By Ron Bracken
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HERSHEY — Kyle Fluke had just pulled off the upset of the PIAA Class AAA Wrestling Tournament, taking out two-time runner-up Seth Ciasulli of Easton 4-3.
And if that wasn’t reason enough for the State College 125-pounder to celebrate, the win was the 100th of his career.
Party time, right?
Not for Fluke, who was as unemotional as if he had just heard that the sun would come up this morning.
“The hundredth win doesn’t really mean anything, “he said minutes after taking out Ciasulli, one of the favorites to win the tournament. “It’s just a win. I knew my next win would be my hundredth.”
And if it came against Ciasulli, well, that just meant that he had earned a berth in today’s quarterfinals.
He’s joined there by teammate Chris Decker at 160, Bald Eagle Area’s Quentin Wright at 125 and Seth Nyman at 189, and Bellefonte’s Josh Jones at 215. Penns Valley’s Preston Shawver advanced to the Class AA quarterfinals at 140 with a fall in his preliminary bout Friday.
State College has Steve Bosak, Adam Homan and Justin Masorti alive in the consolation round and BEA has Landis Wright still in the tournament. The rest of the Centre County contingent was eliminated in the consolation round Thursday night.
Against Ciasulli, Fluke struck for a takedown with 1:05 to go in the first period. Ciasulli tilted him for two back points in the second period to knot the score at 2-2. In the third period, Ciasulli escaped but with 56 seconds to go Fluke got his second takedown and then rode him the rest of the bout.
“I wanted to keep the match close and try to beat him by one or two points, “said Fluke, a two-time placewinner. “I knew he was tough on top with the legs so I wanted to try to keep from being put on my back.”
“We felt we matched up well with Ciasulli, “State College coach Shd Benton said. “It was a good win for Kyle; there’s nothing like getting that first win here. And the crowd got into it. He had the crowd buzzing. That win ignited us.”
Fluke and Ciasulli had met two years ago in the 103-pound state semifinals, which Ciasulli won by fall. As it turned out, the seeds for Thursday’s win were sown in that match.
“I knew what he likes to do, “Fluke said. “It helped me prepare for this match.”
This afternoon Fluke will meet Scott George of West Chester Henderson, the Southeast champion who is 32-7.
Decker reached the finals by beating Zach Hetrick of South Western 14-2, taking him down and tilting him for three back points in the first period. He added four more back points plus another takedown and a reversal on his way to the win. Today he faces Delaware Valley’s Frankie Colletta, the Northeast champ who is 41-2.
“Chris beat a pretty good kid but he’ll need his A game tomorrow, “Benton said. “He has to be ready to roll.”
Quentin Wright built a 9-0 lead over Neshaminy’s Bobby Gulla before pinning him in 3:39. He draws Connellsville’s Steve Bell, the Southwest champ with a 44-4 record today.
“Quentin came down here to do well, that’s his mentality, “said BEA coach Skip Pighetti. “I’ve not heard him say anything about losing the whole time. He’s just thinking about going forward. His weight class is wide open now.”
That’s because in addition to Ciasulli, who was the Northeast runnerup, Steve Mytych of Northampton, the Northeast champ, caught the upset bug, losing to Tony DeSanto of Exeter 8-6 in overtime. Nyman beat Manheim Central’s Darrin Longenecker 6-4 in the preliminary round, scoring on a pair of takedowns in the first period and adding escapes in the second and third periods while Longenecker made it close with an escape and takedown in the third period. Nyman’s quarterfinal opponent is Andrew Haile of Greensburg-Salem, the Southwest runner-up who is 36-3.
“I’m happy to see him peaking now, “Pighetti said of Nyman. “He came through when he needed to. But tomorrow’s match will be tough. He’ll need to wrestle a solid match to move on.”
Jones got behind Seth Hillstorm of Plymouth-Whitemarsh, 3-0, giving up a takedown in the first period and an escape in the second. Then he began his comeback, getting two takedowns in the second period, the second coming with nine seconds to go at the edge of the mat. In the third period Jones reversed to take the lead and gave up an escape with 39 seconds to go to make the final 6-5. Today he faces unbeaten Justin Terhune of Dallastown, who is 34-0. They met earlier this year with Terhune winning 2-0.
“We’ll take two more one-point wins to get to the finals, “said Raider coach Larry Walker. “Josh did some nice things against a taller, bigger kid who used his legs well. We relaxed a little at the edge of the mat on that takedown and we’ve got to clean that up.
