Beast of the East
- Thread starter BrockBronson
- Start date
145: S1/S3 Perry MFF over S2 Milheim.
Too bad -- that should've been one of the better finals matchups.
Correction: Perry forfeited to Milheim. Hopefully this is not serious -- Perry had not wrestled prior to KOM due to injury.
Too bad -- that should've been one of the better finals matchups.
Correction: Perry forfeited to Milheim. Hopefully this is not serious -- Perry had not wrestled prior to KOM due to injury.
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160: S5 Cunningham vs. Kunstek:
P1:
T2 Kunstek, 0-2.
R2 Cunningham, 2-2.
Track hilariously underscores Cunningham's score as if he has criteria.
Cunningham rides out the period, 2-2 after 1.
P2:
Cunningham takes down, E1 in 0:15, 3-2.
T2 Cunningham with 0:20 left, 5-2.
Cunningham rides out the period, 5-2 after 2.
P3:
Kunstek takes neutral. Insert Ohio State on bottom joke here.
T2 Cunningham with 5 sec left, 7-2 final.
Huge win for Cunningham. Kunstek was National Preps 4th in 2022. Was 34-1 last year for Pottsville and ranked #1 in PA AAA, but was ineligible for the postseason thanks to the PIAA transfer rules.
P1:
T2 Kunstek, 0-2.
R2 Cunningham, 2-2.
Track hilariously underscores Cunningham's score as if he has criteria.
Cunningham rides out the period, 2-2 after 1.
P2:
Cunningham takes down, E1 in 0:15, 3-2.
T2 Cunningham with 0:20 left, 5-2.
Cunningham rides out the period, 5-2 after 2.
P3:
Kunstek takes neutral. Insert Ohio State on bottom joke here.
T2 Cunningham with 5 sec left, 7-2 final.
Huge win for Cunningham. Kunstek was National Preps 4th in 2022. Was 34-1 last year for Pottsville and ranked #1 in PA AAA, but was ineligible for the postseason thanks to the PIAA transfer rules.
You're not kidding. Here are the placement matches. Other than Sipes and maybe Gautreau, I'm not sure any 3rd placers will even become D1 spot starters.
For that matter, the same could probably be said about a lot of runners-up.
I get that not every tourney can be Ironman, but this field seemed unusually weak. And noting the rankings in the tweet, that probably means a down year for PA -- rankings like these usually indicate a pretty good event.
Yes, none can be Ironman. But KOM was kind of in that tier 3, not a national level, but consistently the 3rd or 4th best tourney in PA depending on the year. If you finished top 4 at the tournament you were damn good.
Central Mountain has a nice team, but half of their lineup is pretty weak and they should not be running away from the field. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place teams are all AA, and sorry @BrockBronson but AA has some nice kids but beyond the superteams they just don't have the depth that the top AAA teams do. A few traditional teams missing - Phillipsburg (NJ), Parkersburg (WV), Council Rock South - probably some more, but that is just off the top of my head, but that hurts their depth.
I agree somewhat but there were still 54 wrestlers who placed at states according to the paper
Forest Hills used to go there too ... at least before the Gibsons transferred to McCort.
Yes, another AA team, but one that did crank out some good wrestlers.
BEA went from 11th last year to 2nd. Mifflin County went from 15th to 6th. They didn't get that much stronger in 1 year.
Schools that attended last year but not this year:
- Phillipsburg NJ
- Burrell
- Franklin Regional
- Northern Lebanon
- Thomas Jefferson
- Hickory
- General McLane
- Strath Haven
- Seneca Valley
Schools that attended last year but not this year:
- Phillipsburg NJ
- Burrell
- Franklin Regional
- Northern Lebanon
- Thomas Jefferson
- Hickory
- General McLane
- Strath Haven
- Seneca Valley
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Mifflin County is actually down quite a bit from last year. The tournament definitely wasn't as deep as it usually is.
Dice, can we have a sidebar without killing the thread topic? If so, why doesn't Neshaminy produce more quality wrestlers?
