Three of the West Hills’ five entrants remain alive in their quest for gold medals after Thursday’s first day of competition in the PIAA Individual Wrestling Championships, taking place at Giant Center in Hershey.
Montour’s Kristen Walzer and Moon Area’s Haley Smarsh, wrestling in the girls division, won their only matches and advanced to Friday’s semifinals.
Moon’s Bryce Thomas also posted a first-round win while Liam Costa and Cael Yanek dropped into the consolation brackets in their respective weight classes after losing in the first round.
Walzer, wrestling at 100 pounds, pinned Isabella Poole Martinez of Lebanon in 52 seconds.
Walzer will take on McKenzie Astorino of Curwensville in Friday’s quarterfinals.
Walzer won her first two matches at last year’s state meet, then lost the next three in a row to finish sixth.
Smarsh, competing at 130, pinned Northeastern’s Chloe Meador in 53 seconds to advance to Friday’s quarterfinals against Emily Sarr of Souderton.
Smarsh finished sixth at last year’s state meet after she was forced to medical default her final two matches due to injury.
Thomas, competing at 107, posted a 10-1 major decision over Wyatt Kiner of Boiling Springs in his first outing Thursday to move into Friday’s quarterfinal round match with Jacob Carr of Sun Valley.
Costa, wrestling at 172, opened his tournament run by overpowering Jowell Jones of Upper Merion, 14-2, in the preliminary round.
Costa then lost by technical fall, 19-4 to McKaden Speece of Wilson in the first round. Costa will face Xayden Sallit of Emmaus Friday in consolation round 2.
Yanek, battling at 133, dropped a 2-1 decision to Caleb Kosko of Nazareth Area in a first-round match and is scheduled to meet Charlie Griffin of Wilson Friday in consolation round 2.
Yanek won gold at both the WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A West Regional tournaments.
On the boys side, a total of 728 student-athletes were expected to compete at the state meet. Thursday’s action included preliminary, first-round, and first-round consolation matches.
Friday’s action will include quarterfinals, second-round consolation, third-round consolation and semifinal matches. Saturday’s final day of competition will feature fourth-round consolation, fifth-round consolation final, and championship matches.
The girls tournament will feature 208 wrestlers – 16 in each of the 13 weight classes.
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