Five from Delco have sights set on gold at state meet
Interboro’s Nate Shippey and Dom D’Agostino, Strath Haven’s Chase Barlow, Sun Valley’s Ryan Catka and Upper Darby’s Julien Laventure are state wrestling medalists.
That was determined last week when the quintet made it through the PIAA Class 3A East Super Regional at Quakertown High School.
Saturday they’ll find out what medals they’ll come home with when the PIAA conducts its Class 3A championships at the Giant Center in Hershey.
The meet is broken up into four sections. Weight classes 106-138 start at 8 a.m. The first session for 145285 begin at 11 a.m. The championships and consolation finals for the six lower weight classes are slated to begin at 5 p.m, with the upper weight class championships and consolation matches set to start at 8 p.m.
Shippey is one of the eight qualifiers at 126. D’Agostino and Barlow are at 152. Catka is in the 215-pound class and Laventure is at 285.
Here is a brief look at their opening round matchups:
Shippey (14-4) opens against Carter Dilbert (33-0) of Franklin Regional, who last year was third in the state tournament at 113. This is Shippey’s first trip to states.
The bracket is full of states placers from last year, a list including Tyler Kasak (fifth), Matt Repos (third), Ethan Berginic of Hempfield, who won the state title at 113 last year.
Barlow (21-2) returns to Hersey for the third year in a row. He opens the tournament with a bout against Rocco Welsh, the Waynesburg Central sophomore who last year finished second in states at 126 pounds.
D’Agostino (15-4) begins the tournament against Alejandro Herrera-Rondon, who was third in the states at 132 pounds last year. This is D’Agostino’s second straight trip to Hershey.
Ryan Catka (16-0) finished third in the state at 195 pounds last year. This is his third trip to Hersey. He opens the tournament against Cole Weightman of Belle Vernon, sixth in the state at 220 pounds last year.
In the lower end of the bracket is Jacob Lucas, who Catka defeated 4-2 (TB2) in the bout for third in the states last year.
Jason Henderson of Delaware Valley, who was fifth in states at 195 last year is in the lower end of this bracket. Catka beat him 6-5 last week in the Super Regional at Quakertown. Henderson pinned Logan Harmon of Armstrong in the fifth-place bout at states last year.
Laventure (13-2) is back at states for the second year in a row. He opens against Isaiah Vance of Hempfield, who was beaten by Hunter Catka, 11-4, in the state championship match last year. Vance is 33-1.