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Cedar Cliff ousts Elco wrestlers, 64-6


CAMP HILL – Chad Miller knew going into Tuesday’s District 3 Class AAA first-round tussle with host Cedar Cliff that his Elco wrestling team was up against it.

For a brief moment there was even a glimmer of hope for the Raiders.

Then it was all Colts.

Cedar Cliff ran away with the opening round contest, 64-6. The Colts went on to defeat Wilson 40-25 in a quarterfinal.

Elco has six duals left in its regular season, including a quad meet this weekend, however the focus will soon go to the individual tournaments for the Raiders.

“There was no surprise, they’re just a much better team than us,” Miller said.

After racking up wins at 220 with Ryan Rolon’s decision over the Colts' Cole Whalen and Tony Rodriguez’s decision of Sergio Acola at heavyweight, to make it 6-6, No. 3 seed Cedar Cliff did the rest of the damage.

“We are basically a pretty decent Double-A team trying to compete at Triple-A,” Miller said. “That’s how it is. We always qualify, usually because we usually do really well in duals, but when we get against the better teams, we get hammered and it’s more or less because we’re balanced - we don’t have any studs to the point where we can do any moving. When we get a solid team we have a hard time just winning matches.”

Cedar Cliff entered with just one loss on the season, to perennial powerhouse Cumberland Valley.

Miller’s team is in a bit of an interesting position. They still have a handful of dual meets left, meaning they will not waste any time before the District 3-AAA individual tournament begins in a few weeks.

“We’ll probably finish the season with 20 wins," said. "There’s a lot of teams we can have success against, but with the better teams we have no moves - they can kind of move around and we don’t have any guaranteed wins.”

In a perfect world, the Raiders would draw a No. 8-9 seed and have a chance to at least advance through consolations, but the draw is what it is.

“Out of the four years we’ve been Triple-A, we’ve qualified and hit a No. 1, 2 or 3-seed, so this is kind of what we expect," Miller said. "It was a good effort, the kids look at it for the experience, and it’s nice being associated with the top 16 teams in one of the tougher districts.”

Elco got the draw it wanted to start the match with Rolon and Rodriguez, thinking they could get early points against two lighter Colts in Whalen and Acola.

But three falls, by JJ Wilson, Luis Triado and Gabe Ikeda, sandwiched around a tech fall by Mike Cassidy, ultimately proved to be too much.

“We have six duals left,” Miller said. “It works out fine. We'll still have a week off before sectionals, so I am glad we keep going.”

Cedar Cliff 64, Elco 6 

at Cedar Cliff

195 — Josh Colello (CC) p Jeremy Habowski, 0:40. 220 — Ryan Rolon (E) d Cole Whalen, 6-4. 285 — Tony Rodriguez (E) d Sergio Acola, 3-1. 106 — JJ Wilson (CC) p Levi Brooks, 0:34. 113 — Mike Cassidy (CC) tf Alex Puglio, 4:21, 15-0. 120 — Luis Triado (CC) p Liam Derosiers, 0:33. 126 — Gabe Ikeda (CC) p Shawn Price, 3:14. 132 — Josh McLaughlin (CC) md Owen Nell, 13-5. 138 — Connor McGee (CC) md Cam Krow 13-3. 145 — Jared Meise (CC) p Jeremy Carlos Romero, 1:22. 152 — Clayton Gause (CC) p Chris Habowski, 1:01. 160 — Colin Toggas (CC) tf Ethan Anspach, 15-0, 2:31. 170 — Emorson Wentz (CC) p Justin Althouse, 1:00. 182 — Donovon Ball (CC) d Quentin Weaver, 9-4.