By Harold Raker
The Daily Item
WILLIAMSPORT -- Line Mountain wrestlers have prided themselves on their stamina and resiliency and both came into play in Friday's District 4 Class AA quarterfinals at Williamsport High School.
First, Mason Zimmerman, at 119 pounds, and later teammate Adam Kritzer at 135 pulled out gutsy overtime victories to advance to today's semifinals.
Zimmerman and Kritzer joined Eagles returning state champion Zain Retherford (112), Seth Lansberry (125), Travis Erdman (140) and Kenny Rothermel (189) as semifinalists. The Eagles advanced six of their eight wrestlers to take the early lead in the team race with 54 points to 45 for Mifflinburg. The Wildcats advanced four of their 11.
Lewisburg, advancing four of its seven wrestlers to the semifinals, and Shamokin, which saw all four move on, were tied for sixth with 35 points each. Milton advanced four of its seven and was in ninth place with 32.
Zimmerman, a sophomore who pinned Lucas Murphy of Sayre in the preliminary round, battled 31-2 senior Braden Calkins of Troy to a scoreless regulation bout, then took him down in the first 15 seconds for the win. Zimmerman improved to 30-11.
Kritzer won in even more dramatic fashion. He gave up a takedown to Hughesville's Kyle Barnes with 15 seconds left in regulation to fall behind 3-1, but reversed him to tie it in the final seconds. He pulled a nice switch for a takedown to win 5-3.
A major shock came in the semifinals at 215 where Danville's unbeaten Dylan Dailey, leading 12-1, was pinned in 3 minutes, 32 seconds, by Hughesville's Brad Poust. All four Ironmen lost and dropped into the consolations.
Mifflinburg's semifinalists are David Sheesley (112), Zane Rowe (125), Ty Walter (160) and Nazar Mironenko (285). Moving into the semifinals for the Green Dragons were Curt Schneider (152), returning state runner-up Nathaniel Brown (171), Brandon Smith (189) and Sean Charest (285). The undersized Charest used a takedown with 1:10 left to upend Hughesville's Derek Earnest, 4-3, and avenge a loss to the Spartan from earlier in the season.
Shamokin advanced its three returning state qualifiers and past medalists Brandon Pesarchick (130), Josh Lahr (135) and Wes Tillett (285), along with Lee Supsic (152).
Milton's four semifinalists are Eric Wolfe (119), Ryan Preisch (145), Donald English (160) and returning state sixth-place medalist Ryan Solomon (215).
Three other valley wrestlers made their way into the semis: Warrior Run's Jared Watson (119), East Juniata's Sean Heggs (130) and Southern Columbia's Brian Watkins (145).
The first round of consolations (the last chance to advance to regionals) begins at 8:30 this morning with the semifinals at 10. Consolations for fourth and fifth place are set for 4 p.m., with the third-fourth consolations at 4:45 and the championship finals at 5:45.
The top five advance to the Northeast Regional next weekend, also at Williamsport.
