Blue Ridge’s Adam Roe and Montrose’s Cole Aukema each reached the finals before settling for second place in the District 2 Class 2A Wrestling Championships Saturday at the Kingston Armory.
Montrose finished seventh in the 15-team field in team scoring with 106 points.
Honesdale beat out Lake-Lehman, 225-186, for the title.
Blue Ridge was 12th with 53 points and Mountain View was 14th with 13. Elk Lake was the only team in the field not to score a point.
Roe was pinned by Hanover Area’s D.J. Erickson in 3:40 of the 145-pound final. He won by major decision in the quarterfinals then beat Montrose’s Mikyle Fabrizio, 3-1, in the semifinals.
Aukema lost to Lackawanna Trail’s Owen Hivner, 9-1, in the 170-pound final. He got to the final with a pair of pins, including one in the first period of the quarterfinals.
The top three wrestlers in each weight class advanced to Northeast Regionals.
Montrose had three wrestlers advance while Blue Ridge had two.
Joseph Hester and Makeela Fabrizio made it for Montrose while Nathaniel McArthur advanced for Blue Ridge with third-place finishes.
Hester pinned Ethan Chokshi from Honesdale in 57 seconds in the consolation final at 126.
Makeela Fabrizio edged Robin Wrobleski from Wyoming Area, 2-1, at 138. He came back from a 3-1 loss to Western Wayne’s Matthew Leslie in the quarterfinals to win three straight times to make it to regionals.
Andrew Rosevear placed fourth for the Meteors, falling to Honesdale’s Peter West, 9-1, in the consolation final at 113.
Montrose had seven wrestlers receive medals for top-six finishes.
Mikyle Fabrizio (145) and Bryan Ryan (182) were fifth while Justin Kelly (220) was sixth.
The Meteors had five wrestlers reach the semifinals, but suffered four losses in that round, including one-point decisions by Rosevear and two-pointers by Hester and Mikyle Fabrizio to stop each short of the final.
Blue Ridge’s McArthur got third at 120 by shutting out his last two opponents by a total of 19-0.
Teammate Thomas Gudykunst placed fifth at 160.
Barry Spriggs was fifth for Mountain View at 120.
All nine Elk Lake wrestlers went 0-2. Cam Welsh was the most competitive, dropping a pair of decisions by a total of five points.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Elk Lake players get ready for their District 2 Class 2A boys basketball semifinal Saturday against Northwest. The Warriors lost to Northwest on a basket with 13 seconds left.
SCRANTON – Elk Lake shook off a slow start at Scranton High School Saturday afternoon to carry a lead into the final minute of the District 2 Class 2A boys’ basketball semifinal.
Sam Saxe hit a jump hook on the move in the lane with 13 seconds left and an Elk Lake miss in the final seconds allowed Northwest to advance to the championship game with a 46-45 victory.
Northwest jumped out to an 18-10 lead with 2:57 left in the first quarter by hitting six of its first seven shots and getting 12 of Jaxson Yaple’s 22 points.
The Warriors toughened up defensively from there, allowing just six points in the final 10:57 of the half, then three points in a 6:58 stretch of the second half that they used to erase a nine-point deficit.
“We put ourselves in a situation early, giving up 18 points, which really leaves us behind,” Elk Lake coach Richard Emmons said. “I thought in the second quarter and all through the second half, we did a nice job of containing them.
“They hit some shots and put us in spots where we had some untimely turnovers all throughout the game.”
Elk Lake moved in front for the first time since 9-8 when Joe McAleer scored from in the lane with 4:23 left for a 40-39 lead.
The Warriors held the lead until Saxe hit the game-winner.
Yaple’s steal and three-point play with 59 seconds left brought the Rangers within one point and led to the winner.
“We didn’t shoot very many free throws,” Emmons said. “We only shot (four) on the game, so our defense definitely kept us in the game because we weren’t getting to the line, we weren’t getting to the basket to get some easy points.”
Rierdan Reyan had 14 points to lead Elk Lake.
Nate Preston added 11 points. Kobe Jayne grabbed eight rebounds. Kevin Valvano hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter to help keep the Warriors from getting blown out early and finished with team-highs of four assists and three steals.
By falling to third-seeded Northwest, Elk Lake, the second seed, finished 13-11.
“The season was a lot of ‘what-ifs’,” Emmons said. “We struggled this season with keeping people healthy. We lost our second-leading scorer and probably our best defender to an injury in January. We had a lot of illness, but we still continued to put a competitive team out there.
“As a coach, I was happy to see that next-up mentality.”
Elk Lake was the only county team to win a game in the first week of the District 2 boys’ tournament.
Susquehanna had a bye in the District 2-11 Class A Subregional while Montrose in Class 3A and Blue Ridge, Mountain View and Forest City were all eliminated in the quarterfinals in Class 2A.
Elk Lake knocked Forest City out, 54-47, in Wednesday’s quarterfinals at Tunkhannock.
Reyan had 21 points in the win, including eight in the fourth quarter.
Preston added 13, Drew Arnold 10 and Valvano nine.
The Warriors made just enough free throws, going 10-for-18 in the fourth quarter and 20-for-35 in the game.
