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LANCASTER-LEBANON LEAGUE WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sowing seeds of surprise Upsets highlight quarterfinal round; Streaks set early pace BY DAVE BYRNE, Sports Staff
To paraphrase the old saying: The higher the seed the harder he falls.
Lancaster Catholic's Tom Redd triggered the most precipitous fall of the evening, toppling top-seeded Todd Lingafelt of Columbia 11-5 in the quarterfinals of the Lancaster-Lebanon League wrestling championships, Friday night at Conestoga Valley's Rill Gymnasium.
Redd, the ninth seed at 160, broke the match open in the second period and successfully parried every Lingafelt attempt to get back into the match.
"I'm so wired!" said Redd, practically crackling with excitement. "I wrestled him on Wednesday (a 5-4 loss). I got a second chance at him."
Scoring an escape and takedown late in the second, Redd carried a 5-2 lead into the final two minutes.
Slipping a Lingafelt headlock try early on, Redd made it 7-3, then eluded another headlock to go up 9-4. His late takedown closed out the victory.
"When I wrestled him before, he got tired and kept trying to headlock me," said Redd, who has won eight of his last 11 matches. "I knew it was coming and I slipped it."
Redd's was the biggest upset of the evening, but not the only one.
Five No. 2 seeds crashed to earth as Manheim Township's Victor Kenderdine (113) and David Graves (120) got the ball rolling early, ousting second-seeded Matt Darok of Annville-Cleona and Lancaster Catholic's John Lobeck, respectively.
Northern Lebanon's Joey Emborsky pulled the stunner of the night, pinning Conestoga Valley's second-seeded Nate Musser at 138.
"I don't know," the Viking sophomore shared, "it just came out of nowhere."
Musser got the initial takedown and led 2-1 early in the second period after Emborsky escaped.
Musser got in deep on a single leg, triggering a jailbreak counter from Emborksy.
"He got really deep and I couldn't sprawl," Emborsky said. But Emborsky could hit what, up in the Lehigh Valley, they call a flying cement job. "I hipped over, pulled him through and stuck him for the pin."
It was his seventh fall in 11 victories.
Breaking the scoring ice proved a huge lift for Kenderdine. "I took him down … and that really got me going," he said. "I shot a wrong-side high crotch, he tried to funk, I cross-faced him and got the two."
With choice in the second period, Darok picked top and Kenderdine quickly reversed to go up 4-0. He escaped and scored another takedown to make it 7-0 and finished out his 7-2 victory.
"I wasn't tired," he said. "So I was able to get out and get my shots going again."
On the adjacent mat Graves was laying the foundation for his upset victory as he carried a 3-2 lead into the third period.
"I went in with a good head, knowing that seeds don't matter," said Graves, who like Kenderdine came in as a seventh seed.
"It happened last year (he ultimately placed second at 106, coming in as the fifth seed), it happened this year."
Graves executed a double in the third period to go up 5-2, and could begin to see the finish line.
"As soon as I got my double leg and got my takedown, I knew it was going to be a good win for me," he said.
Still he had to weather a Lobeck reversal, and, after escaping, a stall penalty in the final seconds before he could collect that win.
The Blue Streaks weren't done as Nick McKnight took J. P. Kramer down with five seconds left to erase the Buckskins' No. 2 seed, 5-4 at 160.
Four weeks ago, in the CV Holiday Classic, Kramer dominated McKnight.
And, finally, Hempfield freshman Jordan Ortiz rolled out to an 8-2 lead before holding off Manheim Central's second-seeded Rey Lasanta, 12-7 at 195.
The quarterfinal usurpations propelled the Blue Streaks to the lead in the team race with 104 points, five ahead of second-place Solanco.
Warwick (96), Manheim Central (90) and Penn Manor (89) round out the top five.
In addition to Kenderdine, Graves and McKnight, Township advanced Cortlandt Schuyler (126), Matt Grossmann (132), Alex Smith (138), Adam Smith (145) and John Shorter (182) to today's 11 a.m. semifinals. Griffin Schultz (170) remains alive in the wrestlebacks.
Solanco advanced Connor Sheehan (106), Austin Laws (113), Kyle Hammond (145), Isaac Warren (152), Thomas Haines (220) and Bo Spiller (285). Alec Proffit (120) and Wyatt Jennings (126) remain alive in the consolations.
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Denied in the Round of 16 when he dropped a heartbreaking 1-0 decision to McCaskey's Xavier Gutierrez, Annville-Cleona's Phil Corle collected his 100th career victory in the wrestlebacks, majoring Pequea Valley's Austin Fisher, 9-0.
dbyrne@lnpnews.com
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