HERSHEY, Pa. – Four was a pretty good number for Billy Chamberlain and 179 was even better for Ashtin Primus on Saturday night at the PIAA wrestling championships.
Chamberlain triumphed in his fourth contest of the year with Walter Peppelman to win the Class AAA 119-pound title. Primus, displaying the same quiet efficiency he has had throughout the tournament, earned his second gold medal and secured his place in the record books as Pennsylvania’s co-leader in career wins.
For Connellsville’s Primus, the goal was always a second title. He’d already reached a tie for the career victory mark with a regional championship a week ago but needed a 5-0 win against Shaler’s Nick Nelson in the finals to keep pace with Mount Pleasant’s Donnie Ament, with whom he had been trading the wins record for the entire weekend.
Although Ament did end up with 179 wins, he had to go to the consolation bracket to get his after being beaten in the semifinals.
“It’s a dream come true to win here again, “said Primus, a returning gold medalist. “I’m proud of myself.”
“A 179-20 overall career record is pretty good. Twenty losses is more than I’d like – there are some guys who go undefeated – but I did my best and I feel pretty good about it.”
Ament, who said he was rooting for Primus to tie him, won bronze at 145 in Class AA earlier Friday.
“It’s tough that he lost, but he’s got 179, too, and I’m sure he feels good about himself because of that, “Primus said.
Four times this season, Chamberlain, of Cumberland Valley, had met Peppelman, of Central Dauphin, on the mat. And they split. Twice their bouts went to a rideout period. And they split those, too.
Fortunately for Chamberlain, he was on the winning end when it mattered most.
In one of the most compelling matchups of the weekend, Chamberlain escaped from Peppelman’s grasp with 10 seconds to go in the rideout period to earn a 2-1 victory in the tournament’s toughest bracket.
“We know each other so well, “Chamberlain said. “We try to open it up, but every time I try to do something, he knows how to stop it.”
The bout seemed destined to go to overtime from the start – after all, their last two meetings had.
So it seemed natural after a scoreless first period that Chamberlain was hoping to win the coin toss, opting for the bottom, so he could try for an escape point, entitling him to his choice of position in a rideout.
“We both wrestled hard, “Chamberlain said of the rideout period. “But I knew if I kept moving and got (his) wrist, I could get out. We work on that all the time.”
Chamberlain and Peppelman each had to knock off returning champions en route to the finals.
In the quarterfinals, Peppelman topped Clearfield’s Matt Kyler, the gold medalist at 103 pounds last year, and Chamberlain beat Chris Sheetz of Upper Perkiomen, the 112-pound champ a year ago, in the semifinals to set up the championship match.
At 135 pounds, Upper Perkiomen’s Zack Kemmerer – the favorite to pass both Ament and Primus next year – needed a rideout to top Spring-Ford’s Matt Moley. Kemmerer now has a 146-13 record, including 54-0 this year.
Earlier Friday in the Class AA finals, returning champ Kellon Balum wrestled with a nasty virus and Hamburg’s Nick Stabile to pull off a tough 3-2 decision.
“I definitely feel a lot better today than I did yesterday, “said a grinning Balum. “This morning I still didn’t feel the best, but I knew I just had to push myself through.”
On Friday night, following his semifinal win, Balum immediately headed to a bucket off the mat and began throwing up, holding on with all the energy he had left after the win. Even that was a definite improvement over a week ago, when he couldn’t get off his couch for several days.
“The day after regionals is when it hit me, “Balum said. “I didn’t get off the couch from Sunday until Thursday.”
But being hampered in the state tournament by physical ailments is nothing new for Balum. Last year, he tore a ligament in his knee in districts and still managed to get a gold at 130 despite not practicing for several weeks.
And just before his first trip to states two years ago, he caught pneumonia.
“I thought this would be the year (he’d be healthy), “he said. “But I fought through it anyway.”
Warrior Run’s Jason Guffey can relate. With four weepy, swollen stitches holding his right eyebrow shut, the returning gold medalist won at 112 in Class AA over Southern Huntingdon’s Cody Myers, when he pulled off a last-second reversal that caught even him by surprise.
“He had me, but I kept my back arched and somehow I came out from between his legs, “said Guffey, who won last year at 103.
West Branch’s Donny Clark had easily the toughest loss of the Class AA finals at 130. Trailing 5-4, Clark seemed oblivious to the pleas from the crowd and his coaches to attack. When the match ended and the referee raised the hand of Ridgeway’s Nikko Leitzel, Clark was dumbfounded, yelling “What?! “as he looked at the scoreboard.
Later, Clark said he believed he was leading the entire match. He mistakenly thought only he had earned points in the first period on what had been scored an early takedown by Leitzel and an immediate reversal by Clark.
“I never thought they gave him two points in the beginning, “Clark said. “I never looked at the clock. I’m usually really good at keeping the score in my head.”
In the 140-pound Class AA finals, with three-time gold medalist Garrett Scott out of the tournament for disciplinary reasons, Bermudian Springs’ Rickey Schmelyun built a big early lead and prevailed 10-0.
Octorara’s Mike Letts earned outstanding wrestler honors in Class AA after earning a 18-1 technical fall victory over Westmont-Hilltop’s Zac Bennett. Letts won gold by dismantling every opponent he faced, recording two pins and two technical falls in his four matches.
Reynolds ran away with the Class AA team championship, with a total of 114 points. Northern Lehigh was a distant second with 58.5 points, followed by Burrell with 56, Northwestern Lehigh with 51.5 and Pius X with 44 points.
In Class AAA, Nazareth won the team title with 113.5 points, followed by Bald Eagle Area with 85.5 and Upper Perkiomen with 72.5 Boyertown and Central Dauphin tied for fourth with 49 points.
Wrestling Gear
