`Mercer County flexes muscles`

* * *

16 LOCALS COP BERTHS FOR STATE TOURNEY

* * *

Pearce wins 2nd crown, 7 others notch first titles

By Lynn Saternow
Herald Sports Editor

The road to Hershey goes through Mercer County _ in more ways than one!

Since a change in the PIAA state regional tournaments, the District 10 and Northwest Regional Class AA tournaments will be held each year at Sharon High School. But to get to state, not only do wrestlers have to travel through Mercer County _ they also have to try to get through the rugged contingent of county matmen.

At the regional tournament Saturday at Sharon, the county flexed its muscles again and will be advancing 16 wrestlers to the PIAA state championships which open Thursday at HersheyPark Arena and eight will be wearing crowns as regional champions.

Commodore Perry heavyweight Josh Pearce pulled in his second straight individual title, while winning their first were: Mike Germano (112) and Tom McMath (125), both of Sharpsville; Craig Griffin (130) and Eric Mausser (189), both of Sharon; Bob Tumpak (135), Reynolds; Nevada Walker (145), Commodore Perry; and Kevin Brown (160), Jamestown.

Pearce, Walker and Brown are all carrying unblemished records to the state tournament.

Runners-up from the area are: Steve Popovitch (112) and Jason Nestor (125), both of Reynolds, and Mark Chess (171), Commodore Perry.

Placing third to grab the final berths for states in each weight were: Sharon's Jared Moss (125) and Brian Griffin (275); Lakeview's Mike Dye (145), picking up his 100th victory in the consy semis; Mercer's Kevin Myers (171) and Grove City's Joe Rendos (189).

But while the county had an excellent overall showing, it was the Brookville Raiders from District 9 who ran away with the team title. Despite only having one champion, the Raiders scored 92 points to outdistance second- place Commodore Perry with 69 and Sharon with 65. Reynolds finished fourth with 48, followed by Saegertown 41, Sharpsville 38 1/2 and Girard 36 1/2.

Heading up the finals for county fans were a pair of rematches of rematches at 112 and 125. For the third straight week, as in finals of the Section 3 and District 10 tournaments, Popovitch and Germano clashed at 112, while ’ McMath and Nestor bumped heads at 125.

The 112 bout was a time of redemption for Germano, who had lost to Popovitch the last two weeks after leading late in the match. This time Germano refused to let a 6-4 lead slip away as he rode out the Raiders' sophomore for more than a minute at the end to ice the victory. Germano (33-2) scored a takedown and led 2-0 after the first period, but Popovitch (29-4) scored a pair of reversals to one for the Blue Devil junior to leave the count tied at 4-4 entering the third. Germano's reversal midway through the period was the bout winner.

McMath upped his tournament record to 2-1 against Nestor, winning a 1- 0 decision Saturday to go along with his victory over the Raider sophomore in the D-10 finals. McMath scored an escape in the second period then rode out with the legs the entire third frame for the triumph.

Is Sharpsville coach Ron Haywood getting tired of the same matchups week-after-week?

No way!

``I hope they meet again next week,'' said the smiling Haywood. ``That means we're doing something right _ we'd have four in the state finals.''

Of course a 112-pounder by the name of Trap McCormack, a defending state champ, might have something to say about it.

``We're hoping he's on the other side of the bracket,'' said Haywood.

Following is a brief summary of other finals matches:

103 -- District 10 champion Aaron Diehl (33-1) was in control from the first takedown on in winning a 5-2 decision over Ridgway's Bruno Iorfido.

119 -- Freshman Doug McGraw of Cameron County showed why he was 30-1 coming into the finals as he demolished Bill Reigel of Seneca, 12-2.

130 -- Sharon's Griffin bounced back from a loss in the District 10 finals last week to become the first ever Tiger to win a Northwest Regional crown. Griffin (33-4) scored a pair of takedowns to two escapes for Huck in the opening frame, then in the second period the Tiger junior added on a neutral for a 5-2 lead. Huck reversed to cut the lead to 5-4, but Griffin added on an escape and takedown to counter an escape for the Bison star.