Looking around you are right. AAA still has that depth for sure. Take away the mega teams and AA is about where it usually is. I can’t disagree with this.
I know this is not what you are asking, but the Number 1 Guy in the Country at 133 is technically a Neshaminy Product
I guess you could say that. But Ryan hasn't lived there since what 7th grade? And I don't think he was ever going to Neshaminy.
On @Agoodnaps question...
You could say that about both Pennsbury and Neshaminy over the last 20 years. Very big school districts, had some very good runs, especially Neshaminy in the late 70s and 80s. But when youth wrestling started to change about 20 years ago - the demise of the Bux-Mont, the rise of the clubs - those two schools never adapted. You couldn't just rely on huge numbers in your middle school programs to develop high-end guys anymore. It also didn't help that their chief rival, Council Rock, split and probably the best coach - in reality, the best coaching tandem - in the history of District One took the helm at CR South and also ran the top club in the area. Now, they also have Conwell Egan pulling kids out of their district with Pennsbury alum Chuckie Connor at the helm.
It's not that hard of a question to answer. It all comes back to coaching. They just don't have the coaching resources of their neighbors to the north. You just need to look at CR South, they've got ex-D1 wrestlers and loads of alumni coaching their youth program, multiple D1 NQs cycling through their HS coaching staff along with many high-level alums, tremendous support in terms of alum, fans, and finances. CR North might be a step behind, but they still have Kindig coming down and working with their wrestlers. That's pretty much what you need to churn out high-level guys consistently and not just once in a while nowadays. Because the days of kids entering your school district at kindergarten and staying till they graduate no matter what are long over. When people have better options, they take them.
I agree on Crookham not ever going to Neshaminy but considering his dad ran the youth program where he started wrestling I feel that the Neshaminy youth program can claim him
North has put out several really good D1 caliber wrestlers in recent years (e.g. Hauserman, Cam Robinson). Eren Sement currently is a stud.
North and South share their feeder program - CRWA - which is pretty unique, I think.
Sement is not a product of the system. He moved in at the start of 9th grade.
Under that theory, shouldn't Shamokin claim the Garcia brothers?
Any relation to mount Carmel state champ Garcia I wonder of course that was quite a few years ago
Over the years most top wrestlers made a move somewhere in their wrestling career. This isn’t nothing new and will never change. D4 has this going on every year. The current stars in D4 all made moves. Can’t blame their folks for wanting the best for them. (Milheim’s, Harers, Wirnsberger, Garica’s, Zachman’s, Wentzel’s, etc)
My folks moved several times for me in HS. Granted, they were trying to get AWAY from the competition.
Didnt help.
Damn time flies. I remember watching old man Garcia at districts regionals and states.
Perhaps this belongs in the 'best district' thread, but being an old District 1 guy, I might point out that 4 of the top 12 teams at the Beast were District 1 teams, including #2 and #3. And if you go down the list of team placement, you'll see that the first two non-private/catholic schools on the list were CR South and Quakertown HS, #10 and #12.
Allow me to again throw shade on FLO. The best match of the day, IMO, was Rath vs Gaj --- with amazing flashes of funk and fast, hard moves. Gaj only rode Rath for 1:59 in the 3rd. One more second and he was champ.
But right in the middle of this terrific bout, FLO flashes its logo on the screen and it cuts away to that for several seconds. I was standing, attacking my monitor when they brought back the Rath/Gaj match.
One more thing. Faith Christian Academy placed 2nd in the tournament, and they were without Gage Botero, who probably would have been seeded first.
That team is loaded.
Allow me to again throw shade on FLO. The best match of the day, IMO, was Rath vs Gaj --- with amazing flashes of funk and fast, hard moves. Gaj only rode Rath for 1:59 in the 3rd. One more second and he was champ.
But right in the middle of this terrific bout, FLO flashes its logo on the screen and it cuts away to that for several seconds. I was standing, attacking my monitor when they brought back the Rath/Gaj match.
One more thing. Faith Christian Academy placed 2nd in the tournament, and they were without Gage Botero, who probably would have been seeded first.
That team is loaded.
