Kids and Golden Hawks advance
Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic cruise into quarterfinals
HERSHEY — Boyertown wrestlers, like several squads at this weekend's PIAA team duals, dyed their hair blonde.
The Bears' chances of pulling off an upset of defending champion Bethlehem Catholic died long before Golden Hawks junior 182-pounder Tavion Banks made his season debut.
Kenny Herrmann, Matt Lackman, Jamir Jiminez and Cole Handlovic posted consecutive falls in the middle of coach Jeff Karam's potent lineup as the Golden Hawks scored the match's first 48 points and rolled to 57-9 victory Thursday night at the Giant Center.
Northampton also cruised into today's quarterfinals with a 64-9 rout of Districts 4-9 champion Selinsgrove.
Banks picked up a fall in 1 minute, 48 seconds for Bethlehem Catholic (12-1). Not bad for someone with three practices under his belt.
“It's like riding a bike,” Banks said. “You never forget how to ride a bike.”
Banks, who last wrestled on March 3 in the 2018 Northeast Regional tournament, needed only 15 seconds to get his first takedown of 2019.
Like many of his teammates, he barely broke a sweat. Banks, a star running back on the Golden Hawks football team, knows that will change as this tournament moves on.
“I've got to get reacclimated to the mat and build my stamina for
sure,” he added. “Practice with a good group of kids definitely helps get me better, prepares me for these matches.”
Jiminez took advantage of his latest opportunity. The sophomore is behind the nation’s top-ranked 145-pounder in Ryan Anderson in Bethlehem Catholic’s lineup, so the chances don’t come often.
He improved to 10-0 this year with his second-period fall.
“It feels great,” Jiminez said. “I patiently waited and got the job done. I practiced hard for weeks. It was great going out there competing with the guys.”
Karam was thrilled with the dedication and effort showed by Banks, Jiminez and many of their teammates. But the Golden Hawks coach said he will challenge others to be better focused and prepared for Saturday’s quarterfinal at 2 p.m. against Seneca Valley.
“I thought Matt Mayer looked really flat,” he said. “That’s lesson learned. You have to come out here and be ready to roll. Matt knows what I expect of him. He’s a returning state medalist, and I didn’t like his performance tonight.
“I’m going to make sure that he has a better performance tomorrow because we are going to need him to step up.”
Bethlehem Catholic lost only one bout on the mat (it forfeited at 195), but Karam was equally pleased with Jarius Rosado after his 5-3 setback at 220 to Boyertown’s Jacob Miller.
Miller is ranked third in the state according to papowerwrestling.com, but could not dominate Rosado.
“One I was happy was for Jarius,” Karam said. “That kid beat [Bethlehem Catholic’s] Joey Kurtz a few weeks ago, and, man, Jarius is getting better and better.
“To have a good team, to have a state championship team or one that contends for a state title, you need those guys, the Jarius Rosados.”
Northampton had six pins in the first eight matches, including Mike Kistler’s at 160 to clinch the match against Selinsgrove — which didn’t get a takedown until the ninth bout.
Sam Hanley (120), Blaise Wagner (126), Julian Chlebove (138), Jagger Condomitti (145), Erik Schreck (152) and Hunter Werkheiser (285) also had falls for Northampton (19-3), which faces District 3 champion Cedar Cliff in today’s quarterfinals at 2.
“Starting at the bottom and getting those bonus points was good to get us rolling,” Konkrete Kids coach Seth Lisa said.
Cedar Cliff took out District 7 third seed Canon-McMillan 4316 with a stellar, aggressive effort.
“Looks like [Cedar Cliff] is putting it on a pretty good Canon-McMillan team,” Lisa added. “Our team has been grinding it out all year long. It’s not a scary idea to be in a close dual meet. That’s part of the reason why we set a schedule up where we have our kids in big matches all year.
“Our conference gives us high-level matches, so, hopefully, they are prepared for the good fight.”
Alex Hanley picked up a technical fall at 113 for Northampton. His older brother, Sam, returned to the lineup after Monday’s preliminary-round match against Central Dauphin with an injury.
Ethan Szerencsits (132) and Jayden Bortz (195) added majors for the Konkrete Kids.