McGuffey’s depth overwhelms Rockets
Holly Tonini
Jefferson-Morgan鈥檚 Josh Agnew and McGuffey鈥檚 Gage Nicolella flip on the mat during their 132-pound bout Wednesday at Jefferson-Morgan High School. Nicolella won by major decision, 11-1.
Jefferson-Morgan's Aaron Mylan finds himself in the grasp of McGuffey's Aaron Harris during their bout Wednesday at Jefferson-Morgan High School. Harris won the 138-pound bout by technical fall, 23-8.
Jefferson-Morgan's Gavin Teasdale flips McGuffey's Teague Nicolella during their match on Dec. 9 at Jefferson-Morgan High School. Teasdale, who was wrestling at 126, won by technical fall, 25-10. He will be wrestling at 113 in the PIAA Class AA Wrestling Championships which begin today in Hershey.
Jefferson-Morgan's Gavin Teasdale wrestles against McGuffey's Teague Nicolella on Wednesday at Jefferson-Morgan High School. Teasdale won by technical fall, 25-10.
Jefferson-Morgan鈥檚 Bill Bowlen gets a hold on McGuffey鈥檚 Colby Deemer during their regular-season 195-pound match at Jefferson-Morgan High School on Dec. 9. Bowlen pinned Deemer at 1:48. Bowlen won the 195-pound title at the Class AA Southwest Regionals this past week to earn a berth in the PIAA finals, which began on Thursday. (Photo by Holly Tonini)
JEFFERSON 鈥� Luck was not on the side of the Jefferson-Morgan wrestling squad Tuesday night against defending section champion McGuffey.
The Rockets had one of their senior captains out due to injury, the home team had to forfeit three matches and in the final six bouts J-M had to wrestle up a weight class.
With all of that against J-M, it fell to McGuffey 63-17.
鈥淲e are young and inexperienced in a lot of spots,鈥� J-M coach Mike Lesko said. 鈥淢cGuffey has 30 kids on their team and their depth is daunting. I mean, how are you supposed to matchup against a team when they have three or four kids that can wrestle in a weight class? We鈥檝e got some young kids out there and I appreciate their effort.
鈥淲e knew it was going to be a down year. We lost a lot last year due to graduation and we didn鈥檛 have the turnout I would like coming back. We have kids walking this school that didn鈥檛 come out for the team because they said it was tough.
鈥淪ome kids want things to be easy, but I won鈥檛 back down on our conditioning. I鈥檓 not going to back down on that because it鈥檚 been working for us for I don鈥檛 know how many years. Our system works and when the kids buy into that we are going to be successful. We got shellacked tonight and we have to rebound from this.鈥�
The match started at 170 and the Highlanders (1-0, 1-0) received back-to-back forfeits to Luke Shingle (170) and Connor Thompson (182).
J-M鈥檚 Billy Bowlen cut the lead in half with a first-period pin at 195.
鈥淏illy has been with us for a number of years,鈥� Lesko said. 鈥淗e鈥檚 already in mid-season form and is comfortable at 182 already. He wants to win a state title and he鈥檚 so mature about it. He knows what his goals are and he is well prepared every match. He brings the right attitude and his work ethic is unbelievable.鈥�
McGuffey responded with a first-period pin at 220 and went up 24-6 after receiving another forfeit at 285.
The Rockets made it 24-12 when Mason Palmer garnered a forfeit victory at 106.
After McGuffey stretched its lead to 36-12 with back-to-back, second-period pins, J-M鈥檚 Gavin Teasdale wrestled up at 126 and scored a 25-10 technical fall.
Both Teasdale and Bowlen were coming off first-place finishes in their respective weight classes over the weekend at the Eastern Tournament at Gateway High School.
As a team, the Rockets finished 12th out of 21 teams in the tournament.
The Highlanders won the final five bouts via a major decision at 132, a technical fall at 138 and three straight first-period pins.
McGuffey won both matches a year ago against the Rockets with a 40-35 triumph in the section opener and a 42-27 victory in the Section 2-AA Championships.
J-M will be in action at Mapletown next Wednesday at 7 p.m.