By Harold Raker
The Daily Item
HERSHEY – When Zachary Nye hooked onto Spencer Myers’ leg at the start of the PIAA Class AAA 215-pound title bout Saturday night, it was a familiar situation for the Selinsgrove senior.
And like he did in other matches in the state tournament, Myers fought him off and took him down for a two-point lead.
But something was different this time. Instead of hammering his opponent and piling up some back points, Myers let him up, and didn’t do much else the rest of the period.
In the second, he deferred his choice, East Pennsboro’s Nye took bottom and Myers worked an occasional power half-Nelson, but never came close to scoring with it.
In the third, Myers escaped, got a takedown and then picked up a stalling warning and gave up a takedown, but prevailed 5-3.
It was not a typical performance for the unbeaten Seal, but it led to what he wanted – a state title.
You see last year’s championship final was still on his mind. That’s the one where he was leading early and seemingly in control against Nate Gaffney of Connellsville. But Myers landed awkwardly and tore ligaments in his ankle. It cost him his state title in a 5-4 defeat.
“I’m not going to lie, I just wanted to get the two (points for the takedown) and after that I just wanted to coast. I just wanted to win after what happened last year,” he said Saturday after receiving his gold medal at the Giant Center.
“After I got that, I did stall. I wanted to win. Everybody knows what happened back here (last year). I just wanted it,” he said.
Ironically, Gaffney also a senior, left the tournament on the first day after losing his preliminary 6-2, then forfeiting because of torn ligaments in his knee.
Myers had to wait well until into the night to do it, but, with his win, his high school’s long drought without a state champion finally ended.
In the only battle of unbeatens in this year’s AAA finals, Myers improved his final season record to 44-0 (and a career mark of 149-18). Nye ended his junior season at 39-1 (101-13 for his career).
The finals, aired live on the Pennsylvania Cable Network, started 40 minutes late because of a delay in getting fans into the building for the consolation finals, which preceded the championships.
Myers became Selinsgrove’s first state champion since Dave Becker in 1974. The only other was Marshall Dauberman in 1960.
Of his bout with Nye, Myers said, “He was trying to hit me with a Peterson and stuff and I knew if I would have got hit with that, then it might have been over, so I tried everything I could to not get hit with that.”
Hearing his name as a state champion while standing atop the podium was a thrill for Myers, who already had a gold medal this school year as a member of the Seals’ state championship football team.
“Incredible, the most amazing feeling. It happened in football and it happened in wrestling, finally,” he said. “It is one of the most incredible, amazing feelings I’ve had. Now I’m going to come back on Monday and go to track (practice). No time off.”
He said he now wants to go for a third gold medal, this one in track and field. He is a discus and javelin thrower.
“I’m going for the gold,” he said.
Myers had to block out the Giant Center’s second power outage in two days during his semifinal bout Saturday morning. Again the lights over the mats dimmed as the center’s generator kicked in. This time, there was also a flood, as a leak in the laundry room sent water flowing through one of the hallways and down the steps in the stands.
“It did play with my mind a little bit, but just for a split second,” he said of the power outage. “I was back in it. I just wanted to get that one won. It happened (Friday night) in the AAs and I knew I had to fight through it and not be fazed by it.”
Nye was the second consecutive unbeaten opponent Myers faced, having beaten Sean Sadosky of St. Mary’s in the morning semifinal. That win came by technical fall, 15-0 in 4 minutes, 50 seconds.
Sadosky, a senior who was 35-0, went right after Myers, twice shooting in on his leg with Myers able to fight him off. Coming out of a stalemate, Myers got a single-leg takedown with 25 seconds left in the opening period and was never threatened the rest of the way.
In fact, after that first takedown, Myers locked up a cradle, but the buzzer sounded to end the period before he got score any back points.
After Myers deferred his choice in the second, Sadosky took the bottom and Myers went to work. He cradled him again for two nearfall points, then added two more with an arm bar and half-Nelson and yet three more with a half-Nelson to take a 9-0 lead through two stanzas.
Myers escaped in the third and Sadosky took a weak shot, which cost him. Myers countered and took him to his back for a five-pointer which ended the bout.
And a little more than 13 hours later, his high school wrestling career ended with a gold.
E-mail comments to hraker@dailyitem.com.
