HERSHEY, Pa. – The Brookville wrestling team is still alive for a possible third-place finish at the PIAA team duals being held at the Giant Center in Hershey.
The Raiders dreams of a third PIAA title came to an end in their first match Friday when Southern Columbia beat Brookville, 51-21. Southern Columbia then went on to top Chestnut Ridge, 34-31, to advance to Saturday’s title match where it will face Reynolds.
Brookville, meanwhile, bounced back in the consolation bracket to knock off Muncy, 27-24. The Raiders will wrestling Notre Dame Green Pond in the third round Saturday morning. If Brookville wins that it will face Saucon Valley, who fell to Reynolds, 46-20, in the semifinals for the right to wrestle in the third-place match.
Against Muncy in a a matchup to get into Saturday’s schedule, the Raiders lost 8 of 14 bouts, but did not give up a bonus point, losing all by decisions. Their six wins, however, included three pins from Colby Whitehill at heavyweight, Owen Reinsel at 106 pounds and Cabe Park at 126.
Park’s win at 126 gave the Raiders a 21-3 lead after five bouts before Muncy reeled off six straight decisions to tie the match at 21-21 with three bouts remaining. At 182, Braden MacBeth broke up a 1-1 tie late in regulation with a five-point move and won 6-1 over Ethan Gush. Then at 195, Muncy’s state-ranked 182-pounder (12th as per papowerwrestling.com) in senior Michael Kustanbauter bumped up to face Nathan Taylor and the unranked junior knocked him off with a 9-6 win.
Now with a 27-21 lead with one bout remaining, the Raiders’ Tanner LaBenne only needed to avoid being pinned and he wound up dropping a 6-4 decision to Cael Hembury to set the final score.
Earlier in the day, the Raiders were dumped by the returning state runners-up in Southern Columbia, which won 10 of 14 bouts. The Raiders got wins from Reinsel (pin), Elliot Park (pin), Whitehill (pin) and Cabe Park (decision).
