Boyertown eliminated in state tournament

It’s been a great season for the Boyertown Area High School wrestling team. With a 31-21 victory over Spring-Ford on Feb. 1, the Bears won their second District 1-AAAA dual meet championship.

The Bears advanced on to the PIAA State Class AAA tournament where they were eliminated from gold medal contention when Greater Latrobe defeated them in the quarterfinals, 32-23.

Still with a chance at third place in the state, the Bears came bck with a 54-14 victory over Father Judge in the second round of consolation matches. But it all ended in the third round when Boyertown fell to Parkland, 33-21.

For head coach Pete Ventresca, the district championship was very satisfying.

“I thought that this team wrestled well the whole year and deserved to win the team championship. We had a little more balance and we won the close match-ups,’ said Ventresca about the district championship match against the Rams.

On Feb. 6, the Bears opened the state tournament with a second round match-up with Wyomissing Valley West. The Bears had no trouble in this match as they defeated their opponent, 50-18.

Earning pins for the Bears were: Jordan Wood (285), 1:09; Jakob Campbell (106), 0:56; Lucas Miller (126), 3:37; Eddie Kriczky (138), 1:06; and Cody Richmond (170), 0:43.

Winning by decisions for Boyertown were: Jordan Wertz (220), 11-3; David Campbell (113), 9-4; Garrett Mauger (120), 11-0; and Mike Fretz (182), 5-1.

William Scholl (195) won by a forfeit.

The win sent the Bears to the quarterfinals where they took on Greater Latrobe. But this team proved to be too much for the Bears and Latrobe ended Boyertown’s chances of a state championship.Jakob Campbell (106) earned Boyertown’s only pin in the match, needing just 1:19 to pin Carson Palmer.

Winning by decisions for the Bears were: Richmond (170), 9-1; Wertz (220), 5-1; Wood (285), 11-2; Miller (126), 9-3; and Chris Berry (132), 3-0.

With their victory over Father Judge, the Bears were hoping to fight their way back to third place. But Parkland ended those hopes with a victory over the Bears.

Boyertown still has one more dual meet match-up to go. That was a home match against Pope John Paul II on Feb. 11. A win in that match and Boyertown will have clinched the PAC-10 championship. Due to our press deadline, we are unable to report the results of the match.