Seven of the top eight seeds advanced to Saturday's District 4 Class AA Team Wrestling quarterfinals thanks wins on Thursday night.
Only ninth-seeded Lewisburg was able to pull off an upset, and it was a mild one at that. The Green Dragons upended eighth-seeded Troy 33-32 on criteria. Other Valley teams in action last night had mixed results with once-beaten Mifflinburg and Line Mountain both advancing and Danville and Milton both getting eliminated by once-beaten opponents.
Saturday's quarterfinals at Milton begin at 11 a.m. Semifinals are at 1:30 with the finals – run at the same time as the Shikellamy-Jersey Shore AAA final – are at 6. Quarterfinal matchups will be top-seeded Towanda against No. 9 Lewisburg; No. 5 Line Mountain against No. 4 Mifflinburg; third-seeded Muncy against No. 6 Wyalusing and second-seeded Central Columbia against No. 6 Canton.
Lewisburg and Troy wrestled to a 32-32 draw with the Green Dragons winning on the second criterion, most falls. Lewisburg got pins from Andrew Fox, Nathaniel Brown and Brandon Smith to offset two pins from the Trojans.
As has been the case with the Dragons this seasons, a big win streak in the upper weights carried the day. Fox's fall at 130 was Lewisburg's only win in the eight lightest weights. But Lewisburg won every bout from 152 to heavyweight to earn the draw, and eventually the win on criteria.
Not only did the Green Dragons win six bouts from 152 to 285, they got bonus points in four of them. Curt Schneider (152) and Matt Munns (160) earned major decisions and Brown followed that up with a 12-second pin at 171. After Patrick Ostrowsky battled his way to a 5-0 win at 189, Smith needed a little bit more than a minute to earn a fall at 215. Sean Charest followed with a decision at 285.
Lewisburg, no 14-7, will take on top-seeded Towanda, which is 24-1 after beating Montoursville on Thursday night.
Tri-Valley League champion Line Mountain won its 10th dual in 11 tries with a tough 31-26 victory over Hughesville. The Eagles took advantage of four bonus-point wins to earn a spot in Saturday's quarterfinal against fellow once-beaten Mifflinburg.
The Eagles got pins from Colton Zimmerman (103) and Adam Kritzer (140) and a major decision from state-ranked Travis Erdman at 152.
Erdman, ranked third in the state by the Pennsylvania Wrestling Rankings at 140, bumped up two weight classes and then earned a dominant 18-8 major decision over Hughesville's D.J. Foresman, a 16-match winner for the Spartans.
Another key win for Line Mountain came at 130 where Seth Lansberry, ranked No. 6 at 125, bumped up and earned an 4-2 overtime win over Hughesville's Tyler Snyder, who was looking for his 20th win of the year.
Line Mountain (10-1) will meet Mifflinburg in the quarterfinals after the Wildcats pulled away from Warrior Run for a 40-19 win, the 15th victory in a row Mifflinburg.
Nazar Mironenko (285), David Sheesley (112), Brad Catherman (130) and Ty Walter (160) earned falls for the Wildcats. Jared Watson, ranked 21st in the state, had Warrior Run's lone fall at 119.
Muncy took advantage of three forfeits and six pins to rout Danville 61-18. The Ironmen were without seniors Kody Getkin and Dylan Dailey, but it would not have mattered against the Indians. Danville earned two falls and a forfeit for its 18 points with Garret Llewellyn (171) and Travis Bordner (140) each earning falls.
Milton, seeded 15th, put a scare into second-seeded Central Columbia before falling 36-26. Eric Wolfe (119) and Ryan Solomon (215) both earned falls for the Black Panthers while Ryan Preisch won by technical fall at 145.
The dual was close throughout with three matches getting decided by one point and two more going into overtime.
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Seven of top eight seeds advance in D4 Duals
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