Thanks. I think you're right. Two guys beat out the defending state champ on their team, one lost at regionals the other won states. Thanks to tullfan for clarifying. For the rest of you, this is probably more detail/discussion than you're interested in!!
PA HS Wrestling thread
- Thread starter El-Jefe
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LOL when a kid win states then doesn't make the team the next yr thats pretty big news!cant remember those other kid's names but they were damn good!
According to oldcougar, Grinell was the champ in 1966 that got beat out in 1967 by Osbourne who was a state champ that year, and another wrestler (unnamed) who qualified for regionals that year as well. I think we've beat this poor horse enough. Still, in the age before all the school transferring, very impressive to have 1 state champ get beaten out by 2 other wrestlers on their team.
heres another good story from back in the 70s 2 kids from district 10 harrison from mclane and dave daniels from Iroquois they wrestled in the finals of districts regions and state finals Daniels won the first 2 but Harrison won states just saw that Dave has passed and reminded me on those great matches!
no sorry I am drawing a blank on them but CP had some real good teams back then I went to and wrestled for Erie East we had some pretty good teams as well Fletcher Carr and a heavy that won states but was only a freshman when I was a senior!ahhh for the good old days!
Another similar instance happened in D10 just a few years ago. Cody Mulligan from Saegertown and Julian Gorring from Fort LeBouef wrestled each other in the section, district, regional and state finals. Except in this instance, Mulligan won all 4 matches firmly and decisively. I remember Cody’s dad Jim just sitting back in his coaching chair and relaxing with a slight grin watching every finals match they had.
Also, I just cross referenced that story with PA-Wrestling’s website (awesome resource btw) and it was Tim Harrison from GM who topped Dave in the finals 4-2 in ‘76. Dave had beaten him in the region consi finals in ‘75, but Tim made the Class B state finals (2 of his 3 matches were won by 1pt) before being pinned by Bob Harris from North Schuylkill whereas Dave didn’t place.
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In '64, Terry Magoon, a Strong Vincent 103 kid made the finals, a great bout he lost to Sherm Hostler of Newport. I loved Magoon's uniform, and when my coach said I could design next year's uniforms, I kinda copied Erie Strong Vincent's.
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Perhaps all 4 rounds is uncommon (partly because not every district holds sectionals), but the last 3 is not all that unusual -- it happened twice last year: AA 113 (Branden Wentzel vs. Gavin Bradley) and AAA 285 (Sean Kinney vs. Matt Cruise).
Bradley still had my favorite celebration of any state champion, at Hershey of all time. Go Gavin!
my older brother wrestled magoon and also tim Mcall in a few close matches but back in the day 1 and done after my brother grad he did go on to win the state title in some big ymca tourney!he ws also 2nd in states in the 2 mile run his senior yr and became a top rate power lifter quite an athlete!
My older brother wrestled Sherm Hostler back in '66 and went right out and took him down! (Then got pinned)
In 1973 (last year of single class PIAA championships, Greg Duke of Manheim Township and John Malles of Hempfield (D3) were in opposite brackets and reached the semi-finals where, if they both won, they would have met for what I remember to be at least the sixth time that 1972-73 season - dual meet, Christmas tournament, sectional, district and regional finals prior to states. Duke pulled out a pin while losing but Malles was injured in his semi match and lost the rather large lead he had prior to the injury.
People are pulling out names I had forgotten, but they all came back to me. Tim McCall was in the same weight class as my older brother at states. My brother lost in the semi's on riding time to a kid from Kittanning Then McCall won the finals.
I was at an open tourney with Dana Luckenbaugh in the late '60s. I heard he had decked Sherm Hostler at a x-mas tournament during the '66 season so I asked him about it. Dana told me it was in OT and he was lucky. Hostler was terrific. Luckenbaugh was a monster. He won states at 112, beat my little brother in the regional finals. My brother dropped from about 140. Luckenbaugh made him look like a midget. The next year at this open tourney, Dana was wrestling 115. I asked what weight he dropped from. He said, '118'. He was wrestling his natural weight and he was the biggest 112 pounder I ever saw.
matter7172 mentioned Duke and Malles. I had moved to District 3 in the early 70's, so saw them wrestle in Districts, Regions, and States. I always kinda liked Duke.