“But Josh didn’t panic when he got behind. He stuck to the game plan. I knew from the way Josh was attacking that the kid was getting tired and then we got the takedown and he (Hillstrom) got the stall warning, I knew we were in good shape.”
Shawver broke a long Penns Valley losing streak in the Giant Center when he pinned Brett Snyder of Mifflinburg in 1:49. Since the tournament was moved to the new building in 2003 Penns Valley was 0-10 here, four of those losses belonging to Shawver.
“It feels good to get the monkey off my back, “the Ram senior said. “Now I’ve got to win tomorrow. I have to win at least two more to place in the top eight and that’s always been my goal.”
Shawver took Snyder down but Snyder stood and turned in on him. But Shawver was able to maintain control. He reached across and trapped the far arm and powered Snyder to his back and got the fall.
“I think I might have knocked the wind out of him, “said Shawver, who meets Aaron Nestor of Reynolds, the Northwest runnerup with a record of 40-6.
“We broke the curse, “said a happy Ram coach Jeff Stover. “Preston wrestled really well. I’m as happy as when we had placewinners. Last year he had the ability to place here and it didn’t happen.”
Bosak was pinned by Tyler Nauman of Middletown in 3:51 but bounced back to beat Matt Lewis of Upper Darby, 5-4, the difference being a two-point tilt in the second period.
Homan dropped into the consolation round when he was beaten 5-0 by Mike Rappo of Council Rock South, giving up an escape and takedown in the second period and a two-point tilt in the third. But he beat Easton’s Brad Gentzle 4-2 in overtime, getting the winning points on a takedown just 21 seconds into the extra period.
Masorti lost to Derek Bennett of Upper Perkiomen, 10-8, in the preliminary round. Masorti built a 6-2 lead in the first period with a takedown, a reversal and two back points. He increased his lead to 8-4 in the second period with a pair of escapes to a takedown for Bennett. But in the final 10 seconds of the period Bennett took Masorti down to his back for a five-point move, then added an escape in the final period. In the consolation round Masorti beat Andy Keck of Elizabethtown, 7-5 in overtime, forging a tie with an escape and takedown late in the third period and then notching the winning takedown in overtime.
“I think the kids did a good job, “Benton said. “We won two bouts in overtime in the consolations, we beat Easton twice and we beat some good kids.
“Our goal was to get five kids to Friday and now our goal is to get five kids on the podium. If we can do that it would be outstanding.”
Landis Wright scored a quick takedown against Pittston’s David Woodall but gave up an escape and then was taken down with 38 seconds left in the first period. In the second period Woodall reversed Wright, caught him a cradle and got the fall in 2:36. In his consolation match Wright had an escape and takedown to beat Patrick Hutchinson of Greensburg-Salem, 3-0.
“Landis tried to cradle that kid and got caught, “Pighetti said. “When that happens you have to give up the reversal or the escape and be sure you don’t give up more than what’s there. But Landis bounced back to win.”
BEA’s David Fisher was eliminated frm the tournament after being pinned by Hempfield’s Archie McConnell in 1:20 and then losing by a 6-4 margin to A.J. Detwiler of Pennridge in the consolations.
Travis Stem of BEA was ousted by Nino San Doval of Pittsburgh Central Catholic, who beat him 12-3. In the prelims, Dan Goetter of Pennridge pinned him in 1:53.
“It’s the state tournament and when you come here sometimes you’re going to get beat by better kids, “Pighetti added. “That happened to us today. Our two guys who won looked really good. Now we have to get ready for the next round.”
Philipsburg-Osceola’s David Wood was taken out by Easton’s Braylin Williams 5-2 in the consolation round, giving up a pair of takedowns. In the preliminary round Jarrett Hostetter of Oxford beat Wood 3-2 with a first-period takedown
Wood had suffered a stinger in practice on Tuesday and according to P-O coach Dave Caslow, that was a hindrance.
“He’s a little disappointed, “Caslow said. “He tried to fight through that injury but it didn’t help his focus or his confidence. He was afraid to warm up too much because that neck is very sensitive.
“In both matches his opponents attacked him below the knees and when you get caught in those they’re hard to defend. When David gets beat on his feet he’s beaten. And this tournament has a way of making oustanding wrestlers look ordinary. But David had an oustanding year when you consider that last year he was two-and-through in the district tournament.”
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