LM advances in duals

MANDATA - Line Mountain wrestling coach Mike Martz didn't mind saying that his heart was racing when his 160-pounder, Cody Rebuck, was quickly taken to his back with a headlock by Muncy's T.J. Moyle during the Eagles' District 4 Team Duals match against the Indians Wednesday.

Line Mountain led at the time, 34-22, but as Martz said, "Let's just say we were expecting a win out of Cody."

And a win was what they got, probably the biggest of the evening on the way to a 43-28 match victory, earning Line Mountain a trip to Milton on Saturday, where the final eight teams will meet. Line Mountain (9-3) will

wrestle second-seeded Wyalusing (17-1), which had a first round bye, in the quarterfinals at 11 a.m.

Moyle, a sophomore with a 12-16 record, hit Rebuck with the headlock in the first seconds of the bout, and had him in deep trouble right in front of the Eagles' bench.

"He had it in deep," Martz said. "He had a lot of Cody's arm. But if there was one guy on our team that had to happen to, it was probably Cody. He's one of the funkiest wrestlers we have and I think he got out of it just because he is so funky."

"I was surprised he hit it," said Rebuck. "It wasn't fun down there."

But almost as soon as Moyle built his 5-0 lead, Rebuck escaped, took him down and pinned him just a minute and 10 seconds into the bout. His win effectively clinched the match, instead of Muncy crawling to within six points with a couple of its better wrestlers still on deck.

"I got him with a front head and arm," Rebuck said of his comeback takedown after escaping. "That's my favorite move."

The other big win came at 138, where Seth Lansberry (31-2) nipped Heath Strickland (27-5, with 98 career wins) 3-1.

"Seth has been going up in weight all year and doesn't complain about it," said Martz. "They're both good kids and it was a good match."

Kenny Rothermel (23-10) got things started well for Line Mountain, pinning Nick Roberts at 220. Muncy's Chris Secules tied it with a pin at 285 but Line Mountain got key wins from freshmen Cameron Newman (106) and Blake Carl (113). Newman decisioned Jacob Dgien 13-8, and Carl pinned Alex Krah.

A Muncy freshman, Andy Aguilar, pinned Ethan Marquette-Hulsizer at 120, but Mason Zimmerman (25-10) got a forfeit at 126 and Mark Harner had an 11-0 win at 132, giving the Eagles a 25-12 lead going into Lansberry's bout. The lead ballooned to 34-12 when Adam Kritzer (29-5) pinned Kyle Wagoner at 145.

Muncy (9-6) sandwiched a pair of wins around the Rebuck bout. Sophomore Isaiah Bobatas (26-5) beat Britton Heim 9-1 at 152, and Troy Hembury, a fifth-place state finisher as a sophomore last season, pinned Jordan Specht at 170 to improve to 29-1.

The Eagles forfeited to Skyler Ebner at 182 before Erik Smeltz downed Jake Colburn 5-2 in the final bout at 182.

"We're a young team," said Muncy coach Denny Harer, whose Indians placed second in the tournament last year. "We thought we had a chance when Moyle hit that headlock but he couldn't quite finish it, and there were a couple of matches that could have gone either way. But we've come a long way. Our 106-pounder got tech falled by Newman at the Top Hat Tournament, and he really wrestled him tough tonight."

"I thought we matched up pretty well with Muncy," said Martz. "We got good wins at 106 and 113. We're not the type of team that's going to blow anybody out, but I think we can wrestle with just about anybody, too. It's a bunch of scrappy kids. At the beginning of the season, when the (Zain Retherford) transfer thing was going on, and Colton Zimmerman and Beau Rothermel were lost for the season, I asked the guys to pick some goals, and one was to get to the tournament at Milton. I thought that was a pretty lofty goal at the time, but they might have been right. I told them this week, we can get to states, but everything has to go well for us, and I mean everything - matchups, no upsets, everything."

220 - Kenny Rothermel, LM, pinned Nick Roberts, 3:43 (6-0); 285 - Chris Secules, M, pinned Anthony Peipher, 2:26 (6-6); 106 - Cameron Newman, LM, dec. Jacob Dgien, 13-8 (9-6); 113 - Blake Carl, LM, pinned Alex Krah, 3:01 (15-6); 120 - Andy Aguilar, M, pinned Ethan Marquette-Hulsizer, 1:11 (15-12); 126 - Mason Zimmerman, LM, won by forfeit (21-12); 132 - Mark Harner, LM, maj, dec. Alex Shull, 11-0 (25-12); 138 - Seth Lansberry, LM, dec. Heath Strickland, 3-1 (28-12); 145 - Adam Kritzer, LM, pinned Kyle Wagoner, :46 (34-12); 152 - Isaiah Bobotas, M, maj. dec. Britton Heim, 9-1 (34-16); 160 - Cody Rebuck, LM, pinned T.J. Moyle, 1:10 (40-16); 170 - Troy Hembury, M, pinned Jordan Specht, :56 (40-22); 182 - Skyler Ebner, M, won by forfeit (40-28); 195 - Erik Smeltz, LM, dec. Jake Colburn, 5-2 (43-28).