Montgomery Area’s returning state champion, junior Brandt Harer, was voted the outstanding wrestler of the tournament, dominating the 139-pound weight class for his third Classic title. In five matches he had five technical falls in a cumulative 6:14, outscoring his opponents 81-10.Ruble was awarded control with three seconds remaining in regulation.Not wanting to waste even […]
Montgomery Area’s returning state champion, junior Brandt Harer, was voted the outstanding wrestler of the tournament, dominating the 139-pound weight class for his third Classic title. In five matches he had five technical falls in a cumulative 6:14, outscoring his opponents 81-10.Ruble was awarded control with three seconds remaining in regulation.Not wanting to waste even a second in the second 30-second tiebreak, Akala let Aurand out and, although he came close, Akala could not score. Aurand prevailed 6-5, clinching the team title.
“I got the three (points),” he said, crediting it to time spent training. “It was the stuff you go through (in) practice, play wrestling.”“In there” was the classic position, sometimes called a Merkle, or Oklahoma, whereby, with the wrestlers parallel, the “outside” wrestler threads his inside leg between his opponent’s, reaching under the arms to gain control.Other returning champions winning titles included Central Dauphin’s Thunder Beard, his third, at 121; Gavin Green of Delone Catholic, his second, at 133, and Shikellamy’s Connor Wetzel, his second, at 172.With 167 points, the Bucks finished second as a team — their best finish in the 24-year history of the tournament — nine and a half points behind team champion Mifflin County. The Huskies mined gold with champions Andrew Alexander at 107 pounds and Avery Aurand at 189.“I wasn’t going to take a bad shot or do something dumb … and he spins me around,” said Ruble, who placed third and seventh in previous Classics. “I thought I was going to go overtime, but then the opportunity was there.”“It’s hard to beat a kid consistently,” Combs said. “Aurand keeps closing the gap. Losing like that, in December, it fuels you. Abdoul, and all the boys, are gonna get fueled.”Penn Manor finished 18th as a team, scoring 72 points and placing four wrestlers, three of them sophomores. Soph Caden Boland took third at 114, soph Chase Harnish was fifth at 160, freshman Carter Reyes took seventh at 107 and soph Lincoln Yackanech was eighth at 127.In all, CV placed seven wrestlers as sophomore Caden Yanarella bounced back from a tough semifinal loss to take third at 133, junior Sean Morley took sixth at 107 and senior Nick Horton claimed seventh at 121.Kane had an outstanding tournament, earning his first Classic medal. Central Dauphin senior CJ Ferree, who placed eighth at the state tournament last year, was a little more savvy, taking an 8-1 lead early in the third period.Doing so, he scored the decisive takedown for a 4-1 victory over Noah Weaver of Bellefonte, a victory that delivered Ruble’s first Classic championship in his third try.
Off a restart with 36 seconds to go, after an out-of-bounds, Aurand escaped, tying the match at 5-5 and forcing OT. There was no scoring in the one-minute sudden victory overtime and Aurand held Akala down in the first 30-second tiebreaker.Read and react. They’re basic rules of football that are taught fairly early in one’s career.Kane cut into the deficit, scoring on a shrug with 24 seconds to go. He let Ferree out immediately, looking for the takedown that would bring him closer, but Ferree scored at the final horn for a 12-4 major decision.After a scoreless first period, Ruble took the early advantage on Weaver with a second period escape. Weaver evened the match with an escape of his own in the third period. Tied at 1-1 the match appeared destined for overtime as both wrestles moved cautiously.“Second’s not fun,” Bucks head coach Charley Combs said. “It’s not what we want to do. But, there’s a lot to be proud of.”With little time to do so, Conestoga Valley junior Teagan Ruble, an All-Star running back for the Buckskins, read and reacted Saturday afternoon in the 160-pound championship match of the Turner Holiday Classic wrestling tournament.Aurand took a 4-0 lead with a second-period escape and takedown. Akala broke free late to trail 4-1 with two minutes to go. After an escape to open the third period Akala took the lead, 5-4, on a takedown at the one minute mark.Ruble was the lone champion for the host Buckskins, who brought four wrestlers to the finals, including sophomore Tanner Kane at 145 and seniors Abdoul Akala at 189 and Tal Stoltzfus at 285.Opportunity knocked with less than 10 seconds to go as Weaver got in on a single leg and poised to improve his position. Ruble read the situation, saw an opening to react, and countered. “I started spinning and hooked (his leg) in there.”At heavyweight, Stoltzfus fell behind 2-0 in the second period as Selinsgrove’s Jack Peters executed a brief tilt. Stoltzfus let Peters out at the start of the third period, but Peters spoiled the strategy, scoring a takedown with 86 seconds still on the clock and rode out the remainder of the match for a 6-0 victory.The team title was likely decided in the 189-pound final where Akala met Aurand for the fourth time in the seniors’ careers. Akala, who placed third and fifth in prior Classics, won the first three meetings: 4-3 in the 2022 Classic, 7-2 in last year’s Classic and 3-2 in a tiebreak in the 2024 State tournament.Coming into the match the Huskies held a 4.5 point lead on the Bucks. An Akala victory would narrow that advantage to just a half point with Stoltzfus waiting in the wings at 285 and Mifflin having Payten Kearns in the fifth-place match.
