By Brent Trowbridge
There will be no fewer than 11 former Pennsylvania high school wrestlers coming home from St. Louis this weekend with All-American status, plus four more who are currently wrestling at a university within Pennsylvania.
Greg Jones, a former three-time PIAA medal winner from Greensburg-Salem, is making a return trip to the NCAA finals this year for West Virginia University.
Jones, an NCAA champion in 2002 at 174, breezed through the 184-pound bracket to the semis with a technical fall and a pair of major decisions before taking a 5-2 decision over Illinois’ Brian Glynn. Jones will face Cornell’s Tyler Baier in the finals today.
Also in the finals is Edinboro’s Shawn Bunch after taking a 6-4 decision over Minnesota’s Mack Reiter in the semis. Bunch will now face top-seeded and 2003 NCAA champion Travis Lee of Cornell.
Former Mifflinburg standout Dustin Manotti, seeded third at 149, advanced to the semis for the second straight year before falling to Army’s Phillip Simpson for the second time this year by an 8-0 score.
Manotti, who can do no worse than sixth, will face Hofstra’s Jon Masa in today’s consolation semifinals.
Troy Letters, a former PIAA champion at Shaler, was upset in the semifinals by Iowa’s Mark Perry 3-0. Letters, an NCAA champion a year ago for Lehigh, will face Chattanooga’s Jon Sioredas in today’s consolation semifinals.
Also advancing to the semifinals before losing was Letters’ Lehigh teammate Jon Trenge, a PIAA champion from Parkland. Trenge fell to Northern Iowa’s Sean Stender 5-3 in the semis and will now face Central Michigan’s Wynn Michalak.
Others in the consolation semifinals include Evan Sola of North Carolina, Jake Herbert of Northwestern, Matt Feast of Penn, Cory Cooperman of Lehigh and Eric Bradley of Penn State.
Sola, a Conrad Weiser graduate, will face Wisconsin’s Tom Clum; Herbert, a four-time PIAA medal winner from North Allegheny, will go against Cornell’s Joe Mazzurco; Feast, a Blue Mountain graduate, will meet up with Indiana’s Pat DeGain; Cooperman will face Chattanooga’s Michael Keefe; and Bradley will face Nebraska’s Travis Pascoe.
Five others will be wrestling for seventh and eighth place.
Waynesburg grad Coleman Scott, now at Oklahoma State, will face Minnesota’s Bobbe Lowe at 125.
Another former Waynesburg wrestler, Drew Headlee, now at Pittsburgh, will face Illinois’ Mark Jayne at 133.
West Virginia’s Matt Lebe, a graduate of Jeannette, will take on Clarion’s Chris Horning at 157.
Penn State’s Phillip Davis, from Harrisburg, will take on Oklahoma’s Joel Flaggert at 197.
Oklahoma State has all but wrapped up the team title, scoring 127.5 points thus far, outdistancing second-place Cornell with 71.5. Lehigh is the highest-placing Pennsylvania team in 10th with 41.5, and Penn State is in 25th with 21.5 points.
Former PIAA champion Justin Nestor of Reynolds fell one win short of the medal round for the University of Pittsburgh as did Clarion’s Frank Edgar and Lock Haven’s Morgan Horner.
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