After third straight District title, Boyertown looks to halt three-peat possibility in Hershey

There have been plenty of three-peats within Boyertown’s reach this winter.

And like items on a shopping list, the Bears have been checking them off one by one.

First was the team’s lid-lifting Brian Bealer Memorial Bear Duals, which it has now won the last three seasons. More recently, the Bears completed a third straight unbeaten run in the Pioneer Athletic Conference’s ranks — and with it, a third straight regular-season championship.

The team’s latest hat trick was scored this past weekend. Boyertown became a three-time champion of the District 1 Class AAA Duals tournament Saturday, after rolling up a 40-21 victory on Council Rock South in the title match.

“This is fun,” defending state champion Jordan Wood said while celebrating the program’s championship. “It’s making for a great senior year.”

With that comes another three-peat: A third straight early-February trip to Hershey. Boyertown will once again be showing its stuff before a state-level audience at the Giant Center this coming weekend.

“Winning a third title puts us in a good place for states,” Gregg Harvey, one of the Bears’ senior co-captains alongside Wood, Lucas Miller and Tom Killoran, said. “We’re hoping for big things at Hershey.”

One three-peat the Bears will be looking to avoid is a third-straight state duals trip ending short of the medal round. The past two years, they bowed out in the third round of consolations; in both instances, it was at the hands of District 11 power Parkland.

“We’re going to enjoy it,” Ventresca said on Saturday night of the latest district duals title, “but then we’ll be back at work tomorrow.”

Other three-peat opportunities the Bears will be seeking are at the District 1-AAA West and Southeast AAA Regional tournaments. Boyertown has been the championship team at both those levels the last two years, and it pursues those goals with arguably one of its most-solid lineups in program history.

“Even with our young guys,” Harvey said, “we’re a seasoned team. We have guys who know how it feels not to get to Hershey (for duals), and now we have one of the best teams Boyertown ever had.”

Boyertown opens state-duals action 6 p.m. Thursday at the Giant Center. The Bears will face District 9 champion Clearfield in a second-round championship match.

HILL PULLING RANK

National-level recognition is something Hill School wrestlers have experienced over the years.

This season is no exception. In fact, six members of this year’s team have been ranked in the Top 12 of their respective weight classes.

Leading the Blues’ pack is Dymar Davis-Carruth, fourth at 220. Others having been accorded high rankings are Kyle Gorant (sixth at 132), Hakim Coles (182) and Will Hare (285), both eighth; Nolan Butcher (ninth at 160) and Zach Sheehan (11th at 138).

“That number is up,” head coach Mark Pearson noted. “It’s definitely more than we’ve had the last … I don’t know.”

While he admits the recognition is nice, Pearson is just as quick to note it isn’t the driving force behind his grapplers’ quest for success — not this season, or any prior to this.

“Any kind of rankings are nice,” he said. “It’s nice to be ranked. But what matters is how the kids do on the mat.

“Showing how well they can do, they’ll get recognized for that. What matters is how they’ll do at the national preps.”

In that vein, the Hill has a solid footing. Five of its ranked wrestlers — Hare the lone exception — came into the 2015-16 season having been to the big show at Lehigh University, and they all have aspirations of making the medal podium when tournament time comes around two weeks from now.

The Hill program heads to the post-season on the heels of a successful regular season. Its dual-match record at present stands at 15-6 off a 2-2 showing at the Mid-Atlantic Prep Duals this past weekend. The Blues had wins against Lawrenceville School (45-36) and Peddie School (47-18) tempered by losses to Blair Academy (66-9) and Mercersburg Academy (42-38).

The loss to Mercersburg, affected by the forfeit of three bouts to Mercersburg, was a particularly hard one for the Blues.

“The forfeits were too much,” Pearson noted. “The kids wrestled, but you’re not going to get pins every time to make up for the forfeits. We’re hoping to have more kids in the lineup next year.”

To that end, the current roster can provide considerable positive impact this season.

Gorant, his sophomore-year status notwithstanding, has the team’s best record at 30-5. Following him are Hare (28-8), Davis-Carruth (26-6), Butcher (22-5), Sheehan (19-7) and Ted Kennedy, who’s put together an 18-9 mark primarily out of the 106-pound class.

Coles, though seeing less action, has nonetheless compiled a 7-1 mark to date.

“Kids will see we have a viable program … we wrestle top schools, and highly competitive matches,” Pearson said. “We’re going against big kids in tough tournaments.”

That figures to build on what the Blues are achieving this season, with a core of wrestlers not adversely affected by the loss of a lot of graduates.

“We had a big crew coming back,” he said. “We were lucky it was a low-turnover year.

“We have a really solid core of very competitive wrestlers. It would be nice to take the step to the next echelon of wrestling.”

Hare has emerged as perhaps the Hill’s biggest success story this winter. Last year, the junior was odd man out at the top of the scale where Davis-Carruth and the graduated Kostya Golobokov reigned.

“He’s really stepped up,” Pearson said. “He was behind Kostya, and had some tough wrestle-offs with Dymir. This year, he’s just beating good people and hanging with good people.

“The kid is starting to come into his own. He’s getting better and better. It’s rewarding and fun to watch Will’s progress … for a coach, that’s what it’s all about.”

By scheduling design, the Blues will have two weeks to focus solely on post-season preparation.

They will be in the Pa. Independent Schools Wrestling Tournament, hosted by Malvern Prep, the weekend of Feb. 19-20. The following weekend will be the annual trek to Lehigh University for the National Preps.

“We want to wrestle our best in the (state) tournament,” Pearson said. “It gives the kids a break, the chance to work on techniques and fine-tune things to be successful.”

UPWARD MOBILITY

Boyertown’s Harvey joined some exclusive company this past weekend.

Harvey reached, then topped, the 150-win mark for his scholastic career during the District 1-AAA Duals Tournament at Upper Dublin. The Boyertown senior is one of only 11 wrestlers from The Mercury’s coverage area to achieve that distinction, though he may soon be joined by two Bear teammates.

Lucas Miller (142 wins) and Jordan Wood (139) are both within reach of 150, and both could top the mark during the upcoming post-season. They would join Harvey and Boyertown mat alumni Alex Pellicciotti (Class of 2010) as part of a “baker’s dozen” featuring eight Upper Perkiomen grads — Zach Kemmerer (Class of 2007) the overall leader with 199 — and one from The Hill School, David Hoffman (Class of 2001).

Next in line for reaching the 100-win mark are Pottstown’s Mason Pennypacker (98) and Spring-Ford’s Matt Krieble (92). With the Trojans still having a pair of PAC-10 matches prior to the league’s championship tournament, Pennypacker could hit the plateau before the start of the post-season.