Morgan. Two of three Mountaineer grap- plers won their consolation bouts. At 119, senior Mike Heffron defeated Eric Marhelski of Valley View 9-2. John Crispell finished fourth at 130, losing to Bishop O'Hara's J.T. Arnone 6-1. 171-pound Adam Hoover just returned to the line-up roughly a month ago after suffering a bro- ken foot while competing for the Mountaineer football team. “It was hard getting back in shape,” said Hoover. Despite the inactivity, Hoover was able to improve on last year's fourth place finish with a 5-2 decision over Valley View's Jason Byers in the bout for third place. Hoover had to overcome some wooziness as well as the opponent for the second time Saturday. “When I was wrestling (Tony) Tereska from Lehman we both shot at the same time and I smacked my head off of his and knocked me out for a few sec- onds,"” said Hoover. “Then when I was wrestling Jason Byers, we bumped heads again and I saw stars again.” Hoover scored two points in the final 11 seconds to beat Tereska 4-3 to advance to the consolation bout. A third place finish behind perennial AA powerhouses Lehman and Meyers was proba- bly the best finish Dallas could hope for, but Kaschenbach fig- ured on more than 116 points. “I thought we'd have an extra guy or two in there,” said Kasch- enbach. “We had two guys that seeded second in the middle- weights there. One of them ended up taking a fourth and the other was knocked out. When you get two second seeds you expect one of them to get in there.” Chris Kuderka. seeded second at 140 pounds and a third place finisher last year, was eliminated early by losing two bouts Friday night. Kuderka lost a 17-5 major decision to Hanover Area's Ed Salsavage before being eliminated by Valley View's Mike Fearron 1- 0 “Sure it's disappointing,” con- tinued Kaschenbach. “The first one caught him off guard. I've seen the kid from Valley View wrestle before and he’s very unor- thodox and he caught him off guard. He left without anything. I feel bad for him.” Ian Linsinbigler, Jim Ryan and Dan Natitus were also eliminated Friday. All three Mountaineers hoping for a fifth place finish lost com- petitive bouts Saturday afternoon. Nanticoke's Jim Skordenk sy beat Steve Tomasura 8-6 at 125. 135-pound Corey Freidel was edged out by G.A.R.’s Brock Vi- eney 7-6 and heavyweight Harry Hazeltine fell to Valley View's Dan Evans 7-5. Gingo, Metz, Heffron, Hoover and Crispell will test their talents against the best from District 12 this weekend. “I'd like to do well down there because in regionals my weight class is stacked,” said Gingo. “There's one state champ and a third place finisher from states. We'll see how I do.” Ally top four finishers will com- pete in Williamsport the first weekend in March against the best from District 4. The Mountaineers finished 7-6 in the Wyoming Valley Confer- ence including a 5-2 mark over the last three weeks of the season. With just Gingo, Heffron and Hoover graduating, Dallas hopes for further improvements next season. First there's some unfinished business at regionals to attend to. \
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers