Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Malvern’s Harkins pins down state crown
Harkins named tourney’s Outstanding Wrestler as Friars finish 2nd to Wyoming Seminary
Amidst all the chaos — frantic scrambles, emotional coaches’ corners, a passionate crowd — there rose Malvern Prep’s Dalton Harkins, quietly and calmly.
In arguably the most tense finals of the Pennsylvania Independent Schools wrestling tournament at Malvern, Saturday, it was Harkins’ cool, collected demeanor that led him to a dramatic victory, and an underwhelming reaction.
“My cousin (Mike McCorkle) told me people who celebrate didn’t expect to win,” Harkins said. “I expected to win the whole match and kept my head in the game and it ended up working out my way.”
Harkins (138 pounds) was one of six Friars to reach the finals, as Malvern finished second to Wyoming Seminary in the team standings, but the junior was the lone champion.
“My cousin told me people who celebrate didn’t expect to win. I expected to win the whole match and kept my head in the game and it ended up working out my way.” – Malvern Prep wrestler Dalton Harkins, who won the PAISAA wrestling tournament on Saturday and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding wrestler
Against Miers, who is ranked No. 10 in the country on flowrestling.org, Harkins fended off the former Easton star’s shots and countered one for a takedown in sudden victory, but it was ruled after the buzzer.
They went to tiebreaker, and after Harkins escaped in the first 30-second period, he was able to ride out Miers to survive, 2-1.
“It’s all about the mat returns,” Harkins said. “When you get them returned, it breaks them. I’m not sure if it broke (Miers), but it definitely set him back a little bit.”
Harkins and the other top-six finishers qualified to the National Prep tournament at Lehigh University next Friday and Saturday.
“After losing in the semifinals last year, I set a goal to be a national prep champ,” Harkins said. “I’ve been working towards that all year.”
A dozen Friars reached nationals with top four finishes, while Westtown School sent four and Phelps School advanced one.
Dayton DelViscio (113) was the first from Malvern to reach finals, but he was on the wrong side of a pair of takedowns against Sem’s Troy Spratley, who’s ranked No. 14 on flo, 5-2.
Freshman Jack Wehmeyer (132) knocked off second-seeded Mark Fasciocco of Germantown Academy, 7-1, in the semifinals, but ran into the No. 5 (flo) kid in the country, Beau Bartlett of Sem, who cruised, 18-5.
“It was a great experience,” Wehmeyer said. “(Bartlett) is a really good wrestler, and I’ll try to take what he does and input it into my gameplay and style.”
A month ago, freshman Andrew Connolly (152) was a backup, but due to an injury to senior Henry Hague, Connolly ended up pinning his way to the finals. There he got a taste of his own medicine against Sem’s Benny Baker, but like Wehmeyer, it was a building block for the future.
“I started off the year as a JV wrestler, so to end up in the state finals is really cool,” Connolly said. “It’s a great experience for me. Unfortunately it happened because of an injury.”
Senior Nick Florschutz earned his fourth state medal after finishing runner-up at 195. After wrestling 182 all season, the Coatesville native bumped up for the postseason in an effort to help the Friars fare better at nationals.
“I’m happy with (second) because I wrestled hard, but it’s not what I came here for,” Florschutz said. “It gave me some things to work on and get ready for next week.”
Florschutz is one of two seniors who will head to Lehigh, along with fellow runner-up Harry Stinger (220). As the elder statesman of the team, Florschutz will cap a very successful career at Malvern.
“I never thought about it much until now,” Florschutz said. “This will be the last time I get to roll around with my team and my buddies, so I’m just going to let it fly.”
Placing third for Malvern was Kyle Matheus (106), James Toal (126), Caden Rogers (145), Nick Feldman (160) and Owen Vietmeier (170), while Jake Kroger (120) took fourth.
Westtown had three fourth-place finishers — Ethan Kisiel (106), Mohammad Mustafa (113) and JP Lisi (152) — and Griffin Hankin took sixth at 126.
For Mustafa, it’s been a long journey, literally and figuratively, in his run to nationals as a senior.
“For me, I couldn’t believe it,” Mustafa said. “I’m from Saudi Arabia and started boarding (at Westtown) last year. I didn’t really even know what wrestling was. I was 0-2 at states last year, so to come back and place fourth, I didn’t realize how much I’ve grown over the last year. I was in shock.”
Lisi, a fellow senior, knocked off two opponents who beat him earlier in the season to clinch his first trip to nationals.
“To get fourth is huge,” Lisi said. “I came in thinking maybe I’d take sixth and hopefully punch my ticket to natties, but to climb the podium and take fourth is huge. When I started wrestling in eighth grade, getting to nationals by my senior year was the end goal, and to finally punch that ticket, I was so happy.”
Earning a trip to Lehigh for Phelps was Scott Gilman, who was sixth at 145.