They will set the PIAA scoring records the next couple of postseasons. In some of the experts opinions, is their team one of the best PA teams ever?
In my pedestrian and ancient viewpoint, I religiously hang on to those past icons of great teams that weren't amalgamations of superstars but were homegrown, mostly.
No one but me remembers Loch Haven, 1961. That was the one and done era, so only 1 kid per weight class from each of 4 regions qualified for states. There were a total of 48 state qualifiers. LH had 4 state champs, including Mike Johnson, then considered PA's GOAT. All of those champs plus a 5th LH wrestler were All-Americans in college. One year 2 LH kids wrestled for 3rd against each other in the NCAA championships -- Gary Cook and Jerry Swope were 2 absolute studs and multiple AA's.
In the late '80s, North Allegheny fielded a super team featuring Ty Moore and Ray Brinzer, along with some other guys like Ken Bauer and Jamie Kyriasiz. They dominated for years. In the 00's, Central Dauphin had its day, followed by maybe the last true semi-homegrown super team: Franklin Regional with Lord Spencer and a cast of thousands.
So if FCA is one of the best teams in PIAA history, I'm damn impressed. They've got a lot to live up to.
that Franklin Regional team had Devin Brown, Spencer Lee, Dominic Giannangeli, Michael Kemerer, Josh Maruca and Josh Shield that is one loaded team for a Public school. Don't think it is appropriate to compare Private and Public, I for one am sick of hearing about FCA. Thanks for mentioning North Allegheny, I barely recall them but that team was loaded. .
Northampton had a really loaded team in the early 2000's, led by the Eckloff brothers, Haines and Oplinger.
Now you've struck a nerve. Haines and Oplinger by themselves were the two most boring state champs in PIAA history. The next offensive move they make will be their first. Loved Joey, wasn't wild about Jeff. Joey was up there for me with Q Wright as the most happy-go-lucky wrestler. There was always a smile on his face. But the rest of the team was boring. I used to attend those crazy Northampton/Easton duals: one team would win the regular dual then lose the district dual the next week.
I traveled to a lot of those duals back in the day. The atmosphere was electric.
Back then Northampton and Easton seemed to alternate winning states year after year, only for Nazareth to squeeze one in there every now and then.
yes, their duals were electric. One year the late January dual was sold out in early December. My friend and I went up without tickets, got there before the JV match started. My friend found the Northampton coach and bummed tickets from him.
I was standing in line to buy a hot dog when some wrestler walked by us and was saying, "Did you hear, a couple of old geezers drove all the way up from Philly, so coach gave them some tickets."
The place was of course, packed. I was watching the meet when I saw the two guys sitting behind me were kids I had coached for years and years. One had gotten a full ride to Villanova. (The wrestling part lasted one year. Attach whatever Jon DuPont stories you'd like to that one.) So two young geezers had also driven up from Philly to see the meet.
yes, their duals were electric. One year the late January dual was sold out in early December. My friend and I went up without tickets, got there before the JV match started. My friend found the Northampton coach and bummed tickets from him.
I was standing in line to buy a hot dog when some wrestler walked by us and was saying, "Did you hear, a couple of old geezers drove all the way up from Philly, so coach gave them some tickets."
The place was of course, packed. I was watching the meet when I saw the two guys sitting behind me were kids I had coached for years and years. One had gotten a full ride to Villanova. (The wrestling part lasted one year. Attach whatever Jon DuPont stories you'd like to that one.) So two young geezers had also driven up from Philly to see the meet.
Sorry, but I can't hold it. I wasn't a big Jeff Ecklof fan, but he had the funniest win I ever saw. It was a state quarter or semi against a really good kid, maybe Baglio from Redland, someone like that. It was an even, low scoring bout -- Ecklof was good at those against good opponents. It went into overtime. The first OT period began, and Ecklof just stood there. The other kid looked at him, confused and stood there, too. The ref didn't know what was going on, so after a while he blew his whistle and called stalling on both wrestlers. But Baglio(?) had a stall call carried over and Ecklof got the point and the win. I laughed for a week.
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