Brown wins 100th
Liberty standout enjoys milestone in front of home crowd
As a career grinder in brutal weight classes, Liberty’s Travis Brown was due something favorable.
The senior 132-pounder found that in Friday night’s Northeast Regional Class 3A wrestling tournament quarterfinal.
“I had extra motivation because everything lined up perfectly,” Brown said. “It was my last match of the day. It’s the last time I’ll be wrestling in my home gym. I got on the Liberty mat in front of the Liberty crowd.”
Brown delivered a 17-2 technical fall in 4 minutes, 40 seconds over Archbishop Wood’s Connor Eck for his 100th career win. It followed a 101-second pin in the first round at Liberty’s Memorial Gym. “It was an extra thing in my head,” Brown added. “I wanted to reach the semis, plus you don’t want to loss and be stuck at 99.”
Brown said he’ll enjoy tonight’s milestone with his family and friends, then move onto Saturday’s semifinals. He’ll need the stars to align again as he faces Northampton two-time state champion Julian Chlebove in the semifinals.
Chlebove won the previous two matchups in the District 11 team duals and last weekend’s District 11 individual tournament.
Brown knows the challenge he faces, but like all of the other matchups he’s had against other state-level opponents, he looks forward to them.
“I’ve proven that I’m right there with most of these kids,” he said. “I’m not going to complain.
“I’ve always used it as extra motivation to get better over the summer.”
Brown isn’t the only area
wrestler set to battle a familiar foe. There are four weight classes that will feature all-District 11 semifinals: 113, 120, 132 and 138.
District 11 was 47-11 in the first round and advanced 41 competitors to the final four of their respective weight classes.
Stroudsburg’s Patrick Noonan is doing everything he can to stay focused the challenged directly in front of him, but thinking of making it back to the 126-pound final against East Stroudsburg South’s Patrick Gould, who beat him in last Saturday’s district final. Noonan received input from Mountaineers coach Sean Richmond, teammates, friends, family members and …
“My gym teacher [Jeff Husick] was giving me advice,” Noonan said with a laugh. “He wrestled at Lock Haven. He’s a funny guy.
“Last weekend showed me everything I need to do this weekend. It showed me a lot of things I need to do better as far as technique goes.
“One by one. One match at a time.”
Noonan must beat three-time District 2 champion David Krokowski in Saturday’s semifinal before he can focus solely on Gould again.
Team race
Again, five EPC programs represent the top of the standings. Northampton (8 in semis, 3 in consolations) lead with 82 points. Bethlehem Catholic (8, 1) is right there with 80.5. Liberty (6, 4), Nazareth (5, 4) and Stroudsburg (4, 2) round out the top five.
Fun matches
Easton’s Braxton Appello used a five-point move in the final 15 seconds to secure his spot in the 106-pound semis with a 10-4 win over West Scranton’s Austin Fashouer. He’ll face District 12 champion Sean Logue, who beat Northampton’s Ryan Stilgenbauer 10-8 in overtime in the quarters. … Nazareth’s Sean Pierson allowed the first takedown to Father Judge’s Eamonn Logue, then regrouped for a 9-4 win to reach the 120 semis. … Pocono Mountain East’s Steven Storm found himself on his back 15 seconds into his 138 quarterfinal against District 12 champion Jared Johnson of Roman Catholic. However, the junior recovered and held on for an 8-7 win to set up another matchup with Northampton’s Devon Britton in the semis.
Female presence
Tatyana Ortiz, who replaced a scratched wrestler as the District 12’s fifth seed, picked up a pin in 59 seconds in the 106-pound consolation round.
Ortiz was a 2018 qualifier, losing to Bethlehem Catholic’s Matt Mayer in the first round on her way to an 0-2 showing.
She’ll wrestle Stroudsburg’s Josh Jasionowicz, a replacement for scratched Andreo Ferraina of Nazareth as the District 11 fifth seed, in Saturday’s second-round consolations.
Saturday’s schedule change
Second-round consolations are at 10:30 a.m., followed by semifinals and third-round consolations at noon. Fourth-round consolations (the blood round) is at 2 p.m., before the parade of champions at 5:50 and the medal matches (first, third and fifth place) at 6. Top four advance to the PIAA championships March 7-9 at Hershey’s Giant Center.