Six Comet wrestlers competed in the District Three Class 3A Section 2 tournament at Hempfield on Saturday, February 18. Two still have a shot at qualifying for the big dance.

Travis Clawson settled for a silver medal while Riley Evans followed in third place. The top four wrestlers in each weight class advanced. As a partial team, the Comets finished 12th overall.

"Things went pretty much as expected," said head coach Brandon Vernalli, knowing a full squad was not competing.

Clawson, wrestling at 121, got a bye in the round of 16 and opened with a 1:02 quarterfinals fall over Elizabethtown's Francis Burke. His semifinal matchup against Central Dauphin's CJ Ferree went the distance and resulted in a 7-2 decision. Clawson led 4-0 after two periods and stretched it to 6-zip before closing out the win.

In the finals he faced a familiar foe in Warwick's Marco Tocci. The two battled in the L-L League tournament final with Tocci pulling ahead 5-4. Tocci again rose to the top. He led 2-1 in the first and 4-1 heading into the third period. Clawson scored a reversal but gave up an escape to cap the 5-3 loss.

"It was another exciting match," said Vernalli. "He just came up short. I really believe he'll punch his ticket to states."

Clawson currently sits at 29-4.

Wrestling at 107, Evans also worked a fall in his opening bout, turning a 4-2 lead into a 1:06 quarterfinals fall over Manheim Central's Blake Fasnacht.

In the semifinals, however, Evans went up against eventual champ Thunder Beard, of Central Dauphin, and was pinned in 1:44, thus dropping to the consolations. There he regrouped and broke a 2-2 tie against Solanco's Caden Rutt and scored a 2:37 fall to grab the bronze. Rutt had pinned Evans in dual meet action back on January 11.

"It was good to see Riley punch his ticket to districts for the first time," said Vernalli, "and avenge that earlier loss to Rutt."

Placing at the tournament but not advancing was Gabe Midile and Ethan Farmer. Both settled for sixth place finishes.

Midile (114) won his round of 16 battle via a 13-3 major decision over Elizabethtown's Hayden Best and then pulled out an 8-7 thriller over Hempfield's Michael Karpathios. Clinging to a 4-3 lead after two periods, both wrestlers went back-and-forth in the third, each scoring four points. Midile's takedown with 12 seconds remaining provided an 8-6 edge.

In the semifinals, Midile faced eventual champ Kaedyn Williams, of Manheim Township, and suffered a 1:12 fall. He was pinned in 2:51 by eventual third place champ Luke Hitchcock (Central Dauphin) and then fell short 5-4 against McCaskey's Hezekiah Molina-Hadgu for the chance for fifth.

Farmer's path was similar. He opened with an 8-7 round of 16 decision over Palmyra's Stephen Stine, scoring the winning takedown with four seconds remaining. In the quarterfinals he was pinned by Hempfield's Zy McCain-Murray, a 10-4 winner over Farmer during dual meet action in December.

Farmer rebounded with a 4:30 fall over Milton Hershey's Jaydean Compean and then scored a 5-4 ultimate rideout over Hershey's Sullivan Weader, taking the victory with an escape in the seventh period.

In the consi-semis, however, Farmer was pinned by Township's Zach Landis in 55 seconds and then met up with McCain-Murray again, this time falling short 12-4.

"It was great to see Gabe and Ethan get a couple of wins at sectionals," said Vernalli. "Gabe fell just short in his battle for third and Ethan had a nice bounce back after taking some time off with an injury."

BOWLING

Also competing in the post-season, eight Comet bowlers qualified for the Lancaster-Lebanon League Singles Bowling Championships. The girls competed at Palmyra Bowling on Thursday, February 16 while the boys were at Leisure Lanes the following day.

"The girls had a pretty good day," said head coach Chris Vital. "They showed up and did their thing."

Lacey Slaymaker, Corinne Smith and Eva Brubaker all finished in the top ten after six qualifying rounds with impressive pin totals. Slaymaker finished at 1103, Smith hit 1092 and Brubaker was at 1048.

"Kayla Wasche (1003) was just two pins shy of moving on," recalled Vital. "If she qualified, we would have had four Penn Manor bowlers in the top ten. Abigail Nesmith (968) was 12th, giving us five in the top 12. Pretty impressive."

Also competing was Hope Leaman (785) in 26th place out of 36 bowlers.

Smith opened the stepladder finals with a 191-177 win over Lampeter-Strasburg's Katie Pope and Brubaker got past Ella Eberle (Elizabethtown) 165-148. Slaymaker also won, topping CV's Jocelyn Rose 202-156.

That put Smith against McCaskey's Julee Getz, who won 208-145, while Brubaker and Slaymaker were pitted against each other with Slaymaker edging her teammate 179-168.

"That was tough," said Vital of two of his players fighting to advance.

Slaymaker then topped Getz 169-142 before settling for third place overall with a 209-178 loss to Warwick's Taylor Miller, who finished second.

Smith followed in fifth place and Brubaker was sixth.

"So, three of the top six bowlers in the league are from Penn Manor," Vital noted.

Elco's Morgan Kline rolled a 1405 six game total and finished in first place.

Josh Stock and Chris Hull competed on Friday. Both failed to make the top ten.

Hull (993) finished in 40th place out of 55 and Stock, with a 1072 total, was 23rd.

"Josh was on the same pair as three of Hempfield's top bowlers," Vital said. "They held four of the top ten averages in our league and none of them qualified for the finals. That was a little disheartening. Josh was 17 pins off the cut with two games to go. He had a chance going into the last game, so he was closer than what the score indicated."