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York-Adams Wrestle Weekly: Midseason Report


How are teams and individuals of the YAIAA shaking up at this point of the season, with the Christmas season behind us and the new year fast approaching?

On the team front, South Western and Bermudian Springs continue to impress in dual and individual formats.

The Mustangs have gone to a pair of quality individual tournaments the first two weekend’s of the season. They headed up to Williamsport for the Top Hat Tournament, then following that up the next weekend with the prestigious King of the Mountain Tournament.

Seth Janney, a 220-pound sophomore, has been a bright spot for South Western. Janney’s put up a 10-2 record thus far, winning the title at the Top Hat tournament and then following with fifth-place finish at the King of the Mountain. Teammate and returning PIAA qualifier Owen Wherley is 10-4 after a fourth-place finisher at Top Hat and a fifth-place finish at King of the Mountain.

Bermudian Springs has handled injury concerns quite well, to the tune of a perfect 6-0 record and a 5-0 day at the Northern Lebanon duals on Dec. 20th. During that event, the Eagles downed Tulpehocken 81-0 for coach Dave McCollum's 500th career victory. McCollum is one of nine Pennsylvania coaches to reach such a career milestone.

The Eagles are led by a trio of returning PIAA qualifiers in Sam McCollum (220-pound weight class), Colton Dull (182/195) and Briton Shelton (182/195).

McCollum spearheads the group with a perfect record (13-0) after capturing titles at the Cumberland Valley Classic and Carlisle Tournament. Dull (9-0) returned to action at the Carlisle tournament after missing the CV Classic with a lingering football injury and did so with a bang, taking the title. Shelton (12-2) has yet to capture a tournament title but finished third at the CV Classic and added a second place finish at Carlisle.

Also excelling on the individual stage is Central York's Dylan Chatterton (8-0). Chatterton jumped from 113 pounds all the way to 145 pounds this year and has remained in the form he showed while advancing to the PIAA Tournament the last two years. Chatterton won crowns at the season-opening Brandywine Heights Bullet Invitational and then at the Penn Manor tournament.

Dallastown's Nick Shields (9-0), Eastern York's Lucas Barshinger (7-0), Kennard-Dale's Mike Bracey (9-0), Spring Grove's Marcus Kehr (6-0), and Dalton Rohrbaugh (5-0) are the only other unbeaten wrestlers of note.

Without further ado, let's check out this week's power rankings:

1t. Bermudian Springs and South Western (last week’s ranking: 2 and 1, respectively): Tough to decide between these two. I initially gave South Western the nod with all its returning experience, but there’s been some growing pains with the youthful portion of the lineup. Despite injuries, Bermudian Springs has performed extremely well, taking down a pair of talented teams in Northern Lebanon and Red Lion at the Northern Lebanon duals.

3. Red Lion (Last week's ranking: 3): The Lions hung tough with Bermudian Springs at the Northern Lebanon duals, losing 33-29. They had a chance right up until Austin Clabaugh pinned Jacob McIntyre at 126 pounds in the second-to-last match. The Lions even held a 20-3 lead after five bouts before Shelton, Dull, McCollum and Brady Linebaugh put the Eagles back in front 21-20.

4. Spring Grove (LW: 4): With a full week off, the Rockets remain at No. 4. Spring Grove has a pair of undefeated wrestlers in 160-pounder Marcus Kehr and 106-pounder Dalton Rohrbaugh. The Rockets should remain here until their pair of battles with the Lions and Mustangs coming in the new year.

5. Kennard-Dale (LW: 5): The Rams continue to roll. Last week I had Kennard-Dale sitting in at No. 5, but was a bit skeptical. Not anymore. The Rams erased all doubt of being Division II favorites at this point with a 47-27 drubbing of West York at the Shikellamy Tournament on Dec. 20th. The Rams are led by Michael Bracey, who sits at 9-0 as we reach the end of 2014.

Honorable mentions: 6. New Oxford. 7. Delone Catholic. 8. Biglerville. 9. West York. 10. Dallastown.

Between Christmas and New Years there are typically a handful of tournaments, both individual and dual format. Here are a few highlights.

-New Oxford and Red Lion will head to the two day Conestoga Valley tournament on December 27th and 28th.

-Spring Grove heads up to the Boiling Springs duals on December 27th.

-Dover, Kennard-Dale and West York head out to Berks County for the Governor Mifflin tournament on December 29th and 30th.

-Bermudian Springs will visit Schuylkill Valley, a perennial District 3 AA contender on December 30th for a standard Dual meet.

-South Western will head to Cumberland Valley on January 3rd for the always tough Cumberland Valley duals. The Mustangs really hit their stride last year after the CV duals.

-Finally, on January 3rd, West York, Central York, Red Land, Spring-Ford, Saucon Valley and Annandale will invade Biglerville for the annual Canner Duals.

We will know quite a bit more about a few of these teams and their individuals following the slate of holiday tournaments.

How would you rank the top 5 teams? Who wins each division? Comment below or tweet your picks to @ameaseYDR

Be sure to stop by again next week as we review the holiday season and look ahead to the Division matches as they become more and more important.