6 earn sectional titles
Line Mountain's Adam Kritzer takes Mount Carmel Area's Zeke Zsido to the mat during their 145-pound semifinal matchup at Saturday's District 4 Southern Sectional at Mifflinburg High School. Kritzer won by fall to advance to the final.
MIFFLINBURG - Twenty-three area wrestlers, including six champions, advanced through Saturday's AA Southern Sectional tournament at Mifflinburg, led by Line Mountain.
The Eagles advanced 10 wrestlers to next week's District Four tournament at Williamsport, led by champions Mason Zimmerman (126), Seth Lansberry (132) and Adam Kritzer (145).
Mount Carmel advanced five wrestlers, including champion Brett Przekop (170), and Southern Columbia and Shamokin each advanced four wrestlers, with Matt Moore (195) and Jake Becker (220) winning titles for the Tigers.
Shamokin, which had a 2-17 dual meet record, didn't have any champions but had three wrestlers in the finals.
Mifflinburg won the team title with 184 points to Line Mountain's 154.5, with Mount Carmel third (110), Southern fifth (95) and Shamokin sixth (68) in the eight-team field.
"This is the most wrestlers we've had advance to districts in a long time," said Line Mountain coach Mike Martz. "Even when we went to the state dual meet tournament a few years ago, we didn't have this many advance. Now, that year I think we had six kids advance to states, and it was a pretty strong sectional that year, too. I'm not saying this team is better, but I'm very proud of the way the kids wrestled today."
Zimmerman (28-10) was a 10-0 finals winner over Mifflinburg's Clark Wagner in the 126 final. Lansberry (34-2), was a 13-2 winner in the finals over Shamokin's Dane Shovlin (24-7), who advanced to the final with probably the biggest upset of the day, a 7-6 semifinals win over Midd-West's Zach Heeter (34-2), who beat Shovlin 8-0 in a dual meet less than two weeks ago.
Kritzer (32-5) won by forfeit over East Juniata's Jared Benner in his final. Benner reportedly was suffering from mononucleosis.
Przekop (24-1) pinned Shamokin's Josiah Stahl (19-11) in 1:55 in the finals.
Moore and Becker each beat area rivals in the finals. Moore (13-7) pinned Shamokin sophomore Zach Biddiscombe (5-7), who had two pins earlier in the day, and Becker (22-4) decisioned Mount Carmel's Derek Urbanavage (16-11), 3-1.
Taking seconds for Line Mountain were Blake Carl (113), Cody Rebuck (160) and Kenny Rothermel (182). Taking third and advancing were Cameron Newman (106), Britton Heim (152), Kent Smeltz (170) and Anthony Peipher (220).
Martz was especially happy for Peipher, whose mother died of cancer earlier in the week.
"It's the first time he's advanced, and to do it under the conditions he did is really something," Martz said. "I'm proud of all the kids but I feel really great for him."
Also advancing for Mount Carmel by taking thirds were Mike Saukaits (120), Meyrick Lamb (160) and Cody Haupt (182).
Luis Martinex (126) took third for Shamokin to advance.
Freshmen Kent Lane (120) and Trent Donlan (285) were runnersup for Southern.
Mifflinburg advanced nine wrestlers, but had six champions and two runnersup.
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