I was at an open tourney with Dana Luckenbaugh in the late '60s. I heard he had decked Sherm Hostler at a x-mas tournament during the '66 season so I asked him about it. Dana told me it was in OT and he was lucky. Hostler was terrific. Luckenbaugh was a monster. He won states at 112, beat my little brother in the regional finals. My brother dropped from about 140. Luckenbaugh made him look like a midget. The next year at this open tourney, Dana was wrestling 115. I asked what weight he dropped from. He said, '118'. He was wrestling his natural weight and he was the biggest 112 pounder I ever saw.
matter7172 mentioned Duke and Malles. I had moved to District 3 in the early 70's, so saw them wrestle in Districts, Regions, and States. I always kinda liked Duke.
Some mentions of Sherm Hostler -- he had a terrific career -- went to States 3 times-- 2nd at 95 as a FR, 1st at 103 as a SO, and 2nd at 112 as a SR.
Newport, the pride of Perry County, produced 3 other state champs
The great Cedar Cliff coach Bob Craig coached at Newport prior to coming to coach the Colts in wrestling and football.
Newport, the pride of Perry County, produced 3 other state champs
1966 | Hostler, Sherm | 3 | 3 | |
1993 | Jones, Damian | 3 | 3 | |
1985 | Seiber, Juan | 2 | 2 | |
2001 | Smith, Adam | 3 | 3 |
The great Cedar Cliff coach Bob Craig coached at Newport prior to coming to coach the Colts in wrestling and football.
Actually, Zook took 3rd twice. He went to Millersville and won their version of Nationals. It went like this. So happened, I saw these bouts. Zook, Newport d. Helmuth, Chambersburg in the Region finals. Opposite brackets at states. Zook knocked off in the semi's. Helmuth wins states. Then Helmuth went to Gettysburg and won Nationals.
I was going to bring up Zook as a college DIII champ. And you're correct, Helmuth did win DIII at Gettyburg. Add in Eric Mast from Mechanicsburg who won a DIII championship for Elizabethtown College and you had another guy in District 3 lightweights who didn't win states but did win a DIII title.
I used to play racquetball with Zook's college roommate. He was something of a madman. I brought up Helmuth 'cause he was Gburg's 2nd champ. I was on the team with our 2x College Division champ, Joe Bavaro. He also placed 2nd in Division 1 twice.
Still find this stat stunning for Lower Dauphin, a very good wrestling school over the years:
10 appearances in the PIAA finals, 0 Champions
10 appearances in the PIAA finals, 0 Champions
1972 | Foreman, Fred | 1 | 1 |
| ||||||||
1964 | Kahler, Randy | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
1998 | Koser, Kurt | 1 | 1 |
| ||||||||
1999 | Lininger, Jacob | 2 | 1 | |||||||||
1973 | Mutek, Tom | 1 | 1 |
| ||||||||
1973 | Neiswender, Ed | 1 | 1 |
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1964 | Rhone, Jim | 1 | 1 |
| ||||||||
1973 | Stauffer, Mark | 1 | 1 |
| ||||||||
2020 | Ulrey, Clayton | 4 | 3 |
That Lower Dauphin team of 1964 was spectacular. 95 thru 138, every one was super-sized. And add a few big time upper weights and you had a team. They came to an x-mas tourney we were at and took 4 or 5 weight classes. But Randy Kahler, state 2nd in '62 met our guy in the finals. Our guy came to the tourney with a 0-1 record and no varsity experience. Qtrs: decked a Section champ; semi's: beat a District champ in OT; Finals: decked Randy Kahler in OT. A good start to a varsity career.
Was the X-mas tourney you reference at Williamsport? If so, my recollection is that LD bested a very good Hughesville team headed up by Frantz, Snyder, Van Dine, etc.
Losing three consecutive finals matches in 1973 was probably the most heartbreaking. Mutek got barely edged out and then it got ugly. Al Fisher hit what seemed like a hundred duckunders on Stauffer and Neiswender (Easy Rider was his nickname iirc) got ridden by future PSU Jerry White and all three had fallen.
