3 locals win gold at Trojan Wars
Three area wrestlers went home victorious after Friday afternoon's Trojan Wars finals, and all three of them did it in vastly different styles.
Chambersburg's Drew Peck needed only 39 seconds to earn a pin at 182; Shippensburg's Chandler Olson dominated his 132-pound bout to the tune of a 19-4 technical fall; and Greyhound senior Cameron Tinner gutted out a 6-4 decision at 285.
Five others from the area earned second place, and all but one suffered narrow losses. Ship's Cole Forrester was defeated 6-4 by Blake Barrick, of Big Spring, in sudden victory at 195.
"My favorite way to win is coming back and getting a late takedown to win," Peck said. "I like to get the emotions running and the crowd into it. Cole Forrester's match was really exciting. It didn't come out the way he wanted it to, but that was fun to watch. Those are the matches that are fun to wrestle."
Each of the three victors seemed to have quite a bit of fun, though.
Peck quickly scored a takedown by using a gator roll, then he laid down his signature crab ride to flatten Cole Zapf of Downingtown West.
"Drew is very tough on top," Chambersburg coach Matt Mentzer said. "He got a nice takedown on him and executed a crab ride to finish him off. That's what Drew does from that position."
Peck said, "I get worked up all day for those matches, so it's nice to get out there and assert my dominance."
Speaking of dominance, Olson was a point-scoring machine in his 132-pound victory over Tristan Hanshaw of Boiling Springs. Olson led 8-2 by the end of the second period, and during the final frame, he continually allowed Hanshaw to escape in order to rack up more takedowns.
"I've really been trying to up the intensity," Olson said. "I'm working the entire match to score points, and if I keep working, I usually will come out on top at the end of the match. The entire time I'm out there, I'm working to get takedowns and back points."
The strategy worked. Olson finished with five takedowns and a total of eight nearfall points.
Both Olson and Tinner have now won a pair of tournament titles this year, both were victorious in their weight classes at the Carlisle Tournament.
"Carlisle is a good tournament, but after seeing the teams that came here, I would say this is much bigger," Tinner said. "The atmosphere here is pretty cool. It's a huge gym with 26 teams, and it's good to be at. It's good for our team."
Tinner was especially pumped after his 6-4 win over Blaine Yinger, of Northeastern, who was ranked fifth in the state prior to Trojan Wars. A reversal in the final period secured the win for Tinner, who is wrestling 285 pounds after a very successful run at 220 a season ago.
"I would say (my strategy) has changed," Tinner said. "In that (championship) match, I had to be more opportunistic and couldn't take stuff for granted. Because if I get stuck under a kid like that, who is very good and very big, I could be in trouble. I think it's just opening up more and looking for what I have."
Notes: A pair of Chambersburg wrestlers suffered very narrow losses ... At 152, Drake Brenize fell 3-0, and at 138, Wyatt Long needed just one escape to earn a 1-0 win over Aaron Rump ... The only other locals in the final were Ship's Jeffery Russell (106 pounds), who lost 13-2, and Chambersburg's Seth Runshaw (120), who fell 16-0 in 5:56.