Forest City cut a 14-6 deficit after one quarter to 27-26 at halftime.
Dakota Knehr-Cook hit three of his four 3-pointers and scored 11 of his 20 points in the second quarter. Noah Yates had six of his 14 points during the second.
Elk Lake again held Forest City to six points in the third quarter, opening the lead to 40-32.
In the other Class 2A quarterfinals, top-seed and defending champion Holy Cross defeated Blue Ridge, 63-34, and Old Forge eliminated Mountain View, 56-47.
Tyler Mozeleski had 21 points for Holy Cross.
Misael Arzola-Velez led Blue Ridge with 10 points.
Brandon Nee led Old Forge with 19 points.
Mountain View got 13 points from Alex Showalter and 10 from Mikey Schermerhorn.
Defending champion Holy Redeemer knocked out Montrose, 64-49, in Class 3A.
Collin Cook scored 24 points, including 11 in the decisive third quarter, to lead the Royals.
Montrose cut a 19-9 deficit after one quarter to 29-26 at halftime.
Andrew Rapisardi, who finished with 17 points, and Jacob Peck, who added 11, each scored six in the second quarter for the Meteors.
The Royals used a 24-10 advantage in the third quarter to open a 17-point lead.
In girls’ basketball, Forest City pulled off an upset in the District 2-11 Class A Subregional beating third-seeded Salem Christian, 41-25.
The Lady Foresters trailed, 8-7, after one quarter.
Forest City then outscored Salem Christian, 26-11, over the middle quarters to take leads of 23-13 at halftime and 33-19 going into the fourth quarter.
Susquehanna, which had a bye in the same tournament, and Forest City were the only two Susquehanna County girls’ teams to make it through the first week of playoffs.
Mountain View was the other to get a win, beating Lackawanna Trail, 53-42, Feb. 20 in Class 2A before falling to Northwest, 44-36, in Friday’s semifinals.
Erika Freely hit three 3-pointers while finishing with 13 points and 8 rebounds against Lackawanna Trail. Sydney Newhart added 12 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 4 assists.
The Lady Eagles tried rallying from a 28-14 halftime deficit Friday night in Berwick, but fell short against Northwest.
Freely finished with 12 points.
Brenna Babcock led Mountain View with 22.
Wyoming Seminary eliminated Elk Lake, 47-23, in the quarterfinals.
Holy Redeemer defeated Montrose, 57-36, Wednesday in the Class 3A quarterfinals.
The defending champion Lady Royals jumped out to a 23-10 lead after one quarter.
Annalise Ely led the Lady Meteors with 10 points.
In boys’ swimming, Zach Shields from Elk Lake finished third in Class 2A when District 2 held the diving portion of its championships Saturday in Wilkes-Barre.
COLLEGE CORNER
A half-court shot by Meghan Gilhool was not enough to save Western New England, which had its season come to an end Thursday night with a 77-60 loss to the top-seeded University of New England in the Commonwealth Coast Conference semifinals in Biddeford, Maine.
Gilhool’s basket at the end of the first quarter kept Western New England within 21-18.
Western New England, coached by Nicole Chaszar, who like Gilhool is a Montrose graduate, finished 17-10.
Gilhool had 12 points in a 64-49 quarterfinal win over Salve Regional and 7 points in the season finale.
The junior guard started all 27 games. She averaged 7.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists. She hit 40.4 percent of her shots from the floor, 39.2 percent from 3-point range and 66.7 percent from the line.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Susquehanna and Forest City will once again open the weekend series of championship games at Mohegan Sun Arena when they meet for the District 2 Class A girls’ basketball title Thursday at 4 p.m.
Both teams were also in the semifinals of the District 2-11 Class A Subregional. If they both won semifinals Tuesday, the game would also become the subregional championship.
If one of the District 2 teams won in the semifinals but is meeting a District 11 team for the subregional title, that game will be played Friday.
Susquehanna entered the week with a 19-3 record. Forest City was 9-14.
In boys’ basketball, Susquehanna and MMI Prep (6-16) will play for the District 2 Class A championship Friday at 2 p.m. at Mohegan Sun Arena.
The game will be the second in less than 24 hours for the Sabers who took a 14-8 record into Monday’s District 2-11 Class A Subregional semifinal. Depending on Monday’s result, the Sabers will play Thursday night, either in the subregional championship game or in a third-place game for the final state tournament berth.
In boys’ and girls’ swimming, the District 2 Championships are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Wyoming Valley Catholic Youth Center in Wilkes-Barre.
Elk Lake competes in Class 2A, which begins competition at 11 a.m. each day. Friday schedule is the 200-yard medley relay, followed by the 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 200 freestyle relay. Saturday’s first race is the 100 freestyle, followed by the 500 freestyle, 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke and 400 freestyle relay.
In wrestling, the Class 2A Northeast Regionals are scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Williamsport.
Montrose’s Hester, Makeela Fabrizio and Aukema and Blue Ridge’s McArthur and Roe will be among the competitors, who will wrestle one round Friday night.
The rest of the tournament will be held Saturday and will determine four state qualifiers in each weight class.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com and followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
