Boys wrestling: Montour’s Smith claims lone West Hills medal at PIAA Tournament

Montour’s Rook Smith was the lone West Hills wrestler to come away with a medal at the PIAA Boys Championships, which wrapped up its three-day run Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey.

Smith, competing at 160 pounds in the Class 3A portion of the tournament, finished eighth.

Smith won his first two matches, posting a 14-4 major decision over Cole Wetzel of Shikellamy in a preliminary battle and then winning a 6-4 decision over Hershey’s Christian Burd in the first round.

That put Smith into the quarterfinals, where he lost 4-2 to Jon Smith of Oxford Area.

Rook Smith rebounded to defeat fellow West Hills wrestler Liam Costa of Moon Area, 6-1, in consolation round 3, but suffered an 8-0 major decision loss to A.J. Corp of West Chester Rustin in consolation round 4.

That dropped Smith into the match for seventh place, where he lost 12-8 to Keegan Ramsay of Notre Dame-Green Pond.

Costa won his preliminary match, 7-3, over Quentin Hammerstone of Easton but lost by technical fall, 21-5 at 2 minutes, 43 seconds, to Collin Gaj of Quakertown in round 1.

Costa came back to post a 7-1 decision over Brayden White of Thomas Jefferson in consolation round 2 but fell to Montour’s Smith in consolation round 3.

In addition to Costa, Moon’s Cael Yanek competed at Hershey, wrestling at 133 pounds.

Yanek lost 20-11 to Luke Hitchcock of Central Dauphin in a preliminary match and fell 12-6 to Daniel Dennis of Central Bucks West in consolation round 1.

At the Class 2A level, Bishop Canevin students Braiden Sudor and Henry Barbisch – both wrestling for Carlynton – experienced some success but did not medal.

Sudor, at 215, lost his preliminary match, 5-3, to Gary Kiselka of Franklin but came back to pin Kolton Griffin of Brookville at 4:16 of their consolation round 1 match. Sudor was then eliminated when he lost a 9-1 major decision to Zane Hagans of Somerset in consolation round 2.

Barbisch, wrestling at 285, pinned Reed Palmer of Troy at 1:17 of their preliminary match but was pinned at 2:28 by Rowan Holmes of Somerset in his first championship round match.

Barbisch posted a pin of his own, stopping Garet Guthrie of Commodore Perry at 2:17 of their consolation round 2 match, but he was eliminated in an 8-0 major decision loss to Gavin Hannah of Brookville in consolation round 3.