Pete Ventresca came away from the weekend with a lot to smile about ... and rightfully so. The head coach of the Boyertown wrestling program brought his charges to Council Rock South for a first-ever visit to the annual Escape The Rock Tournament and saw them validate his decision to put the high-level individual competition on the schedule.
The Bears came away with three individual medals and fifth place among the 42 schools that made the trek to Bucks County. They had a runner-up in Gregg Harvey at 182, and fourths at both ends of the weight scale: Jakob Campbell at 106, Tommy Killoran at 285.
"We used to do the Cumberland Valley Duals, which is tough competition,' Ventresca recalled, "but we weighed the options and decided to try out this tournament. I was very happy with the results.'
Beyond their medalists, the Bears had four others post winning records at the Rock. Chris Berry (138), J.T. Cooley (132), Lucas Miller (126) and Dylan Wertz (170) each went 3-2 against the tourney's top-flight competition.
"We wanted to be in the top 10,' Ventresca said, "so we were up where we wanted to be. The quality of our guys ... to place at all is quite an accomplishment.'
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Steve DeRafelo laughed when asked if he considered the Escape The Rock tourney a good tune-up for the District 1 Duals tournament starting later this week.
"It's more of a meat grinder,' the Owen J. Roberts head coach said. "On the one hand, you want to keep the kids healthy, but you also want to prepare for the post-season by wrestling at the highest level. The bad side is, the kids get beat up here.'
The Wildcats took a particular beating in Sunday's semifinal round, which three of their four eventual medalists reached. All three lost their bouts in that round, falling off the championship-belt pace in the process.
Derek Gulotta matched his fourth-place finish from the previous Rock tourney - albeit an injury default that forced him out of his third-place bout with Phelps School's Jacob Forsman in the first period. Demetri D'Orsaneo and Dominick Petrucelli placed fifth at 138 and 152, respectively, while Ryan Resnick finished seventh at 113.
"Ryan wrestled exceptionally well,' DeRafelo said. "He was in a very deep weight class. To go from the 13th seed to wrestle to seventh was big.'
Micky Kohn and Xavier Ferrizzi Kohn had OJR's other winning records from the tournament. They both went 3-2 at 160 and 195, contributing to the Wildcats' 11th-place finish.
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It took just three visits to the Escape The Rock tournament for The Hill School to get the performance bar raised considerably.
Kostya Golobokov became the program's first wrestler to qualify for a championship bout, the Blues senior doing that in the 285-pound bracket. A sixth-place finisher in the Hill's previous trips to the Rock, Golobokov pinned his way through the lower half of the division - three falls for little more than a combined 3-1/2 minutes - to reach the finals.
But the dream of claiming one of the championship belts ended soon after his bout with Bo Spiller started. His Solanco opponent, well-known in Pennsylvania's public-school mat circles, topped Golobokov in a 10-2 major-decision.
"He was tough,' Golobokov said of Spiller, a fourth-place finisher at 220 in the 2014 PIAA Class AAA tourney. "The main thing is, he was quick with his low shots. Outside, I was able to defend him.'
Coming out of his runner-up finish at the Rock, Golobokov sees the effort having a positive impact on his Hill teammates as they head to the state and national-prep tournaments.
"Certainly,' he said. "Coach Rick Rappo (Hill assistant) said he likes to see the team captains lead by example. I'm sure this will inspire them to work harder in practice.'
DUAL PERSONALITIES
It again speaks to the quality of Pioneer Athletic Conference wrestling programs.
League entries were accorded three of the top five seeds for the District 1-AAA Duals Tournament, which begins in earnest Thursday at Nethacton and West Chester Rustin.
Defending PAC and District champion Boyertown is again the top seed in the 16-team field, with Spring-Ford seeded third and Owen J. Roberts fifth. Upper Perkiomen is also part of the lineup, seeded ninth.
The top-seeded Bears will face 16th seed Unionville in a 7 p.m. pairing at Methacton. Down at Rustin, the Rams will take on 14th-seeded Haverford while the Indians go against eighth seed Rustin at 5:30 p.m. The Wildcats will face 12th seed Henderson at 7 p.m.
The AAA competition will resume Jan. 30 and 31 at a site to be announced. The four-school Class AA bracket, which has Pope John Paul II in as the third seed, will also be in action on the 31st.
DUAL PERSONALITIES II
Duals tournaments appeal to many wrestling teams because they offer the opportunity to get upwards of five matches under their wrestlers' belts on a given day.
For several area squads this past weekend, duals competition provided the opportunity to bolster season win-loss records.
One prime example was the Kennett Duals, at which both Daniel Boone and Pottstown competed. The Blazers used a 5-0 run - capped by a victory over the Trojans in the championship match - to improve its record to 12-13.
Pottstown went one better with its 4-1 showing at Kennett. The Trojans went above the .500 mark for the first time this winter, currently standing at 8-7.
Methacton broke out of its winless skid with a strong showing at the Cavalier Duals. The Warriors went 4-2 at Archbishop Spalding (Md.) to go into the current week with a 4-5 record.
Phoenixville was able to put a three-match losing streak behind it with a respectable showing at the Chichester Classic. The Phantoms went 3-2, bringing their season record back near the .500 mark (8-9) after their recent slide reversed what had been a winning (5-4) mark.
Perkiomen Valley didn't fare as well as other PAC-10 programs, going 2-3 at the Lower Moreland Duals. But the Vikings nonetheless kept their season on track with a 10-5 mark that ranks among the area's leaders.
