The Blues continue to show significant growth from their young team. Two years ago, only three wrestlers placed in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Wrestling Tournamant (PAISWT) and we had one sixth and two seventh place finishes. Last year had a small improvement as the team had three eighth place finishers and one third place finish. This year, the Blues had seven of our eleven wrestlers enter and place in the top seven!
Jay Knighton ’10 made it to the finals of PAISWT by pinning Trevor Lehroy of Westtown in the first period. In finals, Jay had a rematch with Malvern heavyweight, Joe Ditrolio. Last time they met, Jay lost a heartbreaker in overtime. This match followed a similar pattern, ending as a tie in regulation. Neither wrestler could manage a takedown in the extra period and the match went to rideouts. Jay successfully escaped from Ditrolio during his period, but Ditrolio was able to reverse Jay to earn the victory. Joining Jay in the finals was Colin Saunders '12 who beat Dan Traficanti of The Kiski School for the state championship.
Steele Phillips ’09 and Kyle Place ’09 finished fourth at the tournament at 135 lbs. and 215 lbs. respectively. Steele went 2-2 during the tournament and matched his seeding to finish fourth. Kyle also finished fourth, but had to defeat third seed Dan Devine of Malvern to do so. Unfortunately, during his third place match Kyle cramped up while taking down his opponent and was pinned in the process.
Jack Sullivan ’11 wrestled an excellent tournament going 4-2 to finish in fifth place. Jack showed great stamina and heart throughout the state tourney.
Tyler Mueller ’10 and Karl "Wiz" Wiszumerski ’11 were placed into extremely tough brackets, but wrestled extremely well over the two-day event. Wiz had to battle back from a first round defeat and went 3-2 to take seventh place. Tyler lost a hard fought battle in a rematch against Kevin Eberly of Haverford. After the loss, Tyler bounced back and pinned Dan Kurnick of Friends Central to finish in seventh place.
The team finished in seventh place overall, just passing Chestnut Hill in the final round, but unable to catch Episcopal Academy. The Blues also stayed ahead of MAPL competition Mercersburg who finished tenth. Congratulations to Wyoming Seminary who won the tournament.