Southmoreland wrestling reaches WPIAL playoffs

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, January 23, 2019 | 9:06 PM

Things didn’t start so well for the Southmoreland wrestling team Wednesday evening. After driving for more than hour to get to Highlands, the team bus pulled up to the wrong school, and first-year coach Dan Boring hoped it wasn’t a sign of things to come.

“I’m like, ‘We’re already starting this night off really well,’ ” Boring said.

After the first few matches, the Scotties looked like they could have wrestled in the parking lot and it wouldn’t have mattered. Southmoreland pieced together a lineup that rolled to a 45-24 win over a young Highlands team in the WPIAL Section 3-AA fifth-place match at Highlands Middle School and qualified for the team playoffs.

“We’ve been doing it all year long, and I’ve asked a lot of guys to bump weight classes and wrestle some heavier kids and do some different things,” Boring said.

Southmoreland (8-2) cracks the WPIAL Class AA team bracket for the first time since the 2016 season. The Scotties wrestle next Wednesday in the first round with opponent, site and time to be determined. Highlands (7-9) will have to wait another year to snap its eight-year drought.

“We took a step in the right direction with being in the section playoffs,” Highlands coach Grant Walters said. “We could have wrestled better, and there’s always stuff to critique.”

The Golden rams spotted Southmoreland six points with a forfeit at 132 pounds.

Highlands’ Blake Clark recorded a fall at 32 seconds on Tristen Lapinski. Nick Yeskey wore out the Rams’ Charles DiAngelo to get the fall at 3:40 and give the Scotties a 12-6 lead.

Perhaps the most interesting match of the night was Southmoreland’s Colt Harper (220) going up to 285 pounds to wrestle Jeremiah Nelson. Nelson was no match, and Harper got the fall at 41 seconds. Highlands came back in the lighter weights with wins by Brian Randolph (106), Jake Burford (120) and Evan Henry (126).

“At any point in the match, a pin either way changes the whole momentum,” Boring said. “As a program, it’s good that we can sell this now to the younger kids and tell them to come and be a part of the program.”

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Highlands, Southmoreland