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I'll defer to @oldcougar65 on some of this, but I believe the holiday tournament in 1964 was at Upper Darby (and I attended with some junior high buddies). To a D-1 crowd, Lower Dauphin was amazingly good. Who are these guys....
| 98 | Ray Frantz, Cranberry, sup. dec. Greg Duke, Manheim Township, 4-4 13-1 OT |
| 105 | Dennis Zuk, Carlynton, dec. Pete Morelli, DuBois, 4-2 |
| 112 | Keith Nellis, Shaler, ref. dec. Mike Zito, Bethlehem Freedom, 2-2 2-2 OT |
| 119 | Jim Carr, East, dec. Larry Kepp, Central Dauphin East, 8-6 |
| 126 | Pat Sculley, Bethlehem Catholic, dec. Rande Stottlemyre, Hickory, 8-7 |
| 132 | Eric Carr, Cumberland Valley, maj. dec. Dan Rodgers, North Allegheny, 14-4 |
| 138 | Glenn Hall, McKeesport, dec. Tom Mutek, Lower Dauphin, 4-3 |
| 145 | Alan Fisher, Bald Eagle Area, maj. dec. Mark Stauffer, Lower Dauphin, 18-7 |
| 155 | Jerry White, West Branch, maj. dec. Ed Neiswender, Lower Dauphin, 13-2 |
| 167 | George O'Korn, Canon-McMillan, pinned Rick Peiffer, Upper Dauphin, 4:28 |
| 185 | Don McCorkel, Hershey, pinned Dirk Grissinger, State College, 4:54 |
| 250 | Brad Benson, Altoona, dec. Gene Ochap, McKeesport, 1-0 |
Not a great day for D-3 in the finals and especially those from Dauphin County.
"Kepp"t it close at 119, 3 straight losses for LD, and then a loss for Peiffer from Upper Dauphin. Yikes.
At least Carr and McCorkel won. And 16 of the 48 placers were from D-3, so I have no complaints. Probably the best year D-3 ever had overall.
McCorkel was a monster. He ravaged his way thru the state tourney with a 12-2 blowout and a couple of pins.
'73 was the year the PIAA advanced 2nd place winners to the next tournament for the first time. I was outraged. How could they water down the tournament like that? 'One and done' put hair on a man's chest!- that was my opinion. Then I saw Eric Carr lose at Regions (to a Vollrath!), then win states and my opinion changed.
As for District 3's best year? '73 probably had the highest % of medals, but not numbers. When those Central Dauphin teams started winning, they dragged the rest of District 3 along with them. In 2011, D3 had 6 state champs and 28 medalists.
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royboy wins the washer and dryer. It was the '64 Upper Darby Xmas Tourney.
when I was talking about my Erie East team the heavy was Woody Thompson who won heavy his senior yr then played football at Miami ,Fla and Fletcher Carr who grad with me in 68 I think lost twice in the finals at 180 lbs!
My first year wrestling, our best guy was probably our 180 lb. senior. McCorkel was a sophomore at Hershey and whooped our guy.
IDK, I'm probably still going with '73 just because of the outlandish placing percentage.
In '73 and '11, D3 won 61% of their matches. In '73 a higher % placed. I went to the D3 tourneys in both '73 and '11 and they both had studs coming out their ears, so I defer to your expertise.
btw, in '73, D3 still shared the SE Region with D1, so the D3 statistics for that year are even more impressive. (I also saw the SE Region tourney that year. It was an embarrassing wipeout.)
I kinda remember that Junko's teammate, Abajace went to Michigan State. Maybe that's the Michigan connection?
Re: Ronnie Perry
His development from high school thru his Senior year in college was remarkable. He wrestled for Solanco and he never seemed to beat kids from District 1. He must have lost half a dozen bouts to different District 1 kids. When he went to Lock Haven, I thought he was going to be a fill-in type wrestler there. Instead he continued to improve. By the time he faced Zane in the finals, he was tough as nails.
Re: Ronnie Perry
His development from high school thru his Senior year in college was remarkable. He wrestled for Solanco and he never seemed to beat kids from District 1. He must have lost half a dozen bouts to different District 1 kids. When he went to Lock Haven, I thought he was going to be a fill-in type wrestler there. Instead he continued to improve. By the time he faced Zane in the finals, he was tough as nails.
Those Trinity teams with Junko, Abajace ,Scotty Miller and Bimbo Chatman were really tough. I grew up in Latrobe and my brother was on the team when Trinity came to town in the late sixties and put on a bar arm clinic. Our guys were clueless to stop it and kept trying shoulder rolls, which ended up with you on your back with a figure four around your head. My brother said practice the next was all about that move. He taught it to me and I made that my go to pinning combo in junior high for a season.
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