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Waynesboro, Chambersburg renew wrestling rivalry


Chambersburg and Waynesboro renewed a wrestling rivalry Saturday afternoon at CASHS Field House and the heavily-favored Trojans picked up a 47-18 victory by winning the final eight bouts.

The teams hadn't met in a dual meet in five years.

The Indians finished 9-8 in duals and are off until the Section I Tournament at Mechanicsburg on Feb. 18. Chambersburg (11-4) will be on the road Tuesday in the first round of the District 3 Team Championships, with site and opponent yet to be determined.

Here are a few snapshots of the match:

ROUGH BEGINNING: Whatever electricity may have been there at the start was turned off during a pre-match exhibition bout when a Waynesboro wrestler's arm was seriously injured and EMTs had to be called in. It delayed the start and cast a bit of a pall on the event.

"That kind of took the air out," Trojan coach Matt Mentzer said. "That's unfortunate, and I'm sure it affected kids from both teams. Even the official said he would probably call things a little closer because of that."

2 KEY BOUTS: The Indians scored pins by Seth Egolf at 195 and Bryan Layman at 113 and received a forfeit at 106 to take an 18-12 lead after six matches. The next two bouts were crucial to any chance 'Boro had to pull out a win, and Chambersburg ended up winning both.

At 120, Seth Runshaw scored a takedown each in the first and second periods to hand Matt McCann a 5-1 defeat. At 126, Spencer Runshaw hit three takedowns to lead 9-4 after two over Laken Rouzer, although Rouzer scored a late reversal and was close to nearfall points at the buzzer.

But to start the third, Runshaw was able to reverse Rouzer to his back for five points and then rode him out.

"I really wanted to push the pace and get after it," Spencer Runshaw said. "I wasn't happy with how the second period ended, so I wanted to make up for that right away in the third."

"Solid six-minute wins for both of them," Mentzer said, "and they were coming off tough losses to Central Dauphin."

YOUNG SQUAD: Waynesboro finished with a winning dual meet record despite having a very young team. In Saturday's match, 'Boro started three seniors, two juniors, six sophomores and three freshmen.

"We have only four seniors and three of them are first-time wrestlers," Indian coach Dan Craig said. "Hopefully we can keep on going from here. Chambersburg is a good team, and sometimes it's good to lose one like this because then you can see what we have to work on."

DODGED ONE: What would have been a potentially dandy bout at 195 between Waynesboro's Seth Egolf and the Trojans' Dalton Grace was sidetracked when Mentzer opted to move Grace up. He gave up six points to get six points.

"I really hate to do that," Mentzer said, "but it came in the second bout. We needed to win (for districts) and Waynesboro is so young, I don't know their kids yet and I couldn't take a chance."