With a bunch of teams near the top of the team standings trading places back and forth throughout the day Thursday at the 7th MyHOUSE Trojan Wars Tournament, it only made sense for the title to have a dramatic finish.
Karl Shindledecker
And it couldn't have been much more thrilling.
West Perry's Brad Morrison set the stage at CASHS Field House by winning his finals match at 215 with a pin to pull the Mustangs within 1.5 points of Bald Eagle Area. It was also Morrison's 100th career victory.
That put the team race in the hands of the two finalists at 113 in the tournament's next-to-last bout — West Perry's Deven Jackson vs. BEA's Lucas Fye, both ranked in the top 10 in the state in Class 2A. Jackson broke a 3-3 tie in the final 10 seconds of the bout, countering a shot by Fye to record a match-winning takedown. The Mustangs ended up winning, 140-138.5 over the Eagles.
Only one area wrestler reached the finals, Chambersburg's Karl Shindledecker at 126 pounds. But he met his match against Michael Pizzuto of South Carroll, MD, who was able to ride Shindledecker for the entire third period and secure a 3-2 victory.
Shindledecker struck for a first-period takedown, and Pizzuto escaped early in the second. He then countered a Shindledecker shot with a good scramble and that takedown made it 3-2.
Trojan coach Matt Mentzer said, "It was a state-level match Karl was in. In takedowns, it was one to one and the other guy got an escape and Karl didn't. He had a chance at the end of the second period to get one and couldn't get out, and he couldn't get out in the third. I think when you're a little tired, you just don't execute as well.
"The way I look at it, we're still in training — our conditioning is not what it will be, and Karl missed a whole week of practice. I think we were a little off across the board. Asking these kids to wrestle up to five times in a day against this level competition is a challenge."
In addition to Shindledecker, Chambersburg placed five other wrestlers in the top eight to come in fifth in the team race, among the 50 teams entered.
Three took fifth place — Zach Sherman at 106, Rylan Carter at 113 and Aiden Hight at 189. Luke Mentzer took a sixth at 120 and Ryder Davenport was seventh at 160.
Waynesboro had three wrestlers place — Bodie Rouzer at 132 (6th), Kaden Rouzer at 145 (7th) and Jayden Rooney at 113 (8th). Shippensburg's Diesel Koser earned a fourth-place finish at 189 and Mercersburg Academy's Luke Hendricks took 8th at 185 pounds.
MyHOUSE Trojan Wars
Team Standings
1.West Perry 140; 2.Bald Eagle Area 138.5; 3.Boiling Springs 134; 4.J.W. Robinson, VA 127.5; 5.Chambersburg 123.5; 6.Downingtown West 120; 7.South Carroll, MD 119; 8.Southern Columbia 117.5; 9.Selinsgrove 116.5; 10.Smyrna, DE 115; 11.St. Christopher's, VA 104.5; 12.Lewisburg 101.5; 13.Gettysburg 96.5; 14.Trinity 96; 15.Tyrone 95.5; 16.Spring Mills, WV 93; 17.Owen J. Roberts 90; 18.Strath haven 89; 19.Lackawanna Trail 87.5; 20.Spring Grove 86.5; 26.Waynesboro 75.
