Wrestling

Florschutz, Malvern Prep get past DWest in battle of ChesCo powers

by
Nate Heckenberger
January 20, 2018

READING — With the dual meet outcome already well at hand, Malvern Prep’s Nick Florschutz wanted to make sure he earned his own bragging rights.

In the finale of a rare matchup between Malvern Prep and Downingtown West, the Coatesville native put the exclamation mark on a 49-17 win.

Chester County’s top two teams met in the Exeter Blue and White Duals’ finals, and and the Friars flexed their muscles, capped off by an 8-7 win by Florschutz over West’s Max Hale. Malvern also plowed through Coatesville on the way to the finals, pitting Florschutz and fellow Friar, Henry Hague, against some of their old teammates.

“I wrestled middle school at South Brandywine, and three years down the line it’s awesome to see the guys and how far they’ve come and how far I’ve come,” Florschutz said. “It was cool to see them and talk like we never left.”

Malvern Prep’s Dalton Harkins (Nate Heckenberger – For Digital First Media)

Malvern rolled through its pool, taking out Garnet Valley, Exeter and Hazleton. In the finals, the disparity was shown between a prep power and one of District 1’s top dogs, but there were a handful of highly contested bouts.

Nick Gueriera (182 pounds) started the contest off with a strong, 5-1, decision over West’s Chase Mielnik.

West’s Nick Lilley (138) escaped in the tiebreaker period, after holding Malvern’s Henry Hague down, to win a 2-1 decision.

Two bouts later, Malvern’s Chris Hisey (152) worked a reversal in the third and rode Gavin Hale out for a 3-2 win.

“It’s fun wrestling good local competition,” Malvern coach Nate Lautar said. “It helps build some rivalries and some of these kids practice together, so it pushes them and helps the whole area.”

At 160, West’s Pat Cusack turned a 4-2 bout into six when he pinned Owen Vietmeier.

Downingtown West’s Pat Cusack (Nate Heckenberger – For Digital First Media)

Florschutz followed, and led with an early takedown. Max Hale stormed back, and a takedown late in the second gave him a 5-3 lead. From the down position, Florschutz put Hale in an awkward spot and eventually to his back for a five-point move. Hale scored an escape and got a stall point, but Florschutz hung on.

“The whole time I was thinking I had to do whatever it takes,” Florschutz said. “I had to make sure I did my best and pull out the win.”

Dalton Harkins (132), a West Chester native, won by technical fall, sandwiched between wins from Doug Zapf (126) and Lilley.

Earlier in the day, Hague won his 100th career bout. Fittingly, it was against Coatesville.

Malvern’s Henry Hague with assistant coach Nate Wachter, left, and head coach Nate Lautar, right. (Nate Heckenberger – For Digital First Media)

“It’s always good to win a tournament,” Lautar said. “It was good to get the kids some good matches and have a good day. It was nice to see individual kids work on their stuff and get better every day.”

Also winning against Malvern for West was Jesse Cook (285), who shut out Harry Stinger, 3-0.

“It was good to get a match like that,” West coach Brad Breese said. “I think we battled physically, but I told the guys I think we had some mental breakdowns. Wrestling tough competition, some of the guys didn’t have the confidence to go out and win against a Malvern kid and hopefully they’ll learn from that.”

West earned its way to the finals with a hard-fought, 31-29, win over Stroudsburg. In a rematch from last year, when the Whippets won by six, West got big wins from Ethan Niemeyer (106), Zapf and Lilley down the stretch to hold the Mountaineers off for a second straight year.

Zapf exacted some revenge, topping returning sixth-place medalist Cameron Enriquez, 3-2, after losing to him last year.

“Some guys really stepped up and I think out-toughed (Stroudsburg),” Breese said. “I’m really proud of that. We knew how tough they were from battling them last year and knew it would be a tight match and I think that was the best match we’ve wrestled all year. It’s the first time all year we wrestled together, as a team, and that is huge for us.”

Coatesville finished eighth in the 10-team tournament. The Red Raiders dropped duals to Garnet Valley, Malvern and Exeter before getting past Hazleton. Coatesville then lost to Red Land in the crossover dual.

Going 5-0 on the day for the Red Raiders was Brennan McBride (106), while Ryan Dellicompagni (152) finished 4-1.