Red Rovers manhandle field, crown 8 champs
Friday, December 31, 2004
By J.F. PIRRO
The Express-Times
MANHEIM, Pa. — Like skilled land surveyors, each year Easton Area High’s wrestling team arrives at the Manheim Lions Holiday Tournament as it did Wednesday and Thursday.
The Red Rovers size up some of the best competition the state has to offer, then return with a real accurate measure of how they’ll stack up when the postseason tournaments kick in.
Easton, which crowned a tournament-record eight champions amid an onslaught of nine finalists Thursday night at the prestigious 35th annual event, seems like it’s already kicked it into high gear months before wrestling’s March Madness begins.
With nine finalists in all, and six consecutive in the finals between 119 and 145, the championship round was virtually a dual meet — Easton vs. some of Pennsylvania’s best.
Over the years, Easton has done well here — but never this well. Brothers Jordan and Josh Oliver, Brad Gentzle, Seth Ciasulli, Alex Krom, Andrew Goldstein, Braylin Williams and Zach Pizarro all were crowned champions.
In the end with a traditional pewter plate waiting for each winner, Easton had enough of them for service for eight. Only Sal Crivellaro (160) failed to win his championship bout. Twice before, in 1999 and 2001, Easton crowned six champions.
“I don’t think we made many friends this tournament, “Red Rovers coach Steve Powell said. “Really, this competition is as good as any tournament on our schedule, and you saw that in the close finals (six were decided by a single point). Our kids won the close ones, and that’s what you like to see.”
For Ciasulli, who was coming off a title and an Outstanding Wrestler performance in Reno, Nev., before Christmas, and Josh Oliver, both defending state silver-medalists, the in-state showing may be telling of what the postseason has in store.
“Before this, I’ve mainly been wrestling out-of-state guys, so it was good to get back to wrestling kids from Pennsylvania, and to see what Pennsylvania has, “said Ciasulli, who admittedly was exhausted following a victory he earned with an escape in the last three seconds of his title bout. “This is also a good indicator of my conditioning and as you can see, I need to work on that.”
For the Red Rovers (247 points), it was their sixth straight team title and 12th overall. Kiski Area (184.5) was second in the 14-team field. Reynolds (152) finished third.
Twelve is the most titles of any team in tournament history. Easton has now won the team trophy in 10 of the last 13 years, missing only in 1993 (Canon McMillan) and 1997-98 (Bald Eagle Area).
At 103, it was Jordan Oliver’s honor to get the festivities going in the championship round. He took down Shikellamy’s Travis Marks four times en route to a 10-4 decision. Twice, once in each of the first two periods, Marks let Oliver (17-1) up, and the lightweight, who weighs a mere 96 pounds, responded with quick takedowns. In the third, when Marks chose the neutral position, Oliver got the takedown, not Marks.
Gentzle (18-3 at 119) had a couple things to prove. First, he had the home team’s only finalist in Galloway Longenecker. More importantly, the senior had finished second at Manheim, at 119, two years ago. It’s first for 2004 following a 3-2 verdict Gentzle earned with a first-period takedown and an escape to start the third period.
Last year, he was bumped out of the lineup, and wrestled just three varsity bouts all season. Even after taking fifth in Reno, Gentzle still figured he might get bumped again if everyone around him dropped a weight class for Manheim.
“Even a day before, they were still talking like they were going to drop, but then they didn’t and so I had my chance to wrestle here again, “he said. “I needed to prove to my teammates and our fans that I deserve to be in the lineup.
I wanted to get back into the finals, then wrestle my best.”
Gentzle nearly had a convincing takedown with 33 seconds left in the bout, but the two wrestlers were ruled out of bounds. Instead, he had to play out the final seconds in a smart, evasive manner, much to the chagrin of some in attendance.
Ciasulli’s title bout was a battle of reversals — five in fact, and a sixth was awarded to Lower Dauphin’s Jared Kane, then wiped away — before Ciasulli’s 7-6 decision earned him his third Manheim pewter plate.
Kane, who scored a first-period takedown with 1:01 left before Ciasulli’s first reversal, scored a bout-tying reversal with 21 seconds left off a restart. Out of the ensuing scramble, Ciasulli (18-0) escaped with three seconds left to win.
“We did an outstanding job in the last 15 seconds of periods, “Powell said. “Seth had the same situation in (last year’s) state final when there were two kids who were both mat wrestlers, but Seth has the confidence to do what he does best because he’s done it so often.”
Josh Oliver’s bout at 130 was as thrilling. After going toe-to-toe with Reynolds’ Matt Dunn, a state bronze-medalist last year, the two took an 8-8 score into a second overtime period. There, with the choice, Oliver (20-1) took the top position, clamped on a headlock and rode Dunn to the win. It was his second straight title, although last year it was at 112.
Krom (18-1 at 135), who was Easton’s other champion in Reno, was actually trailing Kiski Area’s A.J. Milanak 2-1 after giving up a second-period takedown before he rolled through and into a deadset, no-escape pinning combination in 4:37.
In turn, Goldstein (15-3 at 140) followed with a determined 15-7 final over Central Mountain’s Kyle Dolan, an opponent he took down readily. In fact, he took all four of his opponents down easily as he was awarded for having the most takedowns (23) in the tournament.
Braylin Williams (14-4 at 145) did the same, likewise after giving up the bout’s first takedown, when he edged Kiski Area’s Zach McKendree 4-3 for Easton’s seventh title.
Pizarro (12-2 189), who like Williams won his first high school tournament, became the eighth champ on the night after converting a five-point move in the last nine seconds of the first period into a convincing 11-3 victory over Dallastown’s Matt Johnson.
NOTES: Seth Ciasulli became the 14th wrestler in Manheim history to win three titles. Older brother Matt Ciasulli, now at Lehigh, also is one of those 14. … Easton claims 64 Manheim champions in 21 years. … Easton had two other medal-winners in Brandon Veers (third at 112) and Dave Crowell (sixth at 171) … Alex Krom was honored for being the most aggressive and was a sportsmanlike finalist. … Bald Eagle Area’s Landis Wright, who was later named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler, pinned Sal Crivellaro in 1:46. … Fifty-six schools have wrestled in this tournament. … Host Manheim Central won the team title the first year but never again. … Fifty defending 2003 placewinners returned this year.
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