Shippensburg moves into District 3 wrestling semifinals
It was a very nice debut for Shippensburg.
The Greyhounds, seeded No. 11, entered the District 3 Wrestling Team Championships for the first time ever Tuesday night and beat a pair of higher-seeded teams, taking out No. 6 Dallastown 35-28, then shocking No. 3 Spring Grove 37-35 on the Rockets' home mat.
"To do what we did in their gym was pretty amazing," Ship coach Tony Yaniello said. "We have enough good kids that if we get the right matchups with the other kids, we can win. We were pretty sure we could compete with both of those teams."
The reward is a trip to the semifinals on Thursday, right back at Spring Grove. Shippensburg (11-2) will tangle with No. 2 seed Exeter Township (20-1) at 5 p.m.
In the quarterfinal match, the biggest heroes were John Adams and Philip Torres.
At 126, Adams took bottom for the second period and he reversed Spring Grove's Brady Pitzer to his back and pinned him. That gave the Hounds a 27-24 lead after a bout the Rockets expected to win.
After Chandler Olson put up a major decision and Spring Grove scored a pin, the lead was down to just two points. But when Torres caught his opponent in a cradle and pinned him in the second period, the victory was clinched.
"Philip had been out with an injury and was just cleared on Saturday," Yaniello said.
The other key match was at 220. Cole Forrester bumped up to take on Ryan Miller and trailed early. But he strung together three takedowns in the third period to pull out a 9-6 win. Collin Dolbin (195) and Cameron Tinner (285) also scored pins.
Against Dallastown in the first round, Ian Reed notched a 5-3 decision at 138 pounds to clinch the win with one bout remaining. Eddie Ocker had a 1-0 victory in the first bout at 152, and Jeffrey Russell pulled out a 7-6 win at 106. Levi Shoemaker (170), Forrester (195), Tinner (285) and Olson (132) all had pins.
"It was a very exciting night for Shippensburg wrestling," Yaniello said. "We had a lot of fans there and we got a couple of good wins."