Bald Eagle Area wrestlers earn tough win over Penns Valley

WINGATE —The Bald Eagle Area wrestling team is on a roll.

The Eagles leapt out to an early 20-point lead against Penns Valley in a Mountain League meet Jan. 24 at BEA, and then had just enough left to come away with a thrilling 35-32 win over the archrival Rams.

It was the Bald Eagles’ seventh dual meet victory in a row, and it raised their overall record to 11-4. BEA lost just twice since before the holidays, both times to bigger schools, and has now won four times since going 5-1 in the BEA Duals on Jan. 7.

At first glance, this one looked like it would be easy when the Eagles built a 20-0 lead, but everyone in the gym knew that would not be so.

Lucas Holderman (132) and Garrett Rigg (138) began the night for BEA with pins over PV’s Ryan Ripka and Carter Felker. Then freshman Gage McClenahan followed with a gritty, 6-5 decision over Jared Hurd at 145, and Seth Koleno kept the Eagles’ streak going with a 16-0 technical fall over Clayton Upcraft in the 152-pound bout.

BEA at that point was firmly in control at 20-0.

“You never know,” BEA coach Ron Guenot said. “We started in the strength of our lineup in the middle, and we knew they had some tough kids coming up in their upper weights. Believe me, I didn’t feel comfortable when it was 20-0, but it was a nice place for us to start and we got some momentum early.”

The first of those tough kids for Penns Valley was Andrew Sharer at 160. He pinned Richard Taylor in just 24 seconds to put life back into the Penns Valley side.

Abraham Allebach was next with a 14-2 major decision for the Rams over Dylan Bisel at 170, and then Hunter Homan followed with a pin of Andrew Cohen at 182.

Suddenly, it was 20-16 and Penns Valley was solidly back in contention.

“You kind of knew where the runs were when we drew 132,” Penns Valley coach Joel Brinker said. “We knew we were hitting their hammers right away, and we wanted to weather that storm the best we could. You knew the upper weights could go either way, which they kind of did, but then could we reel them in on the bottom end?”

The answer to that was ultimately no, with PV being hurt by a forfeit at 113 and in the pivotal showdown between BEA’s David Close and Corey Rimmey at 195.

A three-point win at that point in the meet brought Penns Valley to within one point of a tie, but Close scored a first-period takedown and a third-period escape to tough out a 3-2 win.

“That was one of those bouts that we knew was a tossup,” Guenot said, “and he (Close) came through and wrestled a smart match for the team. We are proud of him, and he came back from a loss last Saturday. Didn’t get down on himself and kept wrestling. We needed that.”

Hunter Hockenberry, wrestling just for the second time this season at 220, followed with a pin over Dillon Covalt that restored BEA’s margin to 13 points, 29-16.

“Hunter has a bad shoulder,” Guenot said, “and he decided he was going to give it a go and he’s back with us. He hasn’t wrestled a lot, but that was another huge win for us.”

Penns Valley still didn’t go away, however. Wins by Jared Bressler at 285 and Baylor Shunk at 106 made it a six-point difference again, 29-23, but the forfeit at 113 realistically put the meet on the brink for BEA at 35-23.

Darren Yearick and Clayton Royer finished things with a decision and a pin, but both needed six points and BEA survived, 35-32.

“There were a lot of key matches,” Guenot said, “and that’s why it takes a team effort. That’s what we told the kids. If we are going to win it, the whole team is going to have to wrestle.”