135 -- Reynolds' Tumpak didn't pin everybody here like he did in the D- 10 tournament, but more importantly he came away with the crown. Tumpak (31-4) scored a third period escape, then picked up a takedown near the final buzzer for a 3-0 win over Brookville's Jason Gilligan

140 -- Fort LeBoeuf's Joe Charlton grabbed a 4-1 lead then held on for a 4-3 victory over Ridgway's Brian Dutchcot. Charlton was the D-10 runner-up to Commodore Perry's Wes Sindlinger, but Dutchcot dumped the Panther junior, 9-5, in the semis. Sindlinger finished fourth to miss qualifying for state.

145 -- Commodore Perry's Walker upped his season record to a perfect 32-0 with a 7-2 finals victory over at rugged Jeremy Reitz of Brookville. Leading 3-1 in the third, Walker stuffed Reitz on his head off the mat which took some of the fight out of the Raider sophomore.

152 -- Undefeated Travis Hummel of Eisenhower coasted to a 9-4 triumph in the finals over Redbank Valley's Eric Rupp for his second straight regional title. The real championship match was in the semis when Hummel (37-0) won a 3-1 victory over Brookville's Warren Stout, a state runner-up last season.

160 -- Jamestown's D-10 champ Brown faced a rematch from the previous week with Cochranton sophomore sensation Matt Hogue, and it was a struggle to the finish. The Muskies junior (34-0) nailed a double-leg takedown with 2 seconds remaining for the victory.

171 -- Commodore Perry's Chess and Brookville's David Jackson engaged a physical struggle that saw some head-knocking and high-level intensity that had the packed-house of fans roaring. Jackson broke open a close match in the third period for a 9-4 victory to give Brookville its only champion.

189 -- Sharon's Mausser followed up on Griffin's victory to become the second Tiger to win a NW title -- and he did it handily. After giving up a quick takedown to John Bachman of Clarion, the rest of the match belonged to the Tiger junior (32-3). Mausser notched 10 straight points before Bachman scored again en route to a 13-4 rout.

275 -- CP's Pearce put the finishing touches on the night with a dominating 7-0 triumph over Clarion's Shawn Lerch. It was the 33rd straight win of the season for the Panther big man. The real championship matchup was in the semis when Pearce pulled off a 1-0 victory over Brookville's Scott Wells.

While Pearce's victory was far from enough to pull out a team title, it put a happy finish to a tournament of highs and lows for CP coach Bob Parker.

``It's nice to be taking three to state, but I was hoping for at least four,'' said Parker, lamenting most of all the fourth-place finish of District 10 champ Wes Sindlinger at 140. ``I was hoping Wes would do better, but there were some other people down here who had something to say about it too.

``But Josh and Nevada are wrestling extremely well. I'm looking forward to state.''

Sharon High coach Dave Ciafre was thrilled with the performance of his charges as he's taking four to state _ Moss and Brian ``Bubba'' Griffin (275) finishing third to join two champions. Griffin defeated Brookville's Wells on a last second takedown to avenge an early loss to the muscleman.

As for winning the school's first two Northwest Regional titles, Ciafre said, ``It's great, but I expected to have some (District 10) champs last week. Last week I was pretty disappointed and I told the kids that they can redeem themselves by winning this week.''

The Tigers have shown steady progression under the tutlege of Ciafre. ``I've got some pretty good people in the program,'' he said. ``Chris (Osborne) has done a great job with the junior high and we've revamped the elementary program so the numbers are up and there is a lot of enthusiasm. I'm just fortunate to be here at this time.''

Reynolds Coach Brian Hills was pleased with his team's showing, despite the 1-2 mark in the finals.

``I was comfortable getting three in the finals, but you like to get at least a winner,'' said Hills. ``Tumpak came through. He wrestled a little bit cautious, but he wrestled smart.

``As for the other two guys, I give a lot of credit to the Sharpsville kids. You're not going to beat kids of that caliber every week. Those guys are up there in the state rankings. I told our kids that they're wrestling state place matches every week and they're not going to meet kids as tough as that at states. I feel good about our chances at state, I think we have some opportunities to place.''

Of course the main key is getting there. Four state qualifiers from 1996 failed to return this season: Grove City's Anthony Errera (135), Cochranton's Rick Hogue (152), Johnsonburg's Tony Casilio (145) and Saegertown's Bill Morris (135)
RESULTS LIST

Back to TOP // Herald Sports // Herald Home page

Updated March 5, 1997
Questions/comments: herald@pgh.net
For info about advertising on our site or Web-page creation: advertising@sharon